Henry Vaughan: A Great Ring of Pure and Endless Light: Selected Poems A cluster of the very best of Henry Vaughan's Metaphysical poems, which are filled with a 'deep, but dazzling darkness'. Lesser known Vaughan works, including some love poems, are collected here beside the famous pieces such as 'The Morning Watch', 'The World' and 'The Night'. Henry Vaughan is the Metaphysical poet from the Welsh borders (he was born at Newton-upon-Usk, Breconshire, in 1621). He went up to Oxford, studied law in London, wrote some astounding religious poetry, and died in 1695. The dazzling night pervades Henry Vaughan's poetry. It is a cosmic night, a night of regeneration. Many of the Vaughan poems collected here pivot around an experience of the cosmic, religious night, from 'The World', with its famous, much-anthologized opening lines: 'I saw Eternity the other night | Like a great Ring of pure and endless light'. It is a night of rebirth, the night as a dark womb, in which the world is reborn. Cosmic rebirth is one of the major themes in Vaughan's poetry, and especially in his collection or series of sacred poems, Silex Scintillans. Henry Vaughan is one of the most radiant of British poets. Like other Metaphysical poets (poets such as George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, Andrew Marvell and John Donne), the deep darkness of the alchemical ferment in Vaughan's poetry is balanced by a radiance, a light shining out of the darkness. It is