Henry Vaughan Quotes

• I played with fire, did counsel spurn, Made life my common stake; But never thought that fire would burn, O that a soul could ache.

  Henry Vaughan

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• Man is the shuttle, to whose winding quest And passage through these looms God ordered motion, but ordained no rest.

  Henry Vaughan

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• Wherefore with my utmost strength I will praise thee, And as thou gist line, and length, I will raise thee.

  Henry Vaughan

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• I saw Eternity the other night Like a great ring of pure and endless light, All calm, as it was bright, And round beneath it, Time in hours, days, years Driven by the spheres Like a vast shadow moved.

  Henry Vaughan

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• Not a hook in all my breast But thou fills it, Not a thought in all my rest But thou kills it.

  Henry Vaughan

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• King of comforts, King of life, Thou hast cheered me, And when fears and doubts were rife, Thou hast cleared me.

  Henry Vaughan

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• My soul, there is a country Far beyond the stars, Where stands a winged sentry All skilful in the wars;

  Henry Vaughan

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• Some men a forward motion love, But I by backward steps would move, And when this dust falls to the urn In that state I came, return.

  Henry Vaughan

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• Before I taught my tongue to wound My conscience with a sinful sound, Or had the black art to dispense A several sin to every sense, But felt through all this fleshly dress Bright shoots of everlastings.

  Henry Vaughan

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• The skin and shell of things Though fair are not Thy wish nor prayer but got My meer despair of wings.

  Henry Vaughan

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• They are all gone into the world of light, and I alone sit lingering here.

  Henry Vaughan

• 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 your wild revels, and loose hall.

  Henry Vaughan

• Man hath still either toys or care: But hath no root, nor to one place is tied, but ever restless and irregular, about this earth doth run and ride. He knows he hath a home, but scarce knows where; He says it is so far, that he has quite forgot how to go there.

  Henry Vaughan

• Caesar had perished from the world of men Had not his sword been rescued by his pen.

  Henry Vaughan

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Henry Vaughan (14)

Birth:	17th April, 1621
Death:	23rd April, 1695
Nationality:	Welsh
Profession:	Poet

About

Henry Vaughan was born in Brecknockshire, Wales. He was a Welsh metaphysical poet. He is chiefly known for his religious poetry contained in Silex Scintillans, which was published in 1650, with a second part published in 1655. He educated at Jesus College, Oxford. He wrote several books include: Poems with the Tenth Satire of Juvenal Englished, Olor Iscanus, Flores Solitudinis, Hermetical Physics, and The Chymists Key.

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