Henry Vaughan

Henry Vaughan , 1622-95, one of the English metaphysical poets . Born in Breconshire, Wales, he signed himself Silurist, after the ancient inhabitants of that region. After leaving Oxford, where he did not take a degree, he turned to the study of law. Later he switched to medicine and spent his life as a highly respected physician. His greatest poetry is contained in Silex Scintillans (1650; second part, 1655), which includes "The Ascension Hymn," "The World," "Quickness," "The Retreat," and "They are all gone into the world of light." Though he openly admitted his indebtedness to George Herbert , where Herbert celebrates the institution of the Church, Vaughan is more interested in natural objects and in a mystical communion with nature. Vaughan's other works include Poems (1646), Olor Iscanus (1651), Thalia Rediviva (1678), The Mount of Olives (1652), and Flores Solitudinis (1654).

Bibliography: See edition of his works edited by L. C. Martin (2d ed. 1957); complete poems edited by A. Rudrum (1981); biography by F. E. Hutchinson (1947); studies by E. Holmes (1932, repr. 1967), R. Garner (1959), R. A. Durr (1962), T. O. Calhoun (1981).

Vaughan, Henry (1622–95). Welsh doctor and Metaphysical poet, known as the Silurist. His main work, Silex Scintillans (The Flashing Flint) was influenced by G. Herbert. Aware of the restlessness of human nature and of the experience of the absence of God, he is especially remembered for vivid images of mystical vision.

Vaughan, Henry (1622–95). Poet and mystic. After two years at Oxford, Vaughan commenced legal training in London but returned home to Breconshire at the outbreak of war in 1642. Briefly clerk to a royalist judge, and possibly on military service until 1646 when the puritans controlled south Wales, he turned his attention to medicine, and practised successfully, though no degree or licence has been traced. He began to publish poetry in 1646, but George Herbert's influence led to rejection of ‘idle books’, and it is for his religious poems that he is now best known, though they were largely disregarded in his own day; Silex Scintillans (‘The Glittering Flint’, 1650, Part II 1655) and the prose The Mount of Olives (1652) reflect his spiritual rapture and fresh creativeness. Welsh sentiment led Vaughan to assume the title ‘Silurist’, since his native county had formerly been inhabited by a local tribe called the Silures.

A. S. Hargreaves