God’s love can only fit One Soldier

By Mitaya La Pierre

George Herbert, a devote christian, wrote the poems “The Alter”, and “Easter Wings”; imagery induced stanzas that requited his love for Christ and the cross. A debate can be made that his work “Easter Wings” defines this love more visually and intensely, then does “The Alter” counter part. I, however, do not agree with this position; I personally believe that The Alter, with it’s imagery and theme, provided a more direct christian experience then Easter Wings ever could.

To begin, in the first 2 lines there is immediate description of what this poem is going to be about;

“A broken ALTAR, Lord, thy servant rears,

Made of a heart, and cemented with tears”

Here the speaker is describing the ways of the altar, its creation founded upon heart; emotion. This speaker is a not only a servent to the altar, but an ardent one at that. So devoted to serving the lord, the speaker too in a way is like this alter. A ‘broken’ alter, made of ‘heart’, cemented with ‘tears’; a simile of his poetic devotion to our Lord and saviour. This is not where words of the ‘heart’ stop though. After line 4, the poem itself becomes narrower, like a pillar, and within all of those lines it speaks directly of the heart. (5-13)

“A HEART alone 

is such a stone,

As nothing but

Thy power doth cut.

Wherever each part

Of my hard heart

Meets in this frame,

To praise thy Name:”

As I discussed previously of him being like an alter, his ‘heart’ is like the stone of which the meat of the alter stands. He is personifying this way of worship. This alter is him, and he is the alter, for which only being with God and servicing him brings light into his ‘stone’ like heart. The same way that a statue becomes an alter the moment you start praying at it; is the same way his heart is suspended from gloom to praise the one and only.

In Easter Wings, I obtain none of this emotion. Yes the speaker enumerates “flying”, in the skies with God, to be freed of human sin and within Jesus’s heart. I can hear the pain and discomfort of the speaker admitting that he has not been the best ‘Christian’ (as stated in line’s 12-15, “My tender age in sorrow did begin; and still with sicknesses and shame Thou didst so punish sin, that I became Most thin.”) or even a christian; but that he hopes God will service him in the way that he is now servicing God; with forgiveness. I understand the redemption arc of this poem, which is also comically written in the form of angel wings, I get there is a transition here of guilt to pride over his religion (shall I say, a flip of the WING?!) But for the speaker being someone who is religious, especially monotheistic; I would believe that he would learn self-forgiveness. When I hear about devotion to the Holy ghost, I suspect a total blind forgiveness of one’s past self–and more so an introduction into the blissfully painful love this speaker has for God. What I’m looking for here is just a genuine conversation between the speaker and God; however, in Easter Wings, I feel as if he is ‘begging’ for forgiveness rather than, practicing it. In The Alter, he shows God his love, he recites it perfectly and brings forth his pain to be ignited by the eternal light. I wanted to feel the love, not the regret. 

Doves

Lauren Hamilton

With it’s easier to read message than “The Altar” by George Herbert, it is capable to reach a broader audience of people, “Easter Wings” by George Herbert has the strongest Christian message because it is all about the redemption of sinners with love and use of the divine. I personally do not know much about Christianity but what I do know of the underlying message is to love love and accept one another with open arms and that is exactly what the story of Easter is talking about.

George Herbert was priest of the Church of England who was well read and did oratory work before becoming a priest. He also came to being a priest after the reformation had occured and were trying to encourage those who were more reluctant to join the church (the Puritans and any remaining Pagans or Wiccans). He was reportedly a kind and well caring priest to his parishioners and would have wanted to make the message as clear cut and easy for them to hear and read. By making it easier to read it encouraged the parishioners to continue coming to church on major days of the Christian calender.

“Easter Wings” is about the story of Easter from the view point of a sinner. Lines 1-5 talk of a great man who lost all things even his life, the life and death of Jesus. Then lines 6-9 speak of him rising up bringing the sinner for redemption up with him by singing songs and praise. Line 10 speaks of if the sinners fail again they can be redeemed again but it will be more work for them. The view point becomes more apparent in lines 11-15, they speak of being a sinner from a young age and regardless of their sins they are forgiven with love and acceptance but not punishment. Lines 16-19, are of them asking to join the celebrate the redemption they have received and to only do so if the other will permit it. Line 20 can be taken to say “I may have sinned in the past but it pushes me to be better in the future.”

The lines themselves create a story pattern of bring down then raising up then falling down and raising up once more, almost like watching a bird fly and being able to read the dramatic movement it takes for them to fly. Along with the words themselves bringing us up and down, there is a simple pattern designed into the poem. The design can be seen as either two birds flying next to one another or as one bird mid flight, it all depends on how you focus. In the thought of Easter and Christians symbols, there is only one bird that takes main stage and that is the dove. The dove represents the divine Holy Spirit being present at major events in the bible. This would have helped the Pagans and Wiccans to associate better with the church because in their religion doves were used as sacrifices for either wrong doings or asking for better outcomes from bad situations. In both cases of dove usage, they are used for redemption from sins making those willing to change religion to (in theory anyways) do so with a priest who was understanding.

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