511 - Henry Vaughan: The Unfolding Vision

Henry Vaughan: The Unfolding Vision
By Jonathan F. S. Post
Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1982. 243 pp. $22.50.

With what deep murmurs through
times silent stealth
Doth thy transparent, cool, and
watry wealth
Here flowing fall,
And chide, and call,
As if his liquid, loose Retinue staid
Lingring, and were of this steep
place afraid,
The common pass
Where, clear as glass,
All must descend
Not to an end:
But quickened by this deep and rocky
grave,
Rise to a longer course more bright
and brave

("The Water-fall," lines 1-12).

The seventeenth-century poet Henry Vaughan possesses in his best moments an intense awareness of the divine meanings in mundane things, of the intimacy between the visionary and the everyday. "I saw Eternity the other night/ Like a great ring of pure and endless light." He inherits his special sensibility from his admired predecessor, George Herbert, whom he spends the better part of his career earnestly endeavoring to imitate. To a modern reader, accustomed to artists who protest their radical originality and to critics who value departures from established tradition, this may seem a strange course for a gifted poet to take. That such a project should prove enormously beneficial to the imitator seems even stranger; but in Henry Vaughan's case, his conscientious emulation of George Herbert transformed him from a minor secular versifier to a powerful and important religious poet.

In the seventeenth century, it is true, poets and critics tended to assume that true originality could proceed only from a firm awareness of what previous generations had already accomplished. Nonetheless, the thoroughness of Vaughan's discipleship to a single master is probably unique in English literature among poets of his stature.

Associate Professor of English at UCLA, the author has produced a comprehensive study of this interesting poet. He attends to the lesser-known volumes published in Vaughan's youth and old age, as well as to the impressive religious poetry of his prime. Post is a good, close reader of poetry, and his book is full of intelligent commentary on individual lyrics; his fine ear allows him to describe accurately the subtle relationship of sound and sense in Vaughan's best work.

The historical context Post provides is also useful. Some knowledge of Caroline poetic culture facilitates appreciation of Vaughan's early poetic efforts. Post's discussion of the way seventeenth century writers understood poetic imitation and originality, though not wholly reliable in its details, nonetheless helps illuminate Vaughan's relationship with Herbert. Most importantly, Post describes the impact of the English Civil War and Puritan interregnum upon the staunchly Anglican Vaughan, who saw his previously unremarkable religious opinions vilified and the "established" church driven underground for more than a decade.

Whether or not one likes this book depends upon what one expects of literary criticism. Like the subject of his book, Post loves the via media, and the virtues of his study--tact, equilibrium, reasonableness--are those associated with moderation. Unmitigated moderateness, however, in criticism as in life, has certain disadvantages. I think the book would be the better for a little healthy militancy. Faced with actual or possible disagreements about the nature of Vaughan's achievement, Post almost always gives qualified assent to both sides at once, a strategy which interferes with his ability to organize his arguments, and which

512 - Henry Vaughan: The Unfolding Vision

eventually blurs the reader's sense of what might make Vaughan distinctive. When Post does recover a sense of purpose, the results are excellent--as in the fine sixth chapter, previously published in article form, describing Vaughan's oscillation between satiric denunciation of the world around him and calm acceptance of it. Too often, however, Post wanders from poem to poem making comments which, though often perceptive, fail to add up--in a memorable way. The undeniable but unspectacular strengths of the book will recommend it to Vaughan scholars, who are presumably already convinced of the worthiness of their own subject. The book is unlikely, however, to excite the non-specialist reader about the poetry of Henry Vaughan.

Katharine Eisaman Maus
Princeton University
Princeton, N.J.