dual personalities

Tag: henry vaughan

August 17, 2021

Leaving the cities of the plain

by chuckofish

I have been off the academic merry-go-round now for six or so weeks, we’ve thrown our big party and things are finally winding down around here.

This poem by the seventeenth poet Henry Vaughan (1621-95) seems appropriate to the mood.

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 by groves and wells his tent;

Where he might view the boundless sky,

And all those glorious lights on high;

With flying meteors, mists and show’rs,

Subjected hills, trees, meads and flow’rs;

And ev’ry minute bless the King

And wise Creator of each thing.

I ask not why he did remove

To happy Mamre’s holy grove,

Leaving the cities of the plain

To Lot and his successless train?

All various lusts in cities still

Are found; they are the thrones of ill;

The dismal sinks, where blood is spill’d,

Cages with much uncleanness fill’d.

But rural shades are the sweet fense

Of piety and innocence.

They are the Meek’s calm region, where

Angels descend and rule the sphere,

Where heaven lies leiger, and the dove

Duly as dew, comes from above.

If Eden be on Earth at all,

‘Tis that, which we the country call.

*The painting is by John Constable. The cities of the plain are the five cities—Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar—thought to be located near the southern end of the Dead Sea. The narrative of Genesis 14:1associates these five cities and locates them in the Valley of Siddim, the Dead Sea. 

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December 10, 2011

A gentle reminder

by chuckofish

The True Christmas

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.
Could you wear flowers, and roses strow
Blushing upon your breasts’ warm snow,
That very dress your lightness will
Rebuke, and wither at the ill.
The brightness of this day we owe
Not unto music, masque, nor show:
Nor gallant furniture, nor plate;
But to the manger’s mean estate.
His life while here, as well as birth,
Was but a check to pomp and mirth;
And all man’s greatness you may see
Condemned by His humility.
Then leave your open house and noise,
To welcome Him with holy joys,
And the poor shepherd’s watchfulness:
Whom light and hymns from heaven did bless.
What you abound with, cast abroad
To those that want, and ease your load.
Who empties thus, will bring more in;
But riot is both loss and sin.
Dress finely what comes not in sight,
And then you keep your Christmas right.

–Henry Vaughan

Henry Vaughan (1621 − April 23, 1695) was a Welsh physician and metaphysical poet. For more information look here.

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