Henry Vaughan (1621-1695)

The Revival

Unfold! Unfold!  Take in His light,
Who makes thy cares more short than night.
The joys which with His day-star rise
He deals to all but drowsy eyes;
And, what the men of this world miss
Some drops and dews of future bliss.

Hark! How His winds have chang’d their note!
And with warm whispers call thee out;
The frosts are past, the storms are gone,
And backward life at last comes on.
The lofty groves in express joys
Reply unto the turtle’s voice;
And here in dust and dirt, O here
The lilies of His love appear!

Henry Vaughan, a Welsh poet and physician, was born in Llansanffraid, where he lived for most of his life and was eventually buried.  Vaughan studied at Oxford, but never took a degree, and then moved to London where he studied law for two years.  He underwent a spiritual awakening that he credited to the poetry of “the blessed man, Mr. George Herbert.”  Vaughan was married twice and fathered eight children.