Summary

The first wing of the poem begins with a description of God's creation of man. The text descends visibly as the speaker narrates man's failures to take advantage of what God created. The text then pivots, both thematically and stylistically, and begins to get longer, describing the speaker's desire to grow in faith in order to better offer musical praise to God.

In the second wing, the speaker describes his early life. He experienced illness and shame, which he attributes to God's punishment for sin. He became thin and wasted from suffering, as the poem does. The poem again pivots when the speaker asks to combine his will with God's so they can grow and fly together.

Analysis

"Easter Wings" is a famous example of a shaped poem, in which the words of the poem are arranged into a particular image on the page...