Analysis of Upon the Priory Grove, His Usual Retirement

Henry Vaughan 1621 (Brecknockshire) – 1695



Hail sacred shades! cool, leavy House!
Chaste treasurer of all my vows,
And wealth! on whose soft bosom laid
My love's fair steps I first betrayed:
Henceforth no melancholy flight,
No sad wing, or hoarse bird of night,
Disturb this air, no fatal throat
Of raven, or owl, awake the note
Of our laid echo, no voice dwell
Within these leaves, but Philomel.
The poisonous ivy here no more
His false twists on the oak shall score,
Only the woodbine here may twine
As th'emblem of her love and mine;
Th'amorous sun shall here convey
His best beams, in thy shades to play;
The active air, the gentlest showers
Shall from his wings rain on thy flowers;
And the moon from her dewy locks
Shall deck thee with her brightest drops:
What ever can a fancy move,
Or feed the eye; be on this Grove;
And when at last the winds and tears
Of Heaven, with the consuming years,
Shall these green curls bring to decay,
And clothe thee in an aged gray:
(If ought a lover can foresee;
Or if we poets, prophets be)
From hence transplant'd, thou shalt stand
A fresh Grove in th'Elysian land;
Where (most blest pair!) as here on earth
Thou first didst eye our growth and birth;
So there again, thou'lt see us move
In our first innocence, and love:
And in thy shades, as now, so then,
We'll kiss, and smile, and walk again.


Scheme ABCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKLMNOPIIQQRRSSMTUU
Poetic Form
Metre 11011101 11001111 01111101 11111101 1111001 11111111 01111101 110110101 110110111 011111 010010111 11110111 1001111 1111010101 1110011101 11101111 0101010010 111111110 00110101 11110101 11010101 11011111 01110101 110100101 11111101 0110111 11010101 11110101 11010111 011011 11111111 111110101 11011111 010110001 00111111 11010101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,303
Words 244
Sentences 7
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 36
Lines Amount 36
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 1,000
Words per stanza (avg) 241
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:15 min read
116

Henry Vaughan

Henry Vaughan was a Welsh author, physician and metaphysical poet. Vaughan and his twin brother, the hermetic philosopher and alchemist Thomas Vaughan, were the sons of Thomas Vaughan and his wife Denise of 'Trenewydd', Newton, in Brecknockshire, Wales. Their grandfather, William, was the owner of Tretower Court. Vaughan spent most of his life in the village of Llansantffraed, near Brecon, where he is also buried. more…

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