Henry Vaughan

Henry Vaughan

Henry Vaughan was a Welsh metaphysical poet, author, translator and physician, who wrote in English. He is chiefly known for the religious poetry contained in Silex Scintillans, published in 1650, with a second part published in 1655.

Musical settings:

Several poems by Vaughan from Silex Scintillans have been set to music, including:

• "The Evening-Watch" was used in "The Evening-Watch: Dialogue between Body and Soul" by Gustav Holst (1924).
• The Eucharistic poem "Welcome, sweet and sacred feast" was set by Gerald Finzi as the anthem Welcome, sweet and sacred feast, from Three anthems, Op. 27 (1953).
• Peace was set as the first of Hubert Parry's Songs of Farewell (1916–18), "My soul, there is a country".

Works:

• Poems with the Tenth Satire of Juvenal Englished (1646)
• Olor Iscanus (1647)
• Silex Scintillans (1650 and 1655)
• Mount of Olives, or Solitary Devotions (1652)
• Flores Solitudinis (1654)
• Hermetical Physics (1655), translated from the Latin of Henry Nollius
• The Chymists Key (1657), translated from the Latin of Henry Nollius
• Several translations from the Latin contributed to Thomas Powell's Humane Industry (1661)
• Thalia Rediviva (1678), a joint collection of poetry with his brother Thomas Vaughan, after Thomas's death