Skip to content
quotesby

13 Henry Vaughan Quotes

Henry Vaughan's verses drift into mystery, inviting readers to ponder faith, life and death.

Henry Vaughan quotes

  1. Dear Night! this world's defeat; The stop to busy fools; care's check and curb; The day of spirits; my soul's calm retreat Which none disturb! Christ's progress, and His prayer-time; The hours to which high Heaven doth chime.

    #1

  2. There is in God, some say, A deep but dazzling darkness.

    #2

    Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

  3. Happy those early days, when I Shined in my angel-infancy! Before I understood this place Appointed for my second race.

    #3

  4. But felt through all this fleshly dress Bright shoots of everlastingness.

    #4

  5. Some men a forward motion love, But I by backward steps would move.

    #5

  6. I cannot reach it, and my striving eye Dazzles at it, as at eternity.

    #6

  7. 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, Driv'n by the spheres Like a vast shadow moved; in which the world And all her train were hurled.

    #7

  8. They are all gone into the world of light! And I alone sit lingering here; Their very memory is fair and bright, And my sad thoughts doth clear.

    #8

  9. I see them walking in an air of glory Whose light doth trample on my days, My days, which are at best but dull and hoary, Mere glimmering and decays.

    #9

  10. Dear, beauteous death, the jewel of the just! Shining nowhere but in the dark; What mysteries do lie beyond thy dust, Could man outlook that mark!

    #10

  11. And yet, as angels in some brighter dreams Call to the soul when man doth sleep, So some strange thoughts transcend our wonted themes, And into glory peep.

    #11

  12. My soul, there is a country Far beyond the stars Where stands a winged sentry All skillful in the wars: There, above noise and danger, Sweet Peace is crowned with smiles, And One born in a manger Commands the beauteous files.

    #12

  13. Then bless thy secret growth, nor catch At noise, but thrive unseen and dumb; Keep clean, be as fruit, earn life, and watch Till the white-wing'd reapers come!

    #13

    Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.