Childe-hood (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Henry Vaughan
- First Published: 1655
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric sequence
- Subjects: Child rearing or parenting, Children, Religion, Christianity, Infants, Jesus Christ, Life, philosophy of, Church or churches
The Poem
This religious poem by metaphysical poet Henry Vaughan idealizes childhood as a time of purity and superior insight, contrasted to the sin and misleading predilections of adulthood. The narrator wishes to recapture this innocence and piety, but he is able to see it only “as through a glass darkly,” tainted by years in the corrupting adult world. Thus the poem is both hopeful and sadly nostalgic, since it describes a state of holiness that exists in this world but is unreachable to the speaker. The only hope, offered at the end through a biblical quotation, is to...
[The entire page is 1446 words long]
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