Henry Vaughan Quotes

Henry Vaughan was a Welsh metaphysical poet, author, translator and physician, who wrote in English. He is chiefly known for religious poetry contained in Silex Scintillans, published in 1650, with a second part in 1655. In 1646 his poems, with the Tenth Satyre of Juvenal Englished, were published, followed by a second volume in 1647. Meanwhile, he had been "converted" by reading the religious poet George Herbert and gave up "idle verse". The prose Mount of Olives or Solitary Devotions show the depth of his religious convictions and the authenticity of his poetic genius. Two more volumes of secular verse followed, ostensibly without his sanction, but it is his religious verse that has become acclaimed. He also translated short moral and religious works and two medical works in prose. In the 1650s he began a lifelong practise in medicine.



Wikipedia  

✵ 17. April 1621 – 23. April 1695

Works

Peace
Henry Vaughan
Henry Vaughan: 23   quotes 0   likes

Famous Henry Vaughan Quotes

“As men are killed by fighting, the truth is lost in disputing.”

Preface to Hermetical Physick of Henry Nollus (1655).

“Some men a forward motion love,
But I by backward steps would move.”

"The Retreat," l. 29.
Silex Scintillans (1655)

Henry Vaughan Quotes about the soul

“Dear Night! this world's defeat;
The stop to busy fools; care's check and curb;
The day of spirits; my soul's calm retreat
Which none disturb!”

"The Night," l. 25.
Silex Scintillans (1655)
Context: Dear Night! this world's defeat;
The stop to busy fools; care's check and curb;
The day of spirits; my soul's calm retreat
Which none disturb!
Christ's progress, and His prayer-time;
The hours to which high Heaven doth chime.

“My gazing soul would dwell an hour,
And in those weaker glories spy
Some shadows of eternity;
Before I taught my tongue to wound
My conscience with a sinful sound,
Or had the black art to dispense
A several sin to every sense,
But felt through all this fleshly dress
Bright shoots of everlastingness.”

"The Retreat," l. 7 - 19.
Silex Scintillans (1655)
Context: When yet I had not walk'd above
A mile or two from my first Love,
And looking back, at that short space
Could see a glimpse of His bright face;
When on some gilded cloud or flower
My gazing soul would dwell an hour,
And in those weaker glories spy
Some shadows of eternity;
Before I taught my tongue to wound
My conscience with a sinful sound,
Or had the black art to dispense
A several sin to every sense,
But felt through all this fleshly dress
Bright shoots of everlastingness.

“Those observations are but foul,
Which make me wise to lose my soul.”

"Childhood".
Silex Scintillans (1655)
Context: Why should I not love childhood still?
Why, if I see a rock or shelf,
Shall I from thence cast down myself?
Or by complying with the world,
From the same precipice be hurled?
Those observations are but foul,
Which make me wise to lose my soul. And yet the practice worldlings call
Business, and weighty action all,
Checking the poor child for his play,
But gravely cast themselves away.

“My soul, there is a country
Far beyond the stars
Where stands a wingèd sentry
All skillful in the wars”

"Peace," st. 1.
Silex Scintillans (1655)
Context: My soul, there is a country
Far beyond the stars
Where stands a wingèd sentry
All skillful in the wars:
There, above noise and danger,
Sweet Peace is crowned with smiles,
And One born in a manger
Commands the beauteous files.

Henry Vaughan Quotes about light

“When I behold thee, though my light be dim,
Distant, and low, I can in thine see Him
Who looks upon thee from his glorious throne,
And mindes the covenant 'twixt all and One.”

"The Rainbow".
Silex Scintillans (1655)
Context: When thou dost shine, darkness looks white and fair,
Forms turn to musick, clouds to smiles and air;
Rain gently spends his honey-drops, and pours
Balm on the cleft earth, milk on grass and flowers.
Bright pledge of peace and sun-shine! the sure tye
Of thy Lord's hand, the object of his eye.
When I behold thee, though my light be dim,
Distant, and low, I can in thine see Him
Who looks upon thee from his glorious throne,
And mindes the covenant 'twixt all and One.

“Tempests and windes and winter-nights
Vex not, that but One sees thee grow,
That One made all these lesser lights.”

"The Seed Growing Secretly".
Silex Scintillans (1655)
Context: Tempests and windes and winter-nights
Vex not, that but One sees thee grow,
That One made all these lesser lights.
If those bright joys He singly sheds
On thee, were all met in one crown,
Both sun and stars would hide their heads;
And moons, though full, would get them down.

Henry Vaughan Quotes

“I cannot reach it, and my striving eye
Dazzles at it, as at eternity.”

"Childhood".
Silex Scintillans (1655)
Context: I cannot reach it, and my striving eye
Dazzles at it, as at eternity. Were now that chronicle alive,
Those white designs which children drive,
And the thoughts of each harmless hour,
With their content too in my pow'r,
Quickly would I make my path even,
And by mere playing go to heaven.

“O for that Night! where I in Him
Might live invisible and dim!”

"The Night," l. 49.
Silex Scintillans (1655)
Context: There is in God — some say —
A deep, but dazzling darkness; as men here
Say it is late and dusky, because they
See not all clear.
O for that Night! where I in Him
Might live invisible and dim!

“An age of mysteries! which he
Must live that would God's face see
Which angels guard, and with it play,
Angels! which foul men drive away.”

"Childhood".
Silex Scintillans (1655)
Context: Dear, harmless age! the short, swift span
Where weeping Virtue parts with man;
Where love without lust dwells, and bends
What way we please without self-ends. An age of mysteries! which he
Must live that would God's face see
Which angels guard, and with it play,
Angels! which foul men drive away.

“Thou dost but court cold rain, till rain turns fire.”

"The Rainbow".
Silex Scintillans (1655)
Context: I will on thee as on a comet look,
A comet, the sad world's ill-boding book;
Thy light as luctual and stain'd with woes
I'll judge, where penal flames sit mixt and close.
But though some think thou shin'st but to restrain
Bold storms, and simply dost attend on rain;
Yet I know well, and so our sins require,
Thou dost but court cold rain, till rain turns fire.

“Why should I not love childhood still?”

"Childhood".
Silex Scintillans (1655)
Context: Why should I not love childhood still?
Why, if I see a rock or shelf,
Shall I from thence cast down myself?
Or by complying with the world,
From the same precipice be hurled?
Those observations are but foul,
Which make me wise to lose my soul. And yet the practice worldlings call
Business, and weighty action all,
Checking the poor child for his play,
But gravely cast themselves away.

“Keep clean, be as fruit, earn life, and watch
Till the white-wing’d reapers come!”

"The Seed Growing Secretly".
Silex Scintillans (1655)
Context: Then bless thy secret growth, nor catch
At noise, but thrive unseen and dumb;
Keep clean, be as fruit, earn life, and watch
Till the white-wing’d reapers come!

“Quickly would I make my path even,
And by mere playing go to heaven.”

"Childhood".
Silex Scintillans (1655)
Context: I cannot reach it, and my striving eye
Dazzles at it, as at eternity. Were now that chronicle alive,
Those white designs which children drive,
And the thoughts of each harmless hour,
With their content too in my pow'r,
Quickly would I make my path even,
And by mere playing go to heaven.

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