The Retreate

The Retreate

By Henry Vaughan (1621–1695)

HAPPY those early dayes! when I

Shin’d in my Angell-infancy.

Before I understood this place

Appointed for my second race,

Or taught my soul to fancy ought 5

But a white, Celestiall thought;

When yet I had not walkt above

A mile, or two, from my first love,

And looking back (at that short space,)

Could see a glimpse of his bright-face; 10

When on some gilded Cloud, or flowre

My gazing soul would dwell an houre,

And in those weaker glories spy

Some shadows of eternity;

Before I taught my tongue to wound 15

My Conscience with a sinfull sound,

Or had the black art to dispence

A sev’rall sinne to ev’ry sence,

But felt through all this fleshly dresse

Bright shootes of everlastingnesse. 20

O how I long to travell back

And tread again that ancient track!

That I might once more reach that plaine,

Where first I left my glorious traine,

From whence th’ Inlightned spirit sees 25

That shady City of Palme 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, 30

And when this dust falls to the urn

In that state I came return.

1- Who's the speaker and who's speaking to?

I think that the speaker is speaking with himself, he is speaking about his life and he believe in life after life.

2- Type of vocabulary (loving, violent, angry, etc)
The vocabulary is reflexive, but sometimes it vocabulary change and is violent.

3- Alliterations, metaphors, comparisons, assonances, personifications (that is to say any literary figure you find in it)

* Before I understood this place
Appointed for my second race (alliteration)

* Or taught my soul to fancy ought
But a white, celestial thought (alliteration)

* When yet I had not walk'd above
A mile or two from my first love (metaphor)

* And when this dust falls to the urn,
In that state I came, return. (metaphor)

4- What's the poem about? (love, hate, faith, life, death)

This poem is about the life and death, how the speaker relate his last moment and remember his life.

5- Your opinion about the poem.

I think this poem is a little rare, it's not easy to understand, but is interesting because is about the death, and how the speaker believe in the reincarnation