POETRY ANALYSIS
“The Retreat by Henry Vaughan”
A PAPER
BY:
LOLYTA CLAUDIA
12130022
DARMA
PERSADA UNIVERSITY
FACULTY
OF LETTERS
STRATA-1
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
JAKARTA
2013/2014
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Literature is the knowledge which is earned by human beings arise conduct
and it is used to reflect and express experience. Another opinion said that literature is one
of the great creative and universal means of communicating the emotional,
spiritual, or intellectual concerns of mankind. It seems that something human
being does deals literature, especially in communicating. To communicate to
each other may be done by a means, such as by a letter, speaking directly, by
phone etc. Even something they wrote or said, no matter what its content, could
be called a literature. Well, in this life, in purpose or not in purpose, they
have involved in a literature.
By using their mind they produced an expression of their feeling, emotion
and thought to communicate with others. And this result of literature is called
a literary work. Literary work consists of two types, namely imaginative and
non-imaginative. Both literary works are basically the same that is both are
expressed aesthetically, but they have a different in expression. Imaginative
type is commonly using connotative sentence to express an idea, while
non-imaginative type is more realistic than the imaginative one. It uses
denotative sentence.
Non-imaginative type consists of essay, criticism, biography,
autobiography, history, memoir, diary, and letters. And imaginative type
consists of poetry, fiction, and drama. In this paper, the writer takes poetry
as an object that will be further analyzed. Poetry may be defined as an imaginative awareness of experience expressed
through meaning, sound, and rhythmic language choices so as to evoke an
emotional response.
Poetry as
an art form predates literacy. Some
of the earliest poetry is believed to have been orally
recited or sung. Following the development of writing, poetry
has since developed into increasingly structured forms, though much poetry
since the late 20th century has moved away from traditional forms
towards the more vaguely defined free verse and prose
poem formats.
Poetry was employed as a way of remembering oral
history, story (epic poetry), genealogy,
and law. Poetry is often
closely related to musical traditions, and much of it can be attributed to
religious movements. Many of the poems surviving from the ancient world are a
form of recorded cultural information about the people of the past, and their
poems are prayers or stories about religious subject matter, histories about
their politics and wars, and the important organizing myths of their societies.
The purpose
of analyzed this poem is to know the meaning of the poem. The Retreat by Henry
Vaughan is a deep religious poem, a spiritual optimism. On his poem’s, Vaughan’s
first love in his poem The Retreat is God. The writer laments about his sins
and longs and wishes for when we can return to that sinless and purer state and
the theme of this poem is innocence and purity. Therefore, I will try to find
the meaning of this poem with concept as rhyme and rhythm.
1. Background
“The retreat” is very clearly illustrates that
the author really love God. In the poem, the writer has a lot of desire to go
back to his childhood. As we know, when we were little we had not known sin.
And the more we mature the sin which we have increased a lot.
Henry
Vaughan (April 17, 1621 – April 23, 1695) was a Welsh author, physician and
metaphysical poet. Vaughan and his twin brother, the hermetic philosopher and
alchemist Thomas Vaughan, were the sons of Thomas Vaughan and his wife Denise
(née Morgan) of 'Trenewydd', Newton, in Brecknockshire, Wales. Their
grandfather, William, was the owner of Tretower Court. Vaughan studied law but
from the 1650s practiced medicine. After writing two volumes of secular poems,
he read the religious poet George Herbert and gave up idle verse. He is chiefly
remembered for the spiritual vision or imagination evident in his fresh and
convincing religious verse and is considered one of the major practitioners of
Metaphysical poetry. Works that reveal the depth of his religious convictions
include Silex Scintillans (1650, enlarged 1655; The Glittering Flint) and the
prose Mount of Olives (1652). He also translated short moral and religious
works and two medical works. Vaughan spent most of his life in the village of
Llansantffraed, near Brecon, where he is also buried.
I
analyze this poem because this poem is very interesting. The Retreat is very
clearly illustrates how Vaughan was eager to return to the past. Vaughan loves
God and he was afraid that if he lived in the world longer, he will fall into
sin.
2. Assumption
My assumption
about this poem is about a man who wants to go back to the past to love God
without sin. We know that sin makes us away from God. For the love of man to
God, he thought when he was a child his mind is only focused on God and he does
not think about sin.
