Poem Notes:

BHG: I think she is confessing idolotry, but not in the usual sense. First, she is asking pardon that she has made a graven image, because she has seen in him and in his love the very likeness of the Father. So he has become her idol, although she knows he is ephemeral and fallible, formed of the shifting sand. Next, she confesses idolatry to her childhood -- the distant years which did not know her love's "divine" rule, and the false images of love there caused her to draw back from him in some way. Her brain is swimming -- struggling with the duelling images of dysfunctional love from her childhood, and this true, genuine, soul-mate love she has found. The recoiling with a blow suggests to me that her father was abusive, and his love was often expressed alongside of (or through) physical abuse, which also made her pull back from love. The doubt and dread of those distant years have pulled her in a way that isn't good, and she forsook the purity of his love-likeness to God for the worthless counterfeits of love she knew as a child. Finally, she compares the idolatry she has committed with that of a Pagan, saved by divine providence, who comes into the holy of holies to give thanks, and does so by erecting a Pagan altar there. She brought the poisoned images of her childhood into the purity of his love, and desecrated the temple of his heart. It is for this that she apologizes.