Short Analysis of the poem "The Fountain" by Henry Vaughan

The unthrift sun shot vital gold,

 A thousand, thousand pieces;

 And heav'n its azure did unfold

 Chequer'd with snowy fleeces;

 The air was all in spice,

 And ev'ry bush

 A garland wore:

 Thus fed my eyes,

 But all the earth lay hush,

 Only a little fountain lent

 Some use for ears,

 And on the dumb shades language spent,

 The music of her tears.

These are just a few thoughts on one of my favourite poems:

In this wonderful poem, Henry Vaughan establishes a beautiful picture of nature by means of intriguing images and a splendid use of words.

The vocabulary he uses is clearly derived from nature. By describing the sun and the skies in the beginning, nature as a theme becomes evident right in the beginning.

Also the words used by the poet refer to the five senses: The vital light of the sun can be seen, the snowy fleeces of the sky point to touching, the spicy air can nearly be smelled and tasted while the musical sound made by the fountain can abviously be heard. But these five references are not presented in the same way. The first four senses are depicted with the aid of very vivid imagery leaving extremely strong impressions, whereas hearing carries more quiet and careful attitudes.

This mirrors the overall development of the poem. It starts in a very positive way immediately into a colourful scene and leads to this completely inward description of the fountain making beautiful but gentel and hushed sounds. So the author throws us into a beginning making us want to rejoice over the beauty of nature and leaves us in a state of quietness. And this is a quietness which can also be interpreted as unsure.

The structure of the poem contributes to this uncertainness. We have the following rhyming pattern:

a

b

a

b

c

d

e

c

d

f

g

f

g

On the whole this is highly symmetrical and at first glance it seems to be very smooth in its structure. But when breaking it down one realises that there is a division. We can find what is described by the German term “Kreuzreim” three times. The first and last four verses are not disrupted but the rhyme in the very middle has one additional verse inbetwee separating it. This adds to the feeling of unsecurity as it leaves the impression that the poet is depicting something nearly perfect. But by means of one non-rhyming verse the whole scene can be seen in a different light.

The remaining question for me is: What is it that Henry Vaughan finds missing?