3. Concept
To analyze “The
Retreat”, I used concept to know the meaning in this poetry. Rhythm and Rhyme becomes
the primary analysis to analyze this poem by Henry Vaughan.
3.1 Rhythm
Is created by the patterns of repeated sounds in
terms of both duration and quality also ideas. In “The Retreat” the rhythm:
1. Poetic Feet
Is
that the line seems to be divided into a number of repeated units combining the
same number of accented and unaccented syllables.
2. Masculine and Feminine Endings
Feminine
ending is a line ends with an extra or additional, unaccented syllable and it
is said to have a soft. On the other hand, if the line ends on a hard, accented
syllable (not additional) it is Masculine ending.
3. Rising and Falling Meter
When the
unaccented syllables come first the verse is said rising meter. When the stressed syllables is followed by the
unstressed syllables the verse is said
falling meter.
4. The Caesura
Caesura
is a complete pause in a line of poetry or in a musical composition.
3.2 Rhyme
The repetition of
syllables, typically at the end of a verse line. Rhymed words conventionally
share all sounds following the word’s last stressed syllable.
1. Masculine and Feminine Rhyme
Masculine occurs
when the final syllables of the rhyming words are stressed. Feminine rhyme is
the rhyming of stressed syllables followed by identical unstressed syllables.
2. Figurative Language
Whenever you describe something by comparing it with
something else. We also know them as figures of speech.
a.
Metaphor: The metaphor states a fact or draws a verbal picture by
the use of comparison. A simile would say you are like something; a metaphor is
more positive - it says you are something.
b.
Personification: A figure of speech in which human characteristics are
given to an animal or an object.
c.
Alliteration: The repetition of the same initial letter, sound, or
group of sounds in a series of words. Alliteration includes tongue
twisters.
3.
Assonance
and Consonance
Assonance is the
repetition of rhyming vowel sounds inside the lines of a poem. Consonance is
the repetition of consonant sounds either inside the lines of a
poem or at the end of a line.
The Retreat
Happy those
early days! when I
Shined in my
angel infancy.
Before I
understood this place
Appointed for my
second race,
Or taught my
soul to fancy aught
But a white,
celestial thought;
When yet I had
not walked above
A mile or two
from my first love,
And looking
back, at that short space,
Could see a
glimpse of His bright face;
When on some gilded
cloud or flower
My gazing soul
would dwell an hour,
And in those
weaker glories spy
Some shadows of
eternity;
Before I taught
my tongue to wound
My conscience
with a sinful sound,
Or had the black
art to dispense
A several sin to
every sense,
But felt through
all this fleshly dress
Bright shoots of
everlastingness.
O, how I
long to travel back,
And tread again
that ancient track!
That I might
once more reach that plain
Where first I
left my glorious train,
From whence th’
enlightened spirit sees
That shady city
of palm 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,
And when this
dust falls to the urn,
In that state I
came, return.
CHAPTER
II
1. Analysis
1.1 Analyze by using concept
1. Rhythm
On “The Retreat” there are 24 rhythms. First stanza
there is 14 rhythms and second stanza there is 10 rhythms. It can be seen in
the following analysis:
Happy those early days! when I
Shined in my angel infancy.
Before I understood this place d Rhythm
Appointed for my second race, d Rhythm
Or taught my soul to fancy aught d Rhythm
But a white, celestial thought; d Rhythm
When yet I had not walked above d Rhythm
A mile or two from my first love, d Rhythm
And looking back, at that short space, d Rhythm
Could see a glimpse of His bright
face; d Rhythm
When on some gilded cloud or flower d Rhythm
My gazing soul would dwell an hour, d Rhythm
And in those weaker glories spy
Some shadows of eternity;
Before I taught my tongue to wound d Rhythm
My conscience with a sinful sound, d Rhythm
Or had the black art to dispense d Rhythm
A several sin to every sense, d Rhythm
But felt through all this fleshly
dress
Bright shoots of everlastingness.
