Characteristic thought and imagery in the work of Henry Vaughan.

Early estimates of Vaughan's work have often emphasised its curious elements, the erudite, obscure or derivative, rather than that which is really characteristic. With a poet such as Vaughan, that is easy to do. Certainly the earliest critics of his poetry read it without any real attempt to lay aside their own preconceptions and enter into the world of seventeenth century thought. Though that fault led to distorted judgments about Vaughan, it nevertheless gave rise to a series of studies that, taken together, have explored the early seventeenth century to us in a way that has made possible a more balanced estimate of Vaughan as a poet in his own time. In this study we shall be concerned to examine some of the elements that are characteristic of Vaughan's work, and to see in what way and to what degree they are important