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Easter Wings Summary & Analysis
by George Herbert

Easter Wings Summary & Analysis
by George Herbert

  • Intro
  • Summary
  • Themes
  • Line-by-Line
    Explanations
  • Symbols
  • Poetic
    Devices
  • Vocabulary &
    References
  • Form, Meter, &
    Rhyme Scheme
  • Speaker
  • Setting
  • Context
  • Resources
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The Full Text of “Easter Wings”

1Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store,

2      Though foolishly he lost the same,

3            Decaying more and more,

4                  Till he became

5                        Most poore:

6                        With thee

7                  O let me rise

8            As larks, harmoniously,

9      And sing this day thy victories:

10Then shall the fall further the flight in me.

11My tender age in sorrow did beginne

12      And still with sicknesses and shame

13            Thou didst so punish sinne,

14                  That I became

15                        Most thinne.

16                        With thee

17                  Let me combine,

18            And feel thy victorie:

19         For, if I imp my wing on thine,

20Affliction shall advance the flight in me.

  • “Easter Wings” Introduction

    • “Easter Wings” was written by the 17th-century Welsh poet George Herbert, who was also an Anglican priest. The poem is a visual, or shaped poem: if viewed sideways (as it was originally published), each stanza resembles a set of open wings. This shape reflects the poem’s central theme, as the speaker suggests that those who stay close to God through religious devotion can “fly" above, or find redemption from, their suffering. “Easter Wings” was first published in Herbert’s posthumous collection The Temple in 1633, the same year in which he died.

  • “Easter Wings” Summary

    • God, you created human beings and gave them everything they needed, though the first person, Adam, foolishly lost it all by sinning and being expelled from the Garden of Eden, growing more and more sinful until he was poor in spirit. God, let me rise from my own sin with you, as songbirds rise in harmony with each other. And let me sing of all of your triumphs. Then the fall of Adam and Eve will have simply allowed me to rise even higher.

      My own youth started out in sadness. And you punished my sins by making me sick and ashamed, until I grew thin (that is, spiritually impoverished). Let me join with you and experience your triumph. Because, if I attach my own wing to yours, my suffering will only make me more able to fly and transcend this sorrow.

  • “Easter Wings” Themes

    • Theme Suffering and Redemption

      Suffering and Redemption

      In “Easter Wings,” the speaker meditates on how one’s relationship to God offers relief from pain—and how that pain is what allows for spiritual redemption in the first place. The speaker suggests that through devotion to God, one can overcome suffering and find spiritual freedom and redemption. In fact, the poem suggests that the speaker’s suffering is what actually makes this redemption possible, and that the speaker’s spiritual freedom will be all the more powerful because of the pain the speaker has endured.

      The speaker begins the poem with an allusion to the biblical "fall" of man to illustrate how distance from God leads to pain and disgrace: Adam, the first man created in the Bible, “foolishly” squandered the comfort and “wealth” God provided, the speaker says, and in doing so introduced sin into the world. And just as Adam fell from grace and got kicked out of the idyllic Garden of Eden, the speaker has fallen on hard times filled with “sorrow,” “sicknesses,” and “shame” as punishment for being sinful. Yet without falling so low, the poem implies, the speaker wouldn’t be able to “rise” up so high upon God’s metaphorical wings.

      Adding to this idea, the poem links the speaker’s pain to Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. The title “Easter Wings” specifically connects the poem to Easter Sunday, when, according to the Bible, Christ rose from the dead. According to Christian theology, Christ redeemed humanity’s inherent sinfulness through his suffering on the cross. Again, then, suffering goes hand in hand with salvation. And just as Christ rose from the dead, those who follow Christ will find their own spiritual resurrection or rebirth in Heaven. The speaker thus suggests that Christ’s resurrection offers the speaker the metaphorical “wings” that will allow the speaker to transcend, to fly above, sin-caused suffering.

