The World by Henry Vaughan
"The World" is a poem by Henry Vaughan that explores the duality of existence between earthly life and the promise of eternal salvation. Composed of four fifteen-line stanzas written in iambic pentameter, the poem employs a consistent rhyme scheme. Vaughan’s central theme emphasizes the futility of earthly concerns, illustrating that true value lies in faith and the pursuit of salvation. The opening stanza introduces the metaphor of a "ring of light," symbolizing enlightenment and transcendence, contrasting sharply with the shadowy world in which humanity often resides.
Throughout the poem, Vaughan critiques various aspects of earthly existence, such as the trivial pursuits of love, the morally dubious nature of political power, and the enslavement of wealth accumulation. Each stanza builds on the notion that a life focused on materiality leads to spiritual darkness, while those capable of recognizing the divine light can escape this fate. The poem concludes with a poignant reminder that divine salvation is not universally granted, underscoring a deeply didactic message. Overall, "The World" reflects Vaughan's rich metaphoric interplay between light and darkness, urging readers to seek a higher, more meaningful existence beyond worldly distractions.
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Subject Terms
The World by Henry Vaughan
First published: 1650, in Silex Scintillans
Type of poem: Meditation
The Poem
“The World” is a sixty-line poem in four fifteen-line stanzas in iambic pentameter, with a rhyme scheme aaa, bb, cc, dd, ee, ff, gg. The title is purposefully ambiguous and reflects the dual focus of the poem: the earthly world, the here and now; and the world to come, heaven and eternity. The four stanzas develop the idea that unless mortals shed their concern for the values of this world they are doomed. True value lies in belief in God and in the search for salvation.
In the first stanza, Henry Vaughan presents the powerful image of the ring of light, which embodies for him the idea of eternity and salvation. This image represents a transcendent state of enlightenment for humankind, a center of calm and peace. In contrast to this image, Vaughan projects the earthly world as a world in shadow, a Platonic world in which mortals grasp illusions, with reality forever beyond their reach. The figure of the lover is the vehicle for expressing this view. Surrounded by the attributes of earthly love—the lute and his fanciful and witty poems or lyrics—the lover is trapped in silly pursuits of vain and ephemeral pleasures. His attention is fixed on earthly rather than spiritual beauty.
In the second stanza, Vaughan turns to another facet of earthly existence, power and politics. He attacks the statesman for false goals and priorities, delivering his condemnation in images of darkness and subterranean life. In worse circumstances than those of the lover, the politician lives underground, like a mole, and is fed by public policy and the tribute paid by the churches. In metaphoric terms, Vaughan tells the reader that the great cost of such an existence is in human misery, specifically in blood and tears. The exercise of political power is necessarily an act of violence against people.
In the third stanza, Vaughan excoriates life devoted to accumulation of wealth. He gives the image of the miser, afraid of his condition, afraid to show his wealth for fear that it might be stolen. Attached to his wealth—his seat of “rust,” his pile of “dust”—the miser is the victim of his own accumulation, which dominates and enslaves him. The kingdom of heaven is beyond his reach. Worse, blinded by his concern for wealth, he does not recognize the source of his misery. Like the ancient Epicureans, who lived for their own pleasure, the miser knows only himself and lives only for himself.
In the fourth stanza, Vaughan returns to the possibility of salvation. “Some” mortals are capable of rising into the ring of light, thereby transcending the limitations of mortality. Such a transcendence reflects the value of light over darkness, of salvation and eternal life. Those who cannot see the value of light are condemned to live in “grots” and “caves” in this “dead and dark abode.”
The poem ends with a curious statement intended to hit the reader with an ironic wallop. The poet writes of one mortal whispering in his ear that this ring of light, this salvation, was not intended for anyone but the “bride,” an allusion to Christ. This comment explains why mortals do not believe in God’s ultimate salvation.
Although the poem properly ends at this point, Vaughan adds a postscript that is characteristic of his religious poetry. His quotation from the Bible, John 2:16-17, epitomizes the poem’s message and emphasizes its didactic religious purpose: Salvation awaits those who relinquish the pleasures of the flesh and the false values of the material world.
Forms and Devices
Metaphors of light and dark dominate the poem and are the basis for its structure. To understand this metaphoric pattern, one should first consider the poem’s title. The meaning of the title is ambiguous: To what “world” does it refer? The reader learns quickly that the title refers to both the earthly and the heavenly worlds. More important, earth and heaven are not separate worlds but two dimensions of one world. The concept of “the world” combines earth and heaven in the same way that the person of Jesus combines human and divine. He is neither one nor the other, but both.
Light and dark are similarly two parts of one world. A condition of dark is necessary to the condition of light. Both worlds exist as contrast, but exist as yin and yang, two parts of a whole.
In the first stanza, the image of the ring of light is an encircling metaphor, both in its own dimension as circle or ring and as a frame for the poem. The image serves to establish the ultimate dimension toward which the entire poem moves and as the basis for development of the poem. Light is contrasted to darkness. The light is the light of heaven, the center of “calm” and peace. In contrast is the magnificent image of the “shadow” of time which covers the earth; this “shadow” is also “round.” In the light there is a state of calm, while in the dark everything is “hurl’d” and “driven.”
In the second stanza all that is not part of the light is “weighted” and full of “woe,” which, like a “thick midnight-fog,” hinders movement. The image of darkness takes on even starker proportions in the image of the mole burrowing underground. Human enterprise, particularly human political enterprise, is equated with the underground life of an animal. The political animal burrows in the dark.
In the third stanza, the image of light and dark is muted in a lightless, colorless world of avarice. The miser’s hoard is described as a “heap of rust” and pile of “dust,” which the miser manages in a state of fear, trusting only himself. Although this state of being is not wrought in terms of explicit images of light and dark, it is the equivalent of a moral and spiritual darkness.
The bright image of the ring of light appears in the fourth stanza, where explicit comparisons of the world of light and the world of dark appear. Vaughan speaks of the “dark night” in contrast to the “true light,” the dark world of “caves” and “grottos,” life on earth as a “dead and dark abode,” beyond which is the “Sun.” In the terms of this poem, that sun—partly an allusion to Plato’s allegory of the cave, in which the sun stands for ultimate truth and reality—is God. In the light, which represents the world of God, is salvation, eternal life, peace, and fulfillment. All the rest, earthly life, is darkness, death, and misery.