Henry Vaughan, Silex Scintillans: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations

Glyn Pursglove (Swansea University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.04: English Writing and Culture of the Seventeenth Century, 1625-1688.
Vol. editors: Jennifer Brady (Rhodes College), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Neil Forsyth (Université de Lausanne), Claire Preston (Queen Mary, University of London), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1650 - 1655

Places

Wales (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poem collection
Religion and Spirituality (any)
- Prayer

Resources

Silex Scintillans is one of the great works of English poetry in the seventeenth century. To a reader of Vaughan's one previous publication, Poems, with the tenth Satyre of Juvenal Englished, which had been published in 1646, this new volume would have come as quite a surprise. Instead of the somewhat bloodless (and often rather shapeless) Cavalier lyrics which made up the bulk of that first collection, here were religious lyrics of great emotional intensity, considerable intellectual weight, and a verbal energy often disciplined into well-ordered poetic forms (though this latter quality has often been underestimated by later critics). The change of poetic and, presumably, personal direction which Silex Scintillans r…

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1544 words

Citation: Pursglove, Glyn. "Silex Scintillans: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 July 2001 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2066, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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