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Henry Vaughan

Henry Vaughan (1621 - April 28, 1695) was a Welsh Metaphysical poet and a doctor, the twin brother of the philosopher Thomas Vaughan.

Henry Vaughan was born into a middle-class Welsh family in 'Trenewydd', Newton, in Breconshire. He spent most of his life in the village then in 1638 he went to Jesus College, Oxford, with his brother Thomas, who later achieved fame as an alchemist. Henry left Oxford in 1640 without taking a degree, and spent two years in London studying law. He was recalled home when the Civil War broke out, and he is thought to have served on the Royalist side in South Wales sometime around 1645.

In 1646 Vaughan married Catherine Wise and published his first book of verse, Poems, with the Tenth Satire of Juvenal Englished. The poems were secular in theme and attracted little attention. They appear uninspired when compared with the religious poetry of Silex Scintillus. In the preface to the second edition of Silex Vaughan attributes the transformation of his life and work to a spiritual awakening brought about by reading the poems of 'the blessed man, Mr. George Herbert'. On the title page of this work, he describes himself as 'Henry Vaughan, Silurist' referring to the ancient British tribe of Silures who once lived in Brecon.

During the 1650s Vaughan began practising medicine. After the death of his first wife he married her sister Elizabeth in about 1655. He had four children by each wife, and in his later years he became involved in legal wrangles with his older children. Though his poetry did not attract much attention for a long time after his death, Vaughan is now established as one of the finest religious poets in the language, and in some respects he surpassed his literary and spiritual master, George Herbert.

Religious poet, born in Newton-by-Usk, S Wales, UK. He studied at Oxford and London, became a doctor, and settled near Brecon. His best-known works are the pious meditations Silex scintillans (1650, enlarged 1655) and the prose devotions The Mount of Olives (1652). He also published elegies, translations, and other pieces, all within the tradition of metaphysical poetry. Of these, ‘The Retreat’ is considered his masterpiece, with its images of light and colour and its use of natural phenomena as emblems of spiritual states. He styled himself ‘Henry Vaughan, Silurist’, a reference to his homeland in the Welsh borderland, which was once occupied by the ancient British Silures.

He died on April 23, 1695, and was buried in Llansantffraed churchyard

Henry Vaughan's poetry reflects his love of nature and mysticism and influenced the work of Wordsworth, among others. Much of Vaughan's poetry has a particularly modern sound. This is an example of an especially beautiful fragment of one of his poems entitled

The World:
I saw eternity the other night
Like a great ring of pure and endless light,
All calm as it was bright,
And round beneath it time in hours, days, years,
Driven by the spheres,
Like a vast shadow moved in which the world
And all her train were hurled.

Vaughan took his literary inspiration from his native environment. His chosen name was, in fact, "Silurist" deriving from his homage to the Silures, the Celtic tribe of pre-Roman south Wales, which strongly resisted the Roman invasion of Britain. This name is a reflection of the deep love Vaughan felt towards the Welsh mountains of his home in what is now part of the Brecon Beacons National Park and the River Usk valley where Vaughan spent most of his early life and professional life. 

Henry Vaughan poems:

ChildhoodThe World

They are all gone into the world of light

Friends DepartedThe WaterfallThe Nativity

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