Like Old Home Day and The Things Our Fathers Loved, and many other Ives songs and other compositions, this beautiful and subtle song, both complex and clear in its tonality, is an autobiographical sketch of the composer's childhood. The opening line wanders dreamily in a whole-tone harmony: " ... visions of my homeland come with dreams of childhood, come with tunes we sang in schooldays, and with songs from mother's heart." And from this emerges a simple, tonal tune in which a fond memory, a wish, and a prayer are combined in words and in music: "Way down east in a village by the sea, stands an old red farmhouse that watches o'er the lea ... ". And here the music begins to drift from the tonal center: " ... all that is best in me lying deep in memory cause my heart where I would be nearer to thee." The phrase "nearer to thee" is quoted musically from the famous hymn Nearer My God To Thee. A brief piano interlude makes a interesting variant on the habanera-like rhythm of the accompaniment part. The song continues with another concluding picture from memory: "Every Sunday morning when the chores were almost done, from that little parlor sounds the old melodion, Nearer My God To Thee, with the strains of stronger folk come nearer to me."

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