An Explication of George Herbert’s “Easter Wings” Through Language and Shape

In George Herbert’s “Easter Wings,” man’s sin and attempt at redemption are discussed. The poem provides a narrative of the increased devotion that man has to God after being punished for his sins and how this devotion is used in man’s attempt at salvation. Man’s journey is depicted not only by the language used in the poem, but also by the shape of the poem. This shape illustrates man’s struggle, but also makes an allusion to Christ and the resurrection.

George Herbert’s poem, “Easter Wings”, depicts man’s suffering as a result of his sins, as well as his eventual redemption through God. The poem discusses man’s punishment at the hands of God, followed by his attempt at salvation through his devotion to God. The opening stanza narrates the idea that when God created man, man was given all which is necessary to survive: “LORD, who createdst man in wealth and store”.1 God provided man with not only enough resources to survive in the present, but long into the future as well. However, man takes God’s gifts for granted and, foolishly ends up losing that which was given to him. This leads to the disintegration of man until the wealth given to him by God is nearly gone: “Decaying more and more, / Till he became / Most poor:”.2 Man loses what had been given to him by God and now has gone from a state of wealth to a state of poverty.

The second stanza moves from discussing man’s destruction and turns, instead, to focus on man’s redemption through God. Herbert writes, “With thee / O let me rise / As larks, harmoniously,”.3 In these lines, man is giving himself to God and is espousing his devotion to God in the hopes that God will allow him to once again thrive as he once did. Not only does man express his devotion to God, but he also states that his fall from grace has caused him to develop a stronger devotion to God; it has only made him more determined to serve God: “And sing this day thy victories: / Then shall the fall further the flight in me”.4 Man needed to fall in order to appreciate God and all that God has given him. The fall has only strengthened his resolve to serve God.

The third stanza, again, addresses the sin of man: “My tender age in sorrow did beginne: / And still with sickness and shame / Thou didst so punish sinne, / That I became / Most thinne”.5 Here, man discusses how God has punished him for his sins. Man sinned early on and was punished with sickness and with shame. The result of this was not only a loss in wealth, as noted in stanza one, but also sickness, causing man to become “thinne”. This shows the destitute situation that man has been placed in as a result of his sins. The fact that he is “Most thinne” shows the gravity of this punishment.

As in stanza two, stanza four discusses man’s hopes for redemption: “With thee / Let me combine, / And feel this day thy victorie, / For, if I imp my wing on thine, / Affliction shall advance the flight in me”.6 Man wants God to become a part of him. He wants to be allowed to attach himself to God as a way of showing his devotion to God. In the fourth line of this stanza, man speaks of attaching himself to the wing of God as a means of flying back towards salvation. By doing this, man acknowledges that all the suffering that he has done as a result of being punished for his sins has only served to strengthen his resolve and commitment to God. By reaffirming his devoutness he hopes, man hopes to redeem himself.

Not only do the words of the poem provide meaning, so too does the poem’s shape. The language itself describes the impoverishment of man as the words become smaller, but the shape of the poem actually illustrates what is being said. As man’s destruction is describes, the poem’s line lengths decrease. Similarly, as man’s salvation is described, the line lengths increase. This creates the image of two sets of wings: “These are not angels’ wings. They are resurrection wings, and as such require the essential shape of wings to express their meaning”.7 Visually, as the stanzas descend and then ascend, the wings represent man’s fall and eventual redemption. This is to say that the shape symbolizes the destruction of man, followed by his salvation through his devotion to God: “The lines shorten from pentatmeter, to tetrameter, to trimester, to dimeter, and finally to the one-foot “Most poor” and “Most thin.” Then they recombine in the opposite order to make the form of wings”.8 The shape of the wings is also used to symbolize Christ’s resurrection: “It uses an image drawn from nature to symbolize the rising of the resurrected Christ as well as the rising of those who participate in the liturgical reenactment of the Resurrection on Easter…”.9 This is also evident when the narrator speaks of the imping of wings in the fourth stanza. There must be two sets of wings in order for man to reach salvation. There must be his own wings, but also the wings of Christ; the resurrection wings. Man must attach his wings to Christ’s in order to truly be able to fly up to redemption, hence, the two sets of wings formed by the poem.

George Herbert’s poem, “Easter Wings,” discusses man’s fall from grace and attempt at salvation. The poem provides a description of the result of man’s sins, as well as his attempt at redemption through his devotion to God. In this poem, not only the words, but the actual shape of the poem provides meaning. The poem being shaped into two sets of descending and ascending wings illustrates not only man’s journey, but also alludes to the resurrection of Christ.

References

Elsky, Martin. “George Herbert’s Pattern Poems and the Materiality of Language: A New Approach to Renaissance Hieroglyphics.” ELH 50.2 (1983): 245-260.

Herbert, George, ed. The Poetical Works of George Herbert. New York: Appleton and CO., 1857. 49.

Whitlock, Baird W. “The Sacramental Poetry of George Herbert.” South Central Review 3.1 (1986): 37-49.