29 Facts About Henry Vaughan

Henry Vaughan was a Welsh metaphysical poet, author and translator writing in English, and a medical physician.

Henry Vaughan translated short moral and religious works and two medical works in prose.

Henry Vaughan was kin to two powerful Welsh families, one Catholic, one Protestant.

Henry Vaughan was imprisoned, his property was seized, and he narrowly avoided banishment.

Henry Vaughan is thought to have served briefly in the Royalist army.

Henry Vaughan took his literary inspiration from his native environment and chose the descriptive name "Silurist", derived from his homage to the Silures, a Celtic tribe of pre-Roman south Wales that strongly resisted the Romans.

The name reflects the love Henry Vaughan felt for the Welsh mountains of his home, in what is part of the Brecon Beacons National Park and the River Usk valley, where he spent most of his early and professional life.

Certain indications in the first volume and explicit statements in the preface to the second volume suggest that Henry Vaughan suffered a prolonged sickness that inflicted much pain.

Henry Vaughan interprets this experience as an encounter with death that alerted him to a "misspent youth".

Henry Vaughan believed he had been spared to make amends and start a new course not only in his life but in the literature he would produce.

Henry Vaughan described his previous work as foul and a contribution to "corrupt literature".

The influence of Herbert's poetry has been widely noted, with many of Henry Vaughan's works based on works by Herbert.

Flores Solitudinis contains translations from the Latin of two works by the Spanish Jesuit Juan Eusebio Nieremberg, one by a 5th-century Bishop of Lyon, Eucherius, and by Paulinus of Nola, of whom Henry Vaughan wrote a prose life.

Henry Vaughan attached to the second volume of Silex Scintillans a translation of Henry Nollius's Hermetical Physick.

Henry Vaughan went on to produce a translation of Nollius's The Chymists Key in 1657.

Henry Vaughan was much indebted to George Herbert, who provided a model for his new-found spiritual life and literary career, showing a "spiritual quickening and the gift of gracious feeling" derived from Herbert.

Certainly Henry Vaughan would have never written the way he did without Herbert's posthumous direction.

For instance, Herbert's The Temple is often seen as the inspiration and model on which Henry Vaughan created his work.

Critics have argued that Henry Vaughan is enslaved to Herbert's works, using similar "little tricks" such as abrupt introductions and whimsical titles as a framework for his work, and "failing to learn" from Herbert.

Henry Vaughan was said to be unable to know his limits and focus more on the intensity of the poem, meanwhile losing the attention of his audience.

Yet Alexander Grosart denies that Henry Vaughan was solely an imitator of Herbert.

Henry Vaughan takes another step away from Herbert in his presentation.

Henry Vaughan's mind thinks in terms of a physical and spiritual world and the obscure relation between the two, often moved to original, unfamiliar, remote places reflected in his poetry.

Henry Vaughan was loyal to the themes of the Anglican Church and religious festivals, but found his true voice in the more mystical themes of eternity, communion with the dead, nature, and childhood.

Henry Vaughan was a "poet of revelation" who used the Bible, Nature and his own experience to illustrate his vision of eternity.

Henry Vaughan drew on personal loss in two well-known poems: "The World" and "They Are All Gone into the World of Light".

Henry Vaughan was buried in the churchyard of St Bride's, Llansantffraed, Powys, where he had spent most of his life.

Henry Vaughan is recognised as an "example of a poet who can write both graceful and effective prose".

Henry Vaughan influenced the work of poets such as Wordsworth, Tennyson and Siegfried Sassoon.