The speaker's singing victories with the larks between lines 8 and 9? He's feeling the same with the hawks in lines 18 and 19. Adam ends up "most poor" at line 5? The speaker ends up "most thin" at line 15. Just check out how perfectly the stanzas match up. With its symmetrical stanzas, ABABACDCDC rhymes, and impeccable iambic rhythm, this poem keeps its wings elegantly folded. For further deets, head down to "Line Length" under "Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay."īut just because "Easter Wings" looks like a bird doesn't mean it's flighty. Not only does their elegant unfurled wing-shape mimic the title of the poem the changing line length also reflects the line-by-line meaning of each stanza. Officially known as carmen figuration or pattern/shaped/figural poetry, this type of poem-picture takes the relationship between form and content to a visual level. These stanzas give new meaning to the phrase, A picture's worth a thousand words-or, in the case of "Easter Wings," 96 (yes, we counted). No same-old left-aligned vanilla-flavored poems in Herbert's Easter basket. So the most obvious thing about the form of "Easter Wings" is that it actually has a physical form. Rhymed Stanza, Pattern Poetry, Variable Iambic
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