In gratitude we welcomed Grace

Near a grove of eucalyptus hidden

From a harsh world

Awash with fragrant trees and sweet fruit.

Now we do not

Cry out at sorrow.

Yeshua sent a child, we named her.

Criticism: analyzing, classifying, interpreting, or evaluating literary or other artistic works.

I’ll begin with some comments/suggestions. First, I see no justification for the periods in the title. In fact, they seem a distraction. Second, the phrase “Awash with fragrant trees” modifies world in the phrase “hidden from a harsh world.” So I’d revise ll. 2-4 to read 

Near a grove of eucalyptus awash in

Fragrant trees with sweet fruit 

And hidden from a harsh world.

Third, I feel that I’m looking at a shard of tile that will be worked into a mosaic, but I cannot see either the whole picture or even any of the adjacent tiles. Thus my evaluation and analysis may be spurious, specious, or suppositious.

At first this short, seven-line, 37-word acrostic poem seems naive, perhaps even simplistic. But the more I read the poem–with or without my suggested emendations–the more three words clamored for attention: Grace, eucalyptus, and Yeshua. And the more I dwelt on the meanings of those words, the more layers of meaning I saw in the simple words and phrases. I will begin with eucalyptus and deal with the other two together. Some of the mythological associations of eucalyptus are good fortune from the oil or wearing the wood and an aid in divinations.  The gender association is feminine, clean and pure like mother earth from which eucalyptus is born.

Here I will deal first with Grace, then tie Grace and Yeshua together. I am assuming that Grace is the name of the child Yeshua sent. In Christian theology Grace means unearned or unmerited favor from God. Our redemption is not quid pro quo (I do good and receive my wages in salvation); it is freely and deliberately given by Jesus (Rom 3:4, 5:15, et al.). And Yeshua is the name Mary, Joseph, Peter, Paul, etc. called Jesus. Our society gives names to children to honor ancestors or to satisfy our sense of euphony. But in the Hebrew culture, names had meanings which helped define the person named. And Yeshua means Salvation. So, in the poem, our Jesus sends Grace to the feminine eucalyptus grove where life is awash with fragrance and sweet fruits.