EASTER WINGS POEM BY GEORGE HERBERT

Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store, Though foolishly he lost the same, 

Decaying more and more 

Till he became 

Most poor: 

With three

O let me rise

As larks, harmoniously,

And sing this day thy victories:

Then shall the fall further the flight in me.

My tender age in sorrow did begin; 

And still with sicknesses and shame

Thou didst so punish sin,

That I became

Most thin.

With thee

Let me combine,

And feel this day thy victory; 

For, if I imp my wing on thine, 

Affliction shall advance the flight in me.

Glossary

Line 1. createdst created

Line 1. store abundance

Line 8. larks birds that sing at sunrise

Line 9. this day Easter Sunday-the day of Christ's redemption and regeneration

Line 10. fall fall from Eden

Line 10. further advance, improve

Line 19. imp graft feathers on a falcon's damaged wing

Line 20. affliction pain, suffering, distress

Explanatory Notes

Herbert is known as a metaphysical poet. The chief characteristics of metaphysical poetry are a deliberate combination of different types of emotions and attitudes and the use of conceits. The metaphysical poet accepts the fact that 'pure' feelings do not actually exist and hence believes that presenting such feelings is artificial. In treating the complexity of human motives the metaphysical poet is witty and makes use of paradox, pun and comparison. The poems are either of love or of intense religious experience.

Herbert's poems especially 'The Altar' and 'Easter Wings' are verbal and visual presentations of his own metaphors. They are prayers offered to God in 'the temple' of his book where there is an altar and wings which can carry the prayers to heaven. The visual impact of the shape and writing combine to make the poem both a picture and a text.

Lines 1-10. 'Easter Wings' is a serious prayer for the salvation of the immortal soul. The poet praises God for the bounty of creation and holds man responsible for foolishly losing Eden. The fall of man was so absolute that his decay made him poor beyond bounds. The only way in which the fallen soul can hope to rise above the mire of suffering and want is by rising at dawn like the larks toward heaven and singing the glory of God in unison with all creation. It is in the sense of complete surrender, in shedding one's ego, and making oneself light enough to rise that one can be enlightened.

Lines 11-20. The poet has been sinful and has suffered the punishment which has made him thin. This thinness is, in a way, the reduction of himself so as to enable a union with God and to energise his weak self to fly upward toward heaven and God. Suffering and pain shall give him strength to shed his human weaknesses and unite with God.

The only way to win back God's grace is to give up one's inflated ego and become minuscule so as to merge oneself in the greater self. It certainly demands utmost humility and self-negation.

The phrase 'this day' is repeated in lines 9 and 18. "This day' connects with the sense and message of Easter which is that the joy of resurrection and redemption from sin is greater because the fall from Eden was experienced in its acute sense. Achievement tastes sweeter after terrible failure. Also notice how the lines describing the poverty of man contain words which give the impression of scantiness and poverty. So is the case when the poet describes how suffering made him thin. This is another example of the visual-verbal combine.