      Indeed, the speaker repeatedly emphasizes that one is only able to transcend suffering through religious devotion—that is, by being close to God. Addressing God directly, the speaker says, “With thee / O let me rise,” and “With thee / Let me combine.” This suggests that the speaker can only “rise” out of pain by joining, or “combining,” with God. Specifically, the speaker envisions attaching a “wing” to God's own “wing.” This would allow the speaker to fly “harmoniously” with God. And this “flight”—this spiritual redemption and transcendence, will be all the more powerful for having experienced suffering. Hardship will only “advance the flight in [the speaker],” or allow the speaker more soar even further towards salvation.

  • Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Easter Wings”

    • Lines 1-2

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

      The poem opens with a moment of apostrophe as the speaker addresses God directly. God created humanity and gave the first “man” everything he needed, the speaker says: not only “wealth,” but “store,” or an abundance of what he needed to survive. Yet this first “man” was “foolish[]” and “lost” everything that God had so generously given him.

      The speaker is alluding to the story of Adam and Eve, the first human beings God created in the Bible and who lived in the idyllic Garden of Eden until "the fall." According to the Bible, Adam and Eve ate fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, introducing sin into the world and getting kicked out of Eden in the process.

      In traditional Christian thought, this story describes humanity’s fundamentally sinful nature. Even though Adam and Even had “wealth and store” in Eden—everything they needed to be happy— they “lost the same” through their own foolishness. Humanity’s suffering is thus rooted in sin, something that only devotion to God can redeem.

      These opening lines set up a metaphor that will be important throughout the poem. The “wealth,” that God gives humanity refers to the abundance of the natural world and also to spiritual wealth, or the state of being close to god. “Wealth” represents spiritual happiness, which can be achieved through religious devotion.

    • Lines 3-5

                  Decaying more and more,
                        Till he became
                              Most poore:

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    • Lines 6-8

                              With thee
                        O let me rise
                  As larks, harmoniously,

    • Lines 9-10

            And sing this day thy victories:
      Then shall the fall further the flight in me.

    • Lines 11-13

      My tender age in sorrow did beginne
            And still with sicknesses and shame
                  Thou didst so punish sinne,

    • Lines 14-15

                        That I became
                              Most thinne.

    • Lines 16-18

                              With thee
                        Let me combine,
                  And feel thy victorie:

    • Lines 19-20

               For, if I imp my wing on thine,
      Affliction shall advance the flight in me.

  • “Easter Wings” Symbols

    • Symbol Larks

      Larks

      Larks typically symbolize dawn, renewal, and rebirth in literature. That's certainly the case in this poem, as the speaker imagines being able to fly like a lark, away from suffering and sin, and rising “harmoniously” with God. The speaker experiences redemption—a new beginning, and perhaps even a rebirth in heaven—by staying close to God.

      Importantly, larks are also songbirds. Perhaps this poem itself, then, is akin to a lark's song, with the speaker a kind of songbird. Through singing God's praises in this poem, the speaker is able to find redemption.

    • Symbol Wings and Flight

      Wings and Flight

      The speaker evokes wings and flight throughout the poem—including in the visual shape of the poem itself! Wings and flight symbolize freedom from, or the transcendence of, earthly suffering.

      Sin and suffering are a lowly state, the poem implies, with idea of the "fall" itself suggesting that, in sinning, human beings fell away from God on high. Flying thus represents rising above that sin and suffering, and the speaker insists that the only way to do so is via devotion to God. More specifically, the speaker wants to graft a “wing” onto that of God (which might mean to live by God's example, or to devote one's life entirely to the service of God). Again, wings and flight represent a means to soar sin, suffering, and pain.

  • “Easter Wings” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

    • Allusion

      The speaker of “Easter Wings” makes several allusions to the Bible. First, the poem's title references Easter Sunday, when, according to the biblical story, Jesus Christ rose from the dead after his crucifixion. This allusion sets up an important framework for the poem: just as Christ’s suffering on the cross eventually led to his resurrection and the absolution of humanity's sins, the poem suggests that the speaker’s own suffering will, through devotion to God, eventually lead to spiritual redemption.

      The speaker also alludes to the story of Adam and Eve. The Bible's Book of Genesis describes how God created the first human beings, Adam and Eve, and gave them the Garden of Eden, a kind of paradise. Adam and Eve disobeyed God by taking fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and were then expelled from Eden.

