ANALYSIS POEM "THE RETREAT" BY USING BIOGRAPHICAL APPROACH

BIOGRAPHY OF HENRY VAUGHAN

Henry Vaughan and his twin brother, Thomas, were born in 1621 in Brecknockshire, Wales. They are received their early education in Wales and in 1638 matriculated at Jesus College, Oxford. However, Henry left Oxford without a degree to pursue a law career in London. Later in life he practiced medicine, and he probably studied it during these years. He apparently began writing poetry in the same decade. In 1646 he published his Poems, He became an important devotional poet of the seventeenth century, following the lead of George Herbert (1593-1633); Vaughan wrote of Herbert that his ‘holy life and verse gained many pious Converts (of whom I am the least).’ One of Vaughan’s most famous and widely studied poems, ‘The Retreat’, offers a good sense of the proto-Romantic elements to his work. Henry Vaughan continued to write poetry after the high point of Silex Scintillans in the early 1650s, but much of his finest poetry – the poems that have endured – is from that volume. He died in 1695.

ANALYSIS “THE RETREAT” POET

O, how I long to travel back, 

And tread again that ancient track! 

That I might once more reach that plain 

Where first I left my glorious train, 

From whence th’ enlightened spirit sees 

That shady city of palm trees. 

But, ah! my soul with too much stay 

Is drunk, and staggers in the way. 

Some men a forward motion love; 

But I by backward steps would move, 

And when this dust falls to the urn, 

In that state I came, return.

Anaylsis :

·      In this line of poetry "O, how I long to travel back," he exclaims wanting to return to his past.

·      In this poem line "that ancient track" The speaker would rather live in the past and walk again on than live as he does now.

·      In the line of the poem "That I might once more reach that plain" he hopes to come back if there is an opportunity even once.

·      In the line of the poem “Where first I left my glorious train,”  he wants to go back to that time when he was victorious and full of happiness.

·      In the line of the poem “From whence th’ enlightened spirit sees” the poet explained about his past and wartime about his present life, at that time in the past a life that was so peaceful and people who were still pure because they were not polluted by hatred. 

·      In the line of the poem “That shady city of palm trees.” the poet described his past life as beautiful and peaceful. because he spent his youth at that time in the neighbourhood.

·      In the line of the poem “But, ah! my soul with too much stay” the poet explained that many beautiful memories from the past that made him unable to forget the moments that had happened and made him want to come back again.

·      In the line of the poem “Is drunk, and staggers in the way.” He became "drunk" with his own longing and memories. The speaker knows it's not a healthy way to live because he will live without purpose.

·      In the line of the poem “Some men a forward motion love;” the poet illustrates that he is not like other men who think of the future but only continue to think of his past.

·      In the line of the poem “But I by backward steps would move,” the poet explained that he was better off living in the past.

·      In the line of the poem “And when this dust falls to the urn,” the poet is talking about death, because he is a religious poet, then becoming dust is a form of perfecting himself after death.

·      In the last line of the poem “In that state I came, return.” the poet described that he would again become holy, after the process of cremation and dust.