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Poetry · Chapter

For Where Your Treasure Is, There Will Your Heart Be Also explained

A miser on his deathbed discovers that his heart, hidden in a chest of gold, has been replaced by rot and dust.

What happens

A miser on his deathbed discovers that his heart, hidden in a chest of gold, has been replaced by rot and dust. After death, he futilely counts ghost-coins, while a living miser hoards wealth, unaware that his own heart has become the cold core of his treasure. The poem contrasts the spiritual emptiness of those who cling to earthly possessions with the warning that where one's treasure is, there their heart will be also.

Themes in this chapter

  • Redemption and Grace

    The miser's failure to find gold in his chest and his grasping of rotten dust illustrates the loss of grace through misplaced treasure.

  • Suffering and Purification

    The miser's post-mortem torment and the living miser's spiritual decay depict suffering as a consequence of earthly attachment.

Characters to notice

  • Unknown

    The narrator describes the miser's deathbed scene and his post-mortem realization.

  • Death

    Death is implied as the miser's life candle burns dim and he creeps out of his body.

Key passages

  • “The miser lay on his lonely bed; Life’s candle was burning dim.”

    A wealthy, lonely man lies dying as his life fades away.

    Sets the scene of impending death and isolation.

  • “He opened the lid. Oh, Hell’s own night! His ghost-eyes saw no gold! — Empty and swept! Not a gleam was there!”

    When he opens the chest after death, he finds it completely empty.

    Highlights the futility of earthly treasure in the afterlife.

  • “But his heart he saw, and he made a clutch At the fungous puff-ball of sin: Eaten with moths, and fretted with rust, He grasped a handful of rotten dust”

    He sees his heart, now a rotten, fungus-like mass, and grabs a handful of dust.

    Symbolizes the corruption of a heart devoted to wealth.

  • “Now wherein differ old ghosts that sit Counting ghost-coins all day From the man who clings with spirit prone To whatever can never be his own?”

    What difference is there between a dead miser counting imaginary coins and a living man who obsesses over things he can never truly possess?

    Draws a parallel between the dead and living misers, emphasizing spiritual emptiness.

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