      The speaker references this story by saying that God invented “man in wealth and store,” or gave humanity everything that it needed, but that this first man “foolishly […] lost” it all. This original “fall” from God's grace will only “further the flight in” the speaker, however; falling so low, in other words, is part of what allows the speaker to rise so high through religious devotion.

    • Apostrophe

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    • Metaphor

    • Simile

    • Paradox

    • Parallelism

    • End-Stopped Line

    • Alliteration

    • Sibilance

    • Assonance

  • “Easter Wings” Vocabulary

    Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

    • Createdst
    • Store
    • Decaying
    • Poore
    • Larks
    • Victories
    • The Fall
    • Tender
    • Sinne
    • Thinne
    • Imp
    • Affliction
    Createdst

    • An archaic spelling of “created.”

  • Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Easter Wings”

    • Form

      “Easter Wings” is an example of concrete or shaped poetry: it takes the visual form of what it describes. The poem was originally printed sideways, with one stanza on each page. Viewed this way, the stanzas look like open wings. The poem can either be viewed as one set of wings (with each stanza a single wing) or two sets of wings, each stanza resembling an open pair.

      The poem's form also evokes its meaning. In the first half of each stanza, the lines of the poem get shorter and shorter, visually representing the spiritual "poverty" and "thinness" that comes from sinning and falling further away from God. In the second half of each stanza, the lines begin to steadily increase in length as the speaker "rise[s]" with God and overcomes sin, sorrow, and suffering through devotion to God.

    • Meter

      The lines of “Easter Wings” vary in length, but the rhythm of each is still quite steady. Most lines are made up of iambs, a type of metrical foot in which one unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable (making a da-DUM beat pattern). There are some variations throughout, but in general this iambic pattern creates an even, steady rhythm in the poem. Consider, for example, lines 1-5:

      Lord, who | crea- | tedst man | in wealth | and store,
      Though fool- | ishly | he lost | the same,
      Decay- | ing more | and more,
      Till he | became
      Most poore:

      While the da-DUM rhythm is consistent, the dramatically changing line lengths—and, as such, the shifting number of iambs per line—allows for variation within this pattern. This allows for a sense of fluidity and change, much like the internal changes the speaker describes upon moving from spiritual impoverishment to redemption.

      As readers can see, the poem's very first line actually breaks with this iambic pattern as well: the first foot of the poem is a trochee, a poetic foot with a stressed-unstressed beat pattern ("Lord, who"). This stress at the poem’s beginning sets the word "Lord" apart, emphasizing that for the speaker, it is God who makes the poem as a whole—and the spiritual redemption it depicts—possible.

    • Rhyme Scheme

      The poem follows a consistent rhyme scheme throughout. Each stanza can be broken in half, with the first and second set of five lines following the same ABABA pattern. Mapped to account for the changing rhyme sounds, the poem's full rhyme scheme looks like this:

      ABABACDCDC EBEBECFCFC

      Note here how, again, the actual rhyme sounds change every five lines (that is, at the start of and then halfway through each stanza), but the actual pattern of those sounds stays the same within each five-line chunk. In the first five lines, for example, “store” rhymes with “more” and “poore,” while “same” rhymes with “became.”

      What makes this rhyming pattern a bit surprising is that it leaves out a final B/D/F rhyme ending, which would bring a sense of resolution. In lines 1-5, for instance, there are three A rhymes but only two B rhymes—and the same is true each time the rhyme pattern repeats throughout the poem.

      Thus, at the very moment when the speaker first describes rising with God (line 6), the poem shifts into a second set of rhyme sounds (again following the same alternating pattern): “thee” rhymes with “harmoniously” and “me,” while “rise” rhymes with “victories.” (According to rhyming standards in some archaic English poetry, the different vowel sounds of “rise” and “victories” would still be considered full rhymes.) And again, the poem leaves out the final rhyme ending (in this case, a D ending) that the reader might expect. In doing so, the poem subtly creates a sense of openness and possibility.

