Easter Wings is a great poem by George Herbert. Here, he discusses how God can heal a person who suffers from spiritual conflict. In the following content, we are going to discuss Easter Wings summary.
Easter Wings Writer’s intro
George Herbert (3 April 1593 – 1 March 1633) was a Welsh-born poet, orator and Anglican priest. People widely regard him as one of the finest British religious poets. His work echoes that of the metaphysical poets.
Summary of Easter Wings
The first stanza or wing draws the decline of humankind from Christian thought. After their creation, Adam and Eve were believed to have experienced the wealth of God’s condition for them in the Garden of Eden but they ‘foolishly’ chose to disobey God and enjoyed the fruit of the forbidden tree.
God expelled from the garden and they suffered from loneliness. He also condemned them and their descendants with poverty and misery in a cruel and unwelcoming world. Therefore, Herbert reflects the Christian viewpoint that human beings had enormous potential. However, they squandered by turning away from God.
Fortunately, there is hope. In the rising part of the stanza, Herbert now talks of himself rising with Christ, like a lark which soars and sings in the spring, close to Easter period. The fall of humankind actually had a positive outcome. Consequently, it resulted in the coming of Christ, to bring human beings into a new relationship with God. Hence, Herbert is now applying this hope to himself.
The second stanza becomes a prayer that his previous suffering may help him to fly even higher. ‘Imp’ is a technical term taken from falconry. It means to attach 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 been thinking of two Bible passages that connect the concept of flight and the experience of God’s healing and renewal.
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If you want to read more summaries, you can check the following articles:
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