Henry Vaughan

The Nativity

Peace? and to all the world? sure, One And He the Prince of Peace, hath none. He travels to be born, and then Is born to travel more again. Poor Galilee! thou canst not

They are all Gone into the World of Light

1 They are all gone into the world of light! 2 And I alone sit ling’ring here; 3 Their very memory is fair and bright, 4 And my sad thoughts doth clear. 5 It

Regeneration

1. Award, and still in bonds, one day I stole abroad, It was high-spring, and all the way Primros’d, and hung with shade; Yet, was it frost within, And surly winds Blasted my infant

Peace

1 My Soul, there is a country 2 Afar beyond the stars, 3 Where stands a winged sentry 4 All skillful in the wars; 5 There, above noise and danger 6 Sweet Peace sits,

Christ's Nativity

1 Awake, glad heart! get up and sing! 2 It is the birth-day of thy King. 3 Awake! awake! 4 The Sun doth shake 5 Light from his locks, and all the way 6

The Star

1 Whatever ’tis, whose beauty here below 2 Attracts thee thus and makes thee stream and flow, 3 And wind and curl, and wink and smile, 4 Shifting thy gate and guile; 5 Though

Sweet, harmless lives! (on whose holy leisure Waits innocence and pleasure), Whose leaders to those pastures, and clear springs, Were patriarchs, saints, and kings, How happened it that in the dead of night You

The Retreat

1 Happy those early days, when I 2 Shin’d in my angel-infancy! 3 Before I understood this place 4 Appointed for my second race, 5 Or taught my soul to fancy ought 6 But

Son-Days

1 Bright shadows of true Rest! some shoots of bliss, Heaven once a week; The next world’s gladness prepossest in this; A day to seek; Eternity in time; the steps by which We Climb

The True Christians

So stick up ivy and the bays, And then restore the heathen ways. Green will remind you of the spring, Though this great day denies the thing. And mortifies the earth and all But

Silence and Stealth of Days

Silence, and stealth of days! ’tis now Since thou art gone, Twelve hundred hours, and not a brow But clouds hang on. As he that in some cave’s thick damp Lockt from the light,

The Relapse

My God, how gracious art thou! I had slipt Almost to hell, And on the verge of that dark, dreadful pit Did hear them yell, But O thy love! thy rich, almighty love That

The Morning-Watch

1 O joys! infinite sweetness! with what flow’rs 2 And shoots of glory my soul breaks and buds! 3 All the long hours 4 Of night, and rest, 5 Through the still shrouds 6

The Revival

1 Unfold! unfold! Take in His light, 2 Who makes thy cares more short than night. 3 The joys which with His day-star rise, 4 He deals to all but drowsy eyes; 5 And

The Water-Fall

1 With what deep murmurs through time’s silent stealth 2 Doth thy transparent, cool, and wat’ry wealth 3 Here flowing fall, 4 And chide, and call, 5 As if his liquid, loose retinue stay’d

Upon the Priory Grove, His Usual Retirement

Hail sacred shades! cool, leavy House! Chaste treasurer of all my vows, And wealth! on whose soft bosom laid My love’s fair steps I first betrayed: Henceforth no melancholy flight, No sad wing, or

Unprofitableness

How rich, O Lord! how fresh thy visits are! ‘Twas but just now my bleak leaves hopeless hung Sullied with dust and mud; Each snarling blast shot through me, and did share Their youth,

The World

1 I saw Eternity the other night, 2 Like a great ring of pure and endless light, 3 All calm, as it was bright; 4 And round beneath it, Time in hours, days, years,

Retirement

Fresh fields and woods! the Earth’s fair face, God’s foot-stool, and man’s dwelling-place. I ask not why the first Believer Did love to be a country liver? Who to secure pious content Did pitch

The Evening-Watch: A Dialogue

BODY 1 Farewell! I go to sleep; but when 2 The day-star springs, I’ll wake again. SOUL 3 Go, sleep in peace; and when thou liest 4 Unnumber’d in thy dust, when all this

I Walk'd the Other Day

1 I walk’d the other day, to spend my hour, 2 Into a field, 3 Where I sometimes had seen the soil to yield 4 A gallant flow’r; 5 But winter now had ruffled

Etesia Absent

Love, the world’s life! What a sad death Thy absence is to lose our breath At once and die, is but to live Enlarged, without the scant reprieve Of pulse and air: whose dull

Friends Departed

They are all gone into the world of light! And I alone sit ling’ring here; Their very memory is fair and bright, And my sad thoughts doth clear. It glows and glitters in my

The Timber

Sure thou didst flourish once! and many springs, Many bright mornings, much dew, many showers, Pass’d o’er thy head; many light hearts and wings, Which now are dead, lodg’d in thy living bowers. And