The World by Henry Vaughan | Metaphysical Poets
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Henry Vaughan was a Welsh, English metaphysical poet, author, translator, and medical practitioner. He took birth on 17th April 1621 and died on 23rd April 1695. Just like Richard Crawshaw, Henry Vaughan was also inspired by George Herbert. His religious verse collection titled Silex Schintillans appears to be highly influenced by Herbert’s The Temple. Silex Scintillans was first published in 1650 and it was republished with a second volume and a new preface in 1655. Silex Scintillans borrows the same themes, experiences, and beliefs as mentioned in George Herbert’s The Temple.
Before his inclination towards religious writings, Henry Vaughan took inspiration for his poetic writings through nature. In 1645, he published ‘Poems with The Tenth Satire of Juvenal Englished.’ One of his popular secular works was Olor Iscanus that he wrote in 1647. However, it was published in 1651. In Olor Iscanus, Vaughan discussed the Civil War and its effect on every man’s life.
It appears that Vaughan fell seriously ill during 1650-1651 and during this period, he read The Temple. His near-to-death experience because of illness, and the influence of The Temple prompted him to change from a secular writer to a religious author. Later on, he described his early life as ‘misspent youth.’ He described his conversion from a secular to a religious writer as ‘moriendo revixi’, which means, ‘by dying, I gain new life.’
Followed by Silex Scintillans, his second major religious work was Mount of Olives or Solitude Devotions. It was a prose work, a book of devotions in which he provided prayers for different stages of the day. This work appears to be much inspired by the Book of Common Prayer and was regarded as a ‘companion volume’ for the Book of Common Prayer.
Along with his religious tone, his writings and poetry show a strong inclination towards nature and mysticism. One of the very popular poems by Henry Vaughan is The World in which he described his personal loss.
The World Poem Structure
The World was published in 1650. It is a four stanza metaphysical poem with eleven lines in each stanza. The rhyme scheme of each stanza is consistent and it follows the pattern of aaabbccddeeffgg. Each line is written in iambic pentameter. The poet uses the imagery of a ring with no beginning and no end to represent eternity.
Summary of The World
The main idea of the poem The World by Henry Vaughan is striving to attain spirituality with the help of God while rejecting the trivial, unreal, sensual worldly objects and pleasures as they lack true happiness. The intelligent metaphysical use of similes, alliteration, conceit, and wit heightens the main theme and concerns of the poem.
Stanza 1
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,
Driv’n by the spheres
Like a vast shadow mov’d; in which the world
And all her train were hurl’d.
The doting lover in his quaintest strain
Did there complain;
Near him, his lute, his fancy, and his flights,
Wit’s sour delights,
With gloves, and knots, the silly snares of pleasure,
Yet his dear treasure
All scatter’d lay, while he his eyes did pour
Upon a flow’r.
The narrator of the poem begins with a description of a previous night when he felt the vision of ‘Eternity.’ He describes eternity as a bright endless ring of pure light. He observes a great calmness and divine brightness is incomparable as nothing in the mortal earthly world is as pure and bright. He realizes that no matter what humans do, they cannot create anything comparable to Eternity's bright ring of light.
The ring of bright pure light that represents Eternity contains in itself all the time in all its forms, short and long moments. While it is believed that the heavenly spheres or astronomical bodies control the short and long moments, all those heavenly bodies and all the time is encompassed by that bright ring of pure light. The poet is not overwhelmed by the enormity of the ring of light representing Eternity, rather he is surprised how easily everything is compressed in this ring of Eternity. The Eternity encompasses past, present, and future. It contains everything that is known to the poet and everything else that will be. Just like everything else, the earth itself is being hurled along within Eternity.
In the next lines of the first stanza, the poet describes a man, a dotting lover, who is very attractive. He is complaining about his possessions and his lover. The quaint lover is holding his lute (a musical instrument like a guitar) and is singing, explaining his dreams, wishes, and his struggles. The man is praising his possessions and he is worried about how ephemeral his possessions are and how they will be destroyed. He is so sad that he is weeping. The poet suggests that all of it that concerns the man, for which the quaint lover is concerned, is trivialized, it is has no real value in the realms of eternity.
Stanza 2
The darksome statesman hung with weights and woe,
Like a thick midnight-fog mov’d there so slow,
He did not stay, nor go;
Condemning thoughts (like sad eclipses) scowl
Upon his soul,
And clouds of crying witnesses without
Pursued him with one shout.