      The second stanza follows the same structure. The first five lines stick to an alternating rhyme pattern, and actually repeat the exact same B line endings from the first stanza (“shame” and “became”). The second half of this stanza echoes stanza 1 too: the words “thee,” “victorie,” and “me” rhyme use the same C rhyme sound found in lines 6, 7, and 9, and “thee” and “victorie” are, of course, again exact repetitions from stanza 1.

      All this repetition drives home the poem's message: that sin leads to shame, but trust in God (in "thee") leads to personal triumph.

  • “Easter Wings” Speaker

    • The speaker of “Easter Wings” is never named in the poem, but a few things suggest that the speaker is a representation of the poet, George Herbert, himself. Most obviously, Herbert was a very religious man—an Anglican priest, in fact! The speaker also describes life in ways that feel intensely personal, noting, for example, the “sorrow” and “sicknesses” of youth.

      Of course, the poem also leaves out any details that would definitively mark the speaker out as Herbert—or even as a man, for that matter. And whoever the speaker is, this person frames their suffering within the larger experience of humanity as a whole. The speaker, then, can be read as Herbert but not only Herbert, and the poem aims to capture universal feelings of sorrow, hardship, and faith.

  • “Easter Wings” Setting

    • The speaker's desire to praise and rise up with God isn't tied to any specific setting. One thing that does seem clear, however, is that the poem takes place on earth—in the realm of the living, at least. If the poem took place in heaven, the speaker wouldn't be asking to "rise" up with God! The speaker longs to be above this material realm, which is a place of sin and suffering. The speaker thus envisions flying with God like a songbird through the air.

  • Literary and Historical Context of “Easter Wings”

      Literary Context

      “Easter Wings” was first printed in George Herbert’s posthumous collection The Temple in 1633, the year after Herbert had died. The collection was made out of three sections: “The Church Porch,” “The Church,” and “The Church Militant.” This poem appears in the middle and longest section, “The Church,” which included the same number of poems as there are psalms in the Church of England's liturgical calendar. Herbert was an Anglican Priest, and the collection in its entirety deals with questions of faith, suffering, doubt, and redemption.

      Religious poetry was not at all uncommon in the 17th century, but it also wasn't necessarily the norm. (For context, Shakespeare’s often erotically-charged sonnets were first published in 1609.) Herbert was one of a group of poets who sought to redirect poetry away from the idea of the feminine “muse” and back to God.

      Herbert is also considered a metaphysical poet, a term used to describe a group of 17th-century writers whose work often used paradox and complex imagery to discuss love, morality, and religion. Herbert’s contemporaries and fellow Metaphysical Poets include his close friend John Donne as well as Andrew Marvell and Henry Vaughan.

      As a concrete or shaped poem, “Easter Wings” also draws on a tradition dating back to ancient Greece. During the Renaissance, revitalized interest in ancient art led to the discovery of several ancient Greek shaped poems, including one by the poet Simias of Rhodes, that took the shape of wings. Stephen Hawes, an English poet of the Tudor period, had also written a poem in this shape.

      Herbert was a widely influential poet in his own time, his work also influenced later poets ranging from Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Ralph Waldo Emerson to Emily Dickinson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and T.S. Eliot.

      Historical Context

      To contemporary readers, “Easter Wings” might seem like a traditional, and even simple, religious poem, written in the context of a religious era. Yet the poem was actually written in a time of intense religious and political turmoil. In 1534, King Henry VIII had founded the Church of England, splitting from the Vatican and the Catholic Church; this split predicated years of religious and political conflict and civil war, as monarchs battled for power and both Protestants and Catholics relentlessly persecuted each other.

      By the time Herbert wrote The Temple, the Church of England was firmly in control of the country. Years of civil conflict and violence would still follow, however, often stemming from ongoing issues related to religious freedom.

      Herbert’s life intersected with the years of this conflict, and it seems he made a deliberate choice to disengage from it altogether. Although, as the son of a wealthy family, he was set on a path to go into politics and the royal court, he instead joined the Anglican priesthood. Herbert then served in a small, poor, rural parish, seeking a life where he could more directly connect to God and to his faith.

  • More “Easter Wings” Resources

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