Commentary on Easter Wings by George Herbert

1 store: many goods, abundance.

5 The length of the lines decreases to reflect their content it symbolise a  diminished man

10 Herbert alludes to the paradox of the "fortunate fall" or felix culpa. Only by sinning with Eve, and being cast out of the Garden of Eden into a world of labour, pain, and death, did Adam enable the second Adam, Christ, to redeem man and show a love and forgiveness that otherwise could never have been.

18 Feel: "feel this day" in 1633. The two added words disturb the clear metrical scheme (which has six syllables in lines 3, 8, and 13) and are not found in the manuscript of the poem.

19 ‘Imp’ is a technical term taken from falconry, meaning to graft feathers on to a damaged wing to restore a bird’s power of flight. Herbert is asking to become one with Christ's rising from the dead into new life and to soar towards heaven with him. Herbert may have in mind two passages from the Bible which link the idea of flight and the experience of God’s healing and renewal.

• In rhyme scheme, Herbert uses ababacdcdc in both stanzas, giving the poem a sense of order in the structure. With each stanza representing a different relational aspect of man to God, the first being the fall of man and the second being man's redemption through Christ, the rhyme scheme suggests that even with the failure of man, God keeps balance and order within the universe.

• In writing his form of verse in this poem, Herbert forces almost every line to stand on its own by using the placement of hard punctuation at the end of almost every line. Additionally, he forces the aspect that each line is important by capitalizing the first letter on each line. However, his line design of having longer lines at the beginning and end of each stanza as compared to the middle lines does more than just create a visual image, it enhances the idea of giving the poem a flow that feels as though the work itself is contracting and expanding, much like the opening and closing of the wings represented in the visual image produced by the layout of the poem. It may also seem the contracting and expanding of man's heart. The middle four lines of each stanza are reduced to four syllables on lines four and seven, and only two syllables on line five and six, as compared to ten syllables in each line that forms the cap and base of each stanza. Additionally, in each stanza, it is important to note that each line is shortened by two syllables until only two syllables remain in lines five and six, at which time each line is lengthened by two syllables, giving it a syllabic pattern, per line, of 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10, per stanza.

• This poem is a good example of a ‘Shape’ or ‘Pattern’ poem. The practice of writing poems whose shape mirrored their theme was adopted from the ancient Greeks and was very popular at the time when Herbert was writing. If you turn the poem sideways, you can see the shape of a pair of wings. The shape represents a dying or falling, then rising pattern, which is the theme of the Easter story. The top half of each stanza focuses on the problems caused by human sin. The bottom half reflects the hope made possible by the resurrection of Jesus Christ at Easter.

• The first stanza or wing traces the decline of humankind outlined in Christian thought. After their creation, Adam and Eve were believed to have experienced the wealth of God’s provision for them in the Garden of Eden but they ‘foolishly’ chose to disobey God and eat the fruit of the forbidden tree. Rather than believing that human beings grow better and better through the centuries, Herbert is reflecting the Christian perspective that human beings had enormous potential, which they have wasted through turning away from God.

• Fortunately, there is hope. In the rising part of the stanza, Herbert talks of himself rising with Christ. The alliteration of ‘the fall further the flight in me’ reinforces the paradox of the ‘felix culpa’ or ‘happy fault’ which teaches that the fall of humankind actually had a positive outcome because it resulted in the coming of Christ to bring human beings into a new relationship with God. Herbert is now applying this hope to himself.

• The second stanza is parallel in its form, and uses a number of words and phrases from the first. It is more specifically autobiographical, and could be seen as a summary of Affliction I.

• Herbert talks of afflication, sickness and shame as punishmnets sent by God to warn sinners to mend their ways “afflication shall advance the flight in me” the crosses born to “pay” for sins and ultimately improve through suffering the ways of evil. The request to “imp my wing on thine” asks for support and a close bond to God. The use of “thee” is used to direct to God. The 'Lord' is adressed by the speaker creating a dialogue between Herbert and God.