Took his literary inspiration from his native environment. Deep love towards the Welsh mountains of his home.

Odd words and similes that beg for attention despite its dark and morbid cognitive appeal.

Themes: sense of severe decline, lamented the effects of the war on the monarchy and society. Personal loss.

"Spiritual quickening and the gift of gracious feeling" derived from Herbert.

Alliteration, which is conspicuous in Welsh poetry, is more extensively used by Vaughan than most of his contemporaries writing English verse

Vaughan, the Royalist and Civil War poet, was a Welsh doctor, born in 1621. A noted Religious and Metaphysical poet, he is credited as being the first poet working in the English language to use slant, half or near rhyme. No known portrait of Henry Vaughan exists. 

	Son of Thomas Vaughan and Denise Morgan, Henry Vaughan was born in 1621, Breconshire, Wales. He likely attended Oxford “Jesus” School in 1638 with his twin brother, Thomas, the Alchemist and Hermetic Philosopher.

	Henry left Oxford to study law in 1640, and was interrupted by the civil war in 1645, where as a committed Royalist, he took the King’s side.  He returned to Brecon to work as clerk to Judge Marmaduke Lloyd, Chief Justice for the Brecon circuit of the Great Sessions.

	He was a noted Religious and Metaphysical poet, who wrote prolifically.  He was greatly influenced, and indeed, converted, by the work of George Herbert.  It is noted, however, that where Herbert celebrates the institution of the Church, Vaughan is more interested in natural objects and in a mystical communion with nature.  They form a unique duo in the history of the Metaphysical movement in that Vaughan was aware of Herbert`s work, whereas none of the Metaphysical poets were aware of each other in their lifetimes. Vaughan is credited as being the first poet working in the English language to use slant, half or near rhyme.

	Vaughan was befriended by the Price family, who lived at the Priory, and it was here that he met and courted his first wife, Catherine Wise, with whom he had a son. The Priory Groves provided a romantic back-drop to this courtship, as well as inspiration for his poetry.

	Colonel Herbert Price raised troops for the King, and in 1645 entertained him at the Priory, where Vaughan may have met him, before taking part in the battle of Rowton Heath and the siege of Beeston Castle. Brecon surrendered to the Parliamentarians, to Vaughan`s disgust, and he found the town a changed place. His verse letter `To His Retired Friend, an Invitation to Brecknock`, pulls no punches:

	Abominable face of things! here`s noise

	Of banged mortars, blue aprons, and boys,

	Pigs, dogs, and drums, with the hoarse, hellish notes

	Of politicly-deaf usurers` throats,

	With new fine Worships, and the old cast team

	Of Justices vex`d with the cough and phlegm.

	Vaughan returned to the family home at Newton and, in 1646, he published `Poems with the Tenth Satire of Juvenal Englished`. It is thought that his greatest poetry is contained in the later `Silex Scintillans` (1650, with a second part in 1655).  In 1651, `Olor Iscanus` or `The Swan of Usk`, a collection of secular poetry with four prose translations, was published. This title was to furnish the affectionate nickname of "Silurist" for the poet. It refers to his Celtic clan.

	After the death of his first wife, Vaughan married her sister Elizabeth, possibly in 1655. Vaughan had another son, and three more daughters by his second wife. Vaughan published a few more works, including `Thalia rediviva` (1678), none of which equalled the fire of `Silex`. He died on April 23, 1695, and was buried in Llansantffraed churchyard. The letters M D appear after his name.