O, how I long to travel back, d Rhythm
And tread again that ancient track! d Rhythm
That I might once more reach that
plain d Rhythm
Where first I left my glorious train, d Rhythm
From whence th’ enlightened
spirit sees d Rhythm
That shady city of palm trees. d Rhythm
But, ah! my soul with too much stay d Rhythm
Is drunk, and staggers in the way. d Rhythm
Some men a forward motion love;
But I by backward steps would
move,
And when this dust falls to the urn, d Rhythm
In that state I came, return d Rhythm
A.
Poetic
Feet
On
“The Retreat” there are eight-syllable lines
(“iambic tetrameters”, to be technical)
B.
Masculine
and Feminine Endings
On “The Retreat”,
Masculine and Feminine Ending can be seen in the following analysis:
O,
how I long to travel back, Ø Masculine Endings
And
tread again that ancient track! Ø Masculine Endings
That
I might once more reach that plain Ø Feminine
Endings
Where
first I left my glorious train, Ø Feminine Endings
From
whence th’ enlightened spirit sees Ø Feminine
Endings
That
shady city of palm trees. Ø Feminine Endings
But,
ah! my soul with too much stay Ø Masculine Endings
Is
drunk, and staggers in the way. Ø Masculine Endings
Some
men a forward motion love; Ø Feminine Endings
But
I by backward steps would move, Ø Feminine
Endings
And
when this dust falls to the urn, Ø Masculine Endings
In
that state I came, return Ø Masculine Endings
C.
Rising
and Falling Metter
On
“The Retreat” the meter is falling
the stressed syllables is followed by the unstressed syllables the verse.
D.
The
Caesura
On
“The Retreat” there is 4 caesura on second stanza.
“And looking back, at that short space,”
(Line 6)
“But a white, celestial thought;” (Line
9)
“O,
how I long to travel back,” (Line 21)
“But,
ah! my soul with too much stay” (Line 27)
“Is
drunk, and staggers in the way.” (Line 28)
“In
that state I came, return” (Line 32)
2. Rhyme
On “The Retreat” the rhymes are : /a-a/b-b/c-c/d-d/….
A.
Masculine
and Feminine Rhyme
O, how I long to travel back, Ø Masculine Rhyme
And tread again that ancient track! Ø Masculine Rhyme
That I might once more reach that
plain Ø Feminine Rhyme
Where first I left my glorious train, Ø Feminine Rhyme
From whence th’ enlightened
spirit sees Ø Feminine Rhyme
That shady city of palm trees. Ø Feminine Rhyme
But, ah! my soul with too much stay Ø Masculine Rhyme
Is drunk, and staggers in the way. Ø Masculine Rhyme
Some men a forward motion love; Ø Feminine Rhyme
But I by backward steps would move, Ø Feminine Rhyme
And when this dust falls to the urn, Ø Masculine Rhyme
In that state I came, return Ø Masculine Rhyme
B.
Figurative
Language
O, how I long to travel back,
And
tread again that ancient track! Ø Metaphor
That I might once more reach that
plain
Where first I left my glorious
train,
When
on some gilded cloud or flower Ø Personification
My gazing soul would dwell an
hour,
And in those weaker glories spy
Shined in my angel infancy. Ø Alliteration
When yet I had not walked above Ø Alliteration
A mile or two from my first love, Ø Alliteration
And looking back, at that short space, Ø Alliteration
Some shadows of eternity;
Ø Alliteration
Before
I taught my tongue to wound Ø Alliteration
A several sin to every sense, Ø Alliteration
But
felt through all this fleshly dress Ø Alliteration
O, how I long to travel back, ØAlliteration
And tread again that ancient
track! Ø Alliteration
That I might once more reach
that plain Ø Alliteration
That shady city of
palm trees. Ø Alliteration
But,
ah! my soul with too much stay Ø Alliteration
Is drunk, and staggers in the way. Ø Alliteration
Some
men a forward motion love; Ø Alliteration
But I by backward steps would move, Ø Alliteration
And
when this dust falls to the urn,
Ø Alliteration
C.
Assonance
and Consonance
I
could find the literary figure “assonance” in that poem. Example: “Or taught my
soul to fancy aught”
1.2 Analyze with bundling the theme
The Retreat by Henry Vaughan consist of
2 stanzas. The first stanza from the poem The Retreat the poet Henry Vaughan
laments over the loss of his childhood vision and the fading away of the
heavenly glory associated with that kind of vision. Not only that, he confesses
how he has moved himself away from the glory by committing various sins of the
body.
