Question- Write a critical analysis of the poem "Retreat" by Henry Vaughan.

Answer -

"The Retreat" is one of Henry Vaughan's best known metaphysical poems. This poem explores how the poet is derailed from purity as a grown-up man and his longing for returning to the blissful state of everlastingness. "The Retreat" glorifies the stage of infancy as the purest state of a man's life. "The Retreat" by Henry Vaughan describes a speaker's desire to escape to the past where he was a younger purer and generally happier human being.

"The Retreat" As a representative of childhood innocence: The poem opens with the nostalgic tone of the poet about his childhood to which he calls "angel infancy" from which he has come after yet it comes to his mind quite often, offering him glimpser of his early "celestial thought". He thinks that he used to have communion with God during that early period as his soul was pure and fresh and that the soul could see God's "bright face". He then, thinks about the blessings that he used to enjoy during his childhood such as nature, innocent conversation, and freedom of time. However, now he is nostalgic about that angelic period, with a sign, states that he longs to revisit his past. He states that he wants to visit those glorious hours and glorious timings when he used to enjoy shady trees and fresh breeze. He thinks that unlike the progressive person who love to move forward, he longs to move backward and wants to enter that state of that blissfulness again.

The poet feels that as the man grows he becomes sinful in thoughts, words and deeds. Now the influences of the material world prevent him from seeing visions of heaven. So the poet wishes to retrace his steps to the past when he was a child. He wants to be a child again so that he can bathe himself in the golden vision of heaven. People generally like to go forward in life, But the poet wants to retreat to his childhood because according to him a movement back to childhood would also be a spiritual progression. The poet regards the time of childhood as a happy time. It was a time when the poet shone with an angelic light. He was not sullied and spoiled by the physical and material world. It was time when the poet had thoughts only of heaven and when he could set see glimpses of God. During his childhood the poet had vision of eternity when he looked at a cloud or a flower as the beauty of these natural objects was a reflection of the glories of heaven and the poet was able to perceive those glories. He was so innocent in those days that he never uttered a sinful word and never had a sinful desire. The whitesouled child coming from celestial home felt bright shoots of everlastingness through his fleshly screen. In other words though this physical body he could feel the bright beams of eternity.

Poetic devices used in "The Retreat":

(1) Assonance: The sound of |a| in 'shined in my angel infancy' i in "And in those weaper glories sky" and the sound of |e| in "A several sin to every sense".
(2) Alleteration: Such as Is in "sinful" and again |s in "several sin".
(3) Consonance: Such as the sound of |m| and |f| in "A mile or two from first love" and the sound of |t| in "before I taught my tongue to wound".
(4) Enjambment: It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line break; rather, it rolls over to the next line.

For example:

Before I thought my tongue to wound
my consciences 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.

(5) Exclamation: The poet uses exclamations such as "Happy those early days!" and "O, how I long to travel back/ And tread again that ancient track!".
(6) Imagery: The poem shows the use of imagery such as "And tread again that ancient track!". "That shady city of palm trees" and "And when this dust falls to the urn".
(7) Metaphor: The poem shows the use of the metaphors of childhood and soul as if the childhood is a lady and the soul is some living person.
(8) Symbolism: The poet uses the symbols of flowers, souls and tongues to differentiate between the angelic childhood and corrupt adulthood.
(9) Rhyme Scheme: The poem follows the AABB rhyme scheme until the end of the poem. Stanza is a poetic forms of some lines. There are two unequal stanzas the first having 20 verses, while the second has 12 verses.

"The Retreat" are relevant to use during a motivational speech about the great work to be started:

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.

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