ABSTRACT
English poet and prose writer Calhoun, Thomas, Henry Vaughan: The Achievement of “Silex Scintillans”, Newark: University of
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1972; London: Henry M.Snyder, 1972 Henry Vaughan’s life has always attracted attention, and many critical articles focus
on his experiences during the Civil War, his relationship with his brothers, and, most contentiously, his conversion from secular to sacred poetry. The belief that Vaughan’s “best” poetry was inspired by a biographical crisis-a spiritual awakening, which transformed him and his verse-informed much early criticism, and led to a concentration on the religious poetry of Silex Scintillans, almost to the complete exclusion of Vaughan’s other writings. The tendency for writing along these lines to become an industry was halted by Frank Kermode with an iconoclastic article, in which he asserted that “something happened, something to do with poetry and not with prayer”. Of course, as critics quickly pointed out, the two are not mutually exclusive, but the longterm effect of Kermode’s intervention has been to restore a certain balance. More recently, critics have attempted to account for the whole body of Vaughan’s poetry, arguing for the continuity of his secular and sacred verse.
