O let me rise

Our National Poetry Month poem for Easter is George Herbert’s “Easter Wings”. Herbert was a 17^th-Century poet, politician and churchman, who produced a wealth of poems in his relatively short life. Much of his focus was on religion—he considered the Church of England was imperiled on two sides by Puritanism and Roman Catholicism.

“Easter Wings” focuses on the atonement that Christ brings to the world; Herbert spent a lot of his life grappling with the juxtaposition of spirituality in a physical world, so writing a poem in the shape of wings may lend the weight of imagery to his thoughts.

“Easter Wings”

Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store,
      Though foolishly he lost the same,
            Decaying more and more,
                  Till he became
                        Most poore:
                        With thee
                   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 beginner
      And still with sicknesses and shame.
            Thou didst so punish sinne,
                  That I became
                       Most thinne.
                        With thee
                  Let me combine,
            And feel thy victorie:
        For, if I imp my wing on thine,
Affliction shall advance the flight in me.