The poems “Easter Wings” and “The Altar” by George Herbert both represent his tumultuous relationship with God. All believers go through a struggle satisfying the Lord and being a good Christian. Both poems are also shape poems and rely heavily on poetic devices like metaphors,paradoxes, alliteration, and imagery to offer a powerful Christian message. However Herbert’s “Easter Wings” offers a more compelling Christian message than “The Alter”.
In “The Altar” Herbert writes the entire poem as a metaphor. He uses the altar to represent the speaker’s confidence in God and if he is faithful God will be kind and help change his life around. For example from line 9 to 16 the poem begins to become more optimistic and bright since the speaker is confident that God can change his heart for the good. The imagery of the altar throughout the poem, especially in lines 15 and 16 the reader can see a man in prayer pleading to God about the sacrifice of his soul to benefit from God’s graces. The use of capitalization helps show the reader the pleading and shouting this person must be committing upon the altar as he pleads for God’s help. However promising this Christian message is, the message in “Easter Wings” proves more influential and powerful.
“Easter Wings” doesn’t necessarily present a Christian message in a conventional way but it does deconstruct big paradoxes and also demonstrates the logic and beauty of interpreting these confusing Christian ideas. The iambic rhythm and being a shape poem only helps deconstruct these paradoxes that lie within Christianity. Herbert also uses alliteration and assonance to show the reader that asking the hard questions sometimes yield the highest pay off for someone of faith. For example in line 10 and 20 the alliteration of the “As” and “Fs” serve as red flags for the reader. In both lines 10 and 20 Herbert points towards the Christian paradox that despair brings joy when he writes “the fall further the flight” and “affliction shall advance the flight in me”. Personally, this idea of deconstructing paradoxes that liter the Christian faith leads to a much more compelling Christian message and love of the religion than the simple, overused idea that being faithful will bring you rewards.
Introduction to Poetry 
Oct 10, 2014 @ 22:37:35
You successfully compare and contrast the Christian messages of both of Herbert’s poems in a way that makes your perspective easy to understand as well as convincing. Your most original line,”this idea of deconstructing paradoxes that liter the Christian faith leads to a much more compelling Christian message and love of the religion than the simple, overused idea that being faithful will bring you rewards,” served as a very nice explanation of your opinion as to why “Easter Wings” conveys the more powerful message. However, if you managed to incorporate this idea into your thesis statement and elaborate on it a little more throughout your post, you could have made an even stronger argument against “The Altar”. Overall, I really liked you post and though you came up with lots of ideas that show a true depth of understanding.
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Oct 10, 2014 @ 22:56:02
I think you compared the two poems in a way that is both effective and easy to understand. I think you did an excellent job in identifying poetic elements, explaining their significance, and then tying them together to create a deeper meaning. I also liked the way that you discussed how “Easter Wings” is a non conventional approach to the Christian faith. I think you could’ve furthered this notion by including biblical allusions to supplement the poetic devices.
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