Easter Wings

The first thing I noticed, even before reading the poem was the shape the lines create. After reading the poem, I saw the formation as representative of his relationship with God. As he falls further away from Him at the beginning of each verse, the lines become smaller to symbolize his weakening. As he then turns to God and combines himself with God's power and forgiveness, he gains strength and the lines grow with him. Of course after contemplating this and how it relates to the message of the poem, I looked down and saw an explanation in the footnotes. Oh well. However I also interpreted the shape in a way that the footnote didn't mention. Each stanza presents the bottom half as a literal reflection of the top half. If you assume that man is created in the image of God then this very effectively illustrates this idea. I also thought his use of a bird was great. What better way to get close to Heaven than to literally fly up towards it? If one considers their spiritual journey as a flight then its easy to see the parallel. The bird flies upwards but when its wings become tired it comes back down to rest. When trying to achieve the ideal relationship with God, there are often many things that make people fly back down. Its a struggle and this is illustrated greatly by the bird imagery as well as the expanding and shrinking of the lines.