Yet digg’d the mole, and lest his ways be found,
Work’d under ground,
Where he did clutch his prey; but one did see
That policy;
Churches and altars fed him; perjuries
Were gnats and flies;
It rain’d about him blood and tears, but he
Drank them as free.
The narrator beings the second stanza with the description of a corrupt statesman who has caused enormous troubles and pains for common people. The poet describes this corrupt official as a ‘darksome statesman.’ His thoughts are impure and terrible and he carries with him all the woes of others. Being in a powerful authoritative position, he has caused trouble for others. The poet infers all these follies of this corrupt man by describing the way he moves. He is nowhere where he should be and he moves so slow as if he has no particular destination to go as if he has no desire to help those who need his help, who are dependent on him.
Vaughan’s narrator also says that he can observe the intention of the ‘darksome statesman’ on his face. He is harboring further dark intentions and planning to create more troubles and tragedies for other people, his dependents. He defines this corrupt official as a mole who digs a hole and works underground, away from the eyes of others. He is fed by gnats and flies and he freely drinking the blood and tears of his dependents. The poem's narrator describes how corrupt people in powerful positions exploit common men and rob others while improving their own position.
Stanza 3
The fearful miser on a heap of rust
Sate pining all his life there, did scarce trust
His own hands with the dust,
Yet would not place one piece above, but lives
In fear of thieves;
Thousands there were as frantic as himself,
And hugg’d each one his pelf;
The downright epicure plac’d heav’n in sense,
And scorn’d pretence,
While others, slipp’d into a wide excess,
Said little less;
The weaker sort slight, trivial wares enslave,
Who think them brave;
And poor despised Truth sate counting by
Their victory.
In the third stanza, the narrator describes a miser, a man who wasted his life on a heap of rust. This man is very fearful of theives who may steal the belonging that he has saved through his struggles of misery. This man trusts no one. He even distrusts his own hands and fears that he may misplace or destruct some of his precious possessions. He is frantically concerned about his belongings. The narrator suggests that there are thousands of people just like this miser who waste their life while distrusting everyone and remaining in fear of losing their possessions.
In the next lines of the stanza, the narrator describes people like epicure (someone who takes great pleasure in good food and drink). They are gluttonous, they place great importance on physical appearances. The narrator further describes people who have slopped into wide excess, they have devoted themselves to materialistic things and they are leading a hedonistic lifestyle. The narrator then describes the weaker sort who are enslaved by the powerful people.
4th Stanza
Yet some, who all this while did weep and sing,
And sing, and weep, soar’d up into the ring;
But most would use no wing.
O fools (said I) thus to prefer dark night
Before true light,
To live in grots and caves, and hate the day
Because it shews the way,
The way, which from this dead and dark abode
Leads up to God,
A way where you might tread the sun, and be
More bright than he.
But as I did their madness so discuss
One whisper’d thus,
“This ring the Bridegroom did for none provide,
But for his bride.”
In the last stanza, the narrator summarizes all sorts of people he has described and how they strive to attain happiness in their life. The narrator suggests that true happiness lies in the realm of the ring of bright and pure light representing Eternity. Every person, the dotting lover, the darksome statesman, the miser, the epicure, the gluttonous, the hedonist, and the weakling tries to attain the pleasure and calm of that ring of Eternity. They sing and weep and strive to soar up into the ring. But they continue to fail to attain happiness as they use no wings to reach eternity. The wing required to reach the calmness of Eternity is the help of God. People continue to waste their life on their trivial concerns of life while ignoring the divine presence of God and thus, they fail to attain the true happiness and pleasure of the ring of Eternity.
The narrator says that no matter what a man does to attain calmness and happiness in their life, they will never reach eternal happiness unless they devote themselves to God. The narrator further says that those who do not have faith in God often turn away from the right path as the path shown by God is just opposite to the path of their choice.
In the last lines, the narrator uses the first-person narrative to explain his inability in understanding why the people he has described took these wrong paths to attain happiness, why they opted for these wrong choices. The poet suggests that all these corrupt people have an inherent madness that restricts them from seeing the bright path that leads to Eternity. In the end, the poet suggests that Eternity itself chooses the person who deserves eternal happiness while all others remain aloof and waste their life in worldly pleasures.
So this is it about Henry Vaughan’s The World. We will discuss a few more poems by him. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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