George Herbert was a Welsh-born poet, orator, and priest of the Church of

England. His poetry is associated with the writings of the metaphysical

poets, and he is recognised as "one of the foremost British devotional
lyricists."
 Easter Wings

Easter Wings was published in

Herbert’s posthumous
collection, The Temple (1633).
It was originally formatted
sideways on facing pages and
is in the tradition of shaped
poems that goes back to
ancient Greek sources.
A copy of the manuscript written for presentation
to the Cambridge University press in 1633.
 Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store,
      Though foolishly he lost the same,
            Decaying more and more,
                  Till he became
You can read the                         Most poore:

poem just like this – it                         With thee

                  O let me rise
is a shape poem, by             As larks, harmoniously,

the way.       And sing this day thy victories:

Then shall the fall further the flight in me.
 
My tender age in sorrow did beginne
      And still with sicknesses and shame.
            Thou didst so punish sinne,
                  That I became
                        Most thinne.
                        With thee
                  Let me combine,
George Herbert's poem "Easter Wings"             And feel thy victorie:
printed upright in modern type.          For, if I imp my wing on thine,
Affliction shall advance the flight in me.
 General Concept

• This two-stanza poem is stood on a back-and-forth between anguish and optimism.

• But here comes the downer: in the first half of each stanza, Herbert describes the
downward spiral of human life. It all starts with Adam who, in addition to being the first
man, was also the first victim as he spoiled the "wealth and store" God gave him, thus
sinking into poverty.

• In the second stanza, the speaker goes from one sad s-word to the next, getting serious
about how sickness, shame, and sin wore him down to nothing.
However, remember that not only do wings give the poem its physical shape; they also

contribute to Herbert's dominant imagery of repentance.

In the second half of each stanza, Herbert asks to rise with the resurrected Christ and

celebrate Easter's victory over death. Comparing himself to larks and hawks, he

acknowledges his own sinful weakness but cheerfully looks forward to better days. In

describing how he will rise with Christ, Herbert compares himself to birds that use wings

to fly to the happiness of heaven.

 What does the poem essentially tell us?

• Popular for his religious feeling in addition to his technical brilliance, Herbert's
often described as pure-hearted and tender, writing on a small scale with
gentle words about super-important things, like death and sin and God.

• "Easter Wings" is a perfect example of that legendary style. However, religion

alone does not a good poem create. George Herbert's poetry continues to be
read and celebrated because it combines theological sophistication with
playful experimentation. 
 By giving visual structure to his content,
Herbert's poem "Easter Wings” has got
shape and form. It lifts right off the Herbert lifts poetry into a multimedia
page like a butterfly about to launch off
experience that engages both the brain
a flower.
and the eyes.
 If you look closely, you’ll see that…..

Each of the two stanzas begins with a tone of sadness and regret due to
the sinful nature of the world. Halfway through each stanza, the tone
shifts at the words "with thee" (meaning with God) to a tone of hope
and a spirit of overcoming.
• What the speaker truly wants is a ticket out of the abyss of despair. How
to get out? Rise up with Christ like a bird from a tree.
• But why has the speaker chosen birds?
For one thing, birds have been admired and written about for so long that they're
really rich in associations. Birds mean freedom and gracefulness and love. They are
linked with death and foretelling and hope. Herbert's birds are meant to evoke a lot
of these feelings, while introducing more explicitly the ideas of singing and healing.

When the poet says “imp”, Here Herbert uses an unusual metaphor to

describe his relationship with God: when he's too sick or sinful to recover on
his own, God will give him the helping hand—or should we say "wing"?
 Material Hardship

• It is sort of a bumpy ride, getting kicked out of the Garden of Eden, and Herbert uses the
language of material hardship to describe it. Adam is created with "wealth and store" but
once he makes his fatal error, he loses all of it, going from poor to "most poor." 

• But the word "decaying"—a surprising choice that doesn't fit in with the other images of
material wealth—signals that this poverty might also be a little less literal. Just take the
Garden of Eden, which is both physically abundant as well as symbolic of God's abundant
love. In the same way, Adam's loss of his material goods = the loss of his spiritual
closeness to God. 
 To sum
up………………

“Easter Wings” is a celebration of Christ’s resurrection, which is presented as the means

by which humankind overcomes sin and attains freedom. In the conclusion of the poem,

the speaker wants to feel the victory over sin and difficulty through God. His difficulty

will thereby strengthen his flight, or path, as he leans into the guidance of God. The

poem consists of two ten-line stanzas of varying line lengths, which in their printed form

on the page resemble the wings of a bird.

 Questions to ponder……..

Even though Adam and Eve are never mentioned by name, what role do they play in the poem? 

Can sin and affliction ever be positive? How do you think our speaker would answer that
question?

How does the shape of "Easter Wings" influence and overlap with the poem's meaning?

What is the "flight" to which the speaker refers?

How does this poem reinforce the traditional theme that the individual's life should be an
"imitation of Christ's life“?

Depending on how it is formatted, why does the poem also look like an hourglass?
References

• https://www.jstor.org/stable/3817021
• https://sci-hub.tw/10.2307/3817021
• https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/poetry/easter-wings
• https://schoolworkhelper.net/george-herbert%E2%80%99s-easter-wi
ngs-summary-analysis/