Flight, Flying, and Birds
"Easter WINGS" is our first clue: this is either a poem about deep-fat-fried chicken with ranch or a poem about flying. It doesn't take long to figure out that deep-fat-fried anything has no place...
Material Hardship
It's rough, getting kicked out of the Garden of Eden, and Herbert uses the language of material hardship to describe it. Adam is created with "wealth and store" but once he makes his fatal error, h...
Physical Weakness
If "Easter Wings" were actually "High School Musical, 1633," Adam would be the dumb jock and the speaker would definitely be the weak blushing nerd. That's the biggest contrast between the two stan...
Line Length
They're alive! Or at least the lines are moving. In order to give each stanza the shape of a wing, Herbert has to first axe out two syllables every line and then add 'em back in a few lines later....