It is a poem that narrates the inner feelings of the author, who struggles to find ways to regain his childhood innocence.
The Retreat focuses on the fact that the term “retreat” has two meanings: it can refer to both a place of safety and a withdrawing process. Vaughan believes that childhood is a happy time, a world of purity and joy that he has forgotten as an adult. Vaughan describes his life on Earth as his second race, implying that our life on Earth is a continuation of the heavenly life we had before being here. Vaughan refers to Christ as his first love. Vaughan claims that he yearns to return to his early years, when he experienced a stronger sense of God’s presence.
Henry Vaughan makes reference to our (brief) existence on Earth throughout The Retreat, drawing a comparison with heaven’s eternal duration: The Retreat is a metaphysical poem that features a lot of succinct and evocative conceits, homily images, and condensed words that are typical of metaphysical poetry.
The poet asserts that going backward would be preferable for him here as well. This is because moving forward results in sin, which is morally backward; conversely, moving backward in time results in innocence, which is morally advanced.
Everything, like a flower, has its time in the sun before withering and dying, as Vaughan tells us. Our childhood lasts only an hour, and we don’t have very long lives. The bright buds of everlastingness, Vaughan tells us, had gotten a little older and begun to transgress.
These ‘bright shoots’ are meant to be compared to the flower, which never fades or dies.
Vaughan concludes that he would rather reflect on his past experiences when he was in contact with heaven and had a glimpse of the endless afterlife than think in terms of development and the future.
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