Henry Vaughan

Henry Vaughan is rightly regarded as the great mystic poet of his time. Although a firm believer in Christianity, his is not the sort of Christianity that is comfortable with the world God has made. He is more a believer, one might say, in the Fall, and longs for the angelic world which he catches glimpses of from time to time. This selection of poems is an excellent introduction to his disposition, which deal more with escaping this world than glorifying the next. Brief Examples: In "Child-hood" his love of that innocent period "which angels guard" and the impossibility of returning to that state of bliss make him ask himself "Why if I see a rock or shelf, Shall I thence cast myself down" ...."Since all that age doth teach, is ill"----And in "The Night," he speculates that there is in God "a deep, but dazzling darkness;" and proclaims "O for that night! where I in him/ Might live invisible and dim."-Vaughan was really ahead of his time and more resembles Shelley and his later disciple Francis Thompson than any poet of his age (including George Herbert). After reading this selection of poems, one feels that Vaughan was a unique sort of Christian. More to the point, one questions whether Christianity was not the mere medium through which Vaughan, in tune with his age, conveyed his mystical yearning and escapism, which is the core of his poetry and his being.