Henry Vaughan (1622?-1695)
The World
1I saw Eternity the other night,
2Like a great ring of pure and endless light,
3 All calm, as it was bright;
4And round beneath it, Time in hours, days, years,
6Like a vast shadow mov'd; in which the world
7 And all her train were hurl'd.
8The doting lover in his quaintest strain
9 Did there complain;
10Near him, his lute, his fancy, and his flights,
11 Wit's sour delights,
12With gloves, and knots, the silly snares of pleasure,
13 Yet his dear treasure
14All scatter'd lay, while he his eyes did pour
15 Upon a flow'r.
16The darksome statesman hung with weights and woe,
17Like a thick midnight-fog mov'd there so slow,
18 He did not stay, nor go;
19Condemning thoughts (like sad eclipses) scowl
20 Upon his soul,
21And clouds of crying witnesses without
22 Pursued him with one shout.
23Yet digg'd the mole, and lest his ways be found,
24 Work'd under ground,
25Where he did clutch his prey; but one did see
26 That policy;
27Churches and altars fed him; perjuries
28 Were gnats and flies;
29It rain'd about him blood and tears, but he
30 Drank them as free.
31The fearful miser on a heap of rust
32Sate pining all his life there, did scarce trust
33 His own hands with the dust,
34Yet would not place one piece above, but lives
36Thousands there were as frantic as himself,
37 And hugg'd each one his pelf;
38The downright epicure plac'd heav'n in sense,
39 And scorn'd pretence,
40While others, slipp'd into a wide excess,
41 Said little less;
42The weaker sort slight, trivial wares enslave,
43 Who think them brave;
44And poor despised Truth sate counting by
45 Their victory.
46Yet some, who all this while did weep and sing,
47And sing, and weep, soar'd up into the ring;
48 But most would use no wing.
49O fools (said I) thus to prefer dark night
50 Before true light,
51To live in grots and caves, and hate the day
52 Because it shews the way,
53The way, which from this dead and dark abode
54 Leads up to God,
55A way where you might tread the sun, and be
56 More bright than he.
57But as I did their madness so discuss
58 One whisper'd thus,
59"This ring the Bridegroom did for none provide,
Notes
5] Driv'n by the spheres: the ever revolving spheres of Ptolemaic astronomy.
8] quaintest: most ingenious.
12] knots: love-knots.
35] Matthew 6:19-20.
38] sense: sensual pleasures.
44] counting by: observing.
60] his bride: the church; see Revelation 21:2-9. At the end of the poem Vaughan prints I John 2:16-17.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: Henry Vaughan, Silex Scintillans (1650). Scolar Press, 1970. PR 3669 R2 1680AC ROBA.
First publication date:
1650
RPO poem editor: N. J. Endicott
RP edition: 3RP 1.366-68.
Recent editing: 2:2002/6/7
Rhyme: aaabbccddeeffgg
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