The Altar

The Altar Character List

The speaker

The speaker is a devout person eager to please God. He describes himself as God’s “servant” whose heart is “broken,” “hard,” and “cemented with tears.”

God

God is the addressee of the poem. God does not speak, but the speaker describes God as having the “power” to cut his heart and to “bless” and “sanctify” the altar of the poem/heart.