"The Water-fall" (Henry Vaughan, 1655)

 

 

 (image credit: literariness.org)

About Henry Vaughan

"Henry Vaughan was born on April 17, 1622, in Llansantffraed, Breconshire, Wales. He was educated in Oxford and studied law in london before being recalled home after the English Civil War broke out."

"Vaughan is the author of several volumes of poetry, including Poems, with the Tenth Satyre of Juvenal Englished (1646). He was considered a Metaphysical poet, alongside John Donne and George Herbert. He practiced medicine in the latter half of his life, and died in Llansantffraed on April 23, 1695." 

Source: https://poets.org/poet/henry-vaughan 

To read more about Henry Vaughan and read some of his poems, refer to https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/henry-vaughan.

 "The Water-fall" (Henry Vaughan, 1655)

    With what deep murmurs through time’s silent stealth

    Doth thy transparent, cool, and wat’ry wealth

    Here flowing fall,

    And chide, and call,

    As if his liquid, loose retinue stay’d

    Ling’ring, and were of this steep place afraid;

    The common pass

    Where, clear as glass,

    All must descend

    Not to an end,

    But quicken’d by this deep and rocky grave,

    Rise to a longer course more bright and brave.

    Dear stream! dear bank, where often I

    Have sate and pleas’d my pensive eye,

    Why, since each drop of thy quick store

    Runs thither whence it flow’d before,

    Should poor souls fear a shade or night,

    Who came, sure, from a sea of light?

    Or since those drops are all sent back

    So sure to thee, that none doth lack,

    Why should frail flesh doubt any more

    That what God takes, he’ll not restore?

    O useful element and clear!

    My sacred wash and cleanser here,

    My first consigner unto those

    Fountains of life where the Lamb goes!

    What sublime truths and wholesome themes

    Lodge in thy mystical deep streams!

    Such as dull man can never find

    Unless that Spirit lead his mind

    Which first upon thy face did move,

    And hatch’d all with his quick’ning love.

    As this loud brook’s incessant fall

    In streaming rings restagnates all,

    Which reach by course the bank, and then

    Are no more seen, just so pass men.

    O my invisible estate,

    My glorious liberty, still late!

    Thou art the channel my soul seeks,

    Not this with cataracts and creeks.

 

Response Poems:

 

Note: one student wrote a response poem but requested to not be listed and so it is not shown here. 

 

"Untitled" (subbie, Uni High, 2026)

      

        Waterfall revives, it will restore what it takes, the cycle of life.

 

"Untitled" (subbie, Uni High, 2026) 

 

        Time is old

        Time is new

        Time can bond

        Time can break

        Time will tell