The World (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Henry Vaughan
- First Published: 1650
- Type of Work: Meditation
- Genres: Poetry, Meditation
- Subjects: Power, personal or social, God, Reality, Violence, Politicians, Hallucinations or illusions, Afterlife, Enlightenment, Earth, Wealth, Mortality, Light, Eternity
The Poem
“The World” is a sixty-line poem in four fifteen-line stanzas in iambic pentameter, with a rhyme scheme aaa, bb, cc, dd, ee, ff, gg. The title is purposefully ambiguous and reflects the dual focus of the poem: the earthly world, the here and now; and the world to come, heaven and eternity. The four stanzas develop the idea that unless mortals shed their concern for the values of this world they are doomed. True value lies in belief in God and in the search for salvation.
In the first stanza, Henry Vaughan...
[The entire page is 1456 words long]
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