The poet begins the poem with an
agonizing realization that he had been really happy in his childhood. The
reason he cites is that at that time he had been in that period of life, which
is marked of innocence and ignorance. At that time he only had in mind the
memory of the ever-radiant supreme being, God. He feels that he was not far
from God then, and that he could see His bright face from a distance. Not only
that, during his childhood it was possible for him to see that reflection of
the eternal glory of God in the transitory yet beautiful things of the world,
like a sunlit cloudlet or flower. He confesses agonizingly that all that had
happened long ago before he learnt the crooked ways of life and began
committing all kinds of sins with all the senses.
“Happy those
early days! when I
Shined in my
angel infancy.
Before I
understood this place
Appointed for my
second race,
Or taught my
soul to fancy aught
But a white,
celestial thought;
When yet I had
not walked above
A mile or two
from my first love,
And looking
back, at that short space,
Could see a
glimpse of His bright face;
When on some
gilded cloud or flower
My gazing soul
would dwell an hour,
And in those
weaker glories spy
Some shadows of
eternity;
Before I taught
my tongue to wound
My conscience
with a sinful sound,
Or had the black
art to dispense
A several sin to
every sense,
But felt through
all this fleshly dress
Bright shoots of
everlastingness.”
(Stanza 1)
The
agony for the poet’s loss of childhood vision of heavenly glory is, it may be
said, felt on the same level as that for the loss of Eden and the subsequent
degeneration in the archetypal Biblical theme. The poet finds a spiritual
recovery in the Platonic doctrine of Love: he finds the reflections of the
Universal Beauty in the particular things of physical beauty. That is to say,
by meditating on the particular he tries to graduate to the understanding of
the Universal Beauty of God.
Second
from the poem The Retreat the poet Henry Vaughan makes a retrospection of the
degeneration and degradation of his own personal life in contrast to what he
had been during his childhood. The memory of that phase of life forces him to
go back to that divine world, from which his soul, he believes, came to this
world.
The
poet comes to an agonizing realization that he had been really happy in his
childhood. At that time he only had in mind the memory of the ever-radiant
supreme being, God. He feels that he was not far from God then, and that he
could see His bright face from a distance. Not only that, during his childhood
it was possible for him to see that reflection of the eternal glory of God in
the transitory yet beautiful things of the world, like a sunlit cloudlet or
flower. He confesses agonizingly that all that had happened long ago before he
learnt the crooked ways of life and began committing all kinds of sins with all
the senses. That is why he expresses his peculiar desire to take a backward
motion in order to reach the source, that is, heaven from which he came. Like
Moses, who was once granted one side of the plain of the valley of Jericho, the
city of palm trees, the poet wants to go back to “That city of Palm trees” or
heaven. Now, he feels that his soul, after remaining for a long time in this
world and drinking too much to the material things of this world, is feeble. He
knows he is unsteady, yet he firmly expresses his renewed conviction that he
will be able to reach the original home when his body dissolves into dust.
“O, how I long
to travel back,
And tread again
that ancient track!
That I might
once more reach that plain
Where first I
left my glorious train,
From whence th’
enlightened spirit sees
That shady city
of palm 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,
And when this
dust falls to the urn,
In that state I
came, return.”
(Stanza 2)
CHAPTER
III
CONCLUSION
In
“The Retreat”, the imagery used in this poem to describe the past and present
is very black in white. He uses childhood and the afterlife waiting for him as
white, positive, celestial ideals while his experiences throughout life and his
adulthood and used as black, negative connotations.
The
author expresses a longing for the angelic innocence he once had as a child
before being corrupted by the harsh realities of the world. In his tone and
imagery he describes what he believes is waiting for him beyond this lifetime.
Wishing
to return to a life of glory but not having the courageous soul to embark on
the transforming journey is the predicament faced by the speaker in Henry
Vaughan’s poem, The Retreat. The speaker realizes that his current condition is
not full of glory and joy as it used to be; however, he sees his life as a lost
cause—trying to move forward, but inevitably getting nowhere. Vaughan’s use of
imagery, tone, and structure effectively relate the past and present states
that are, or have been experienced by the speaker.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
