Imagery and symbolism in Regeneration
Usually in metaphysical poetry the imagery is the centre of any analysis of the poetry. This is true here but a big difference is the fact that the imagery is being used as a source of symbols rather than as a conceit.
Landscapes and a journey
As we have seen, the source of the imagery is from Nature. It works in an interesting way. For example, in stanza 2, the poet speaks of ‘my spring'. No one can own spring, but figuratively we can talk of our inner weather and our inner seasons. Vaughan has internalised the images. Yet our inner journey produces a landscape which any ‘Pilgrims Eye' will see: there is a degree of universality to it. This parallels the real world: when people hike up a mountain, it is the same mountain for everyone, yet each person will experience it and internalise their memories of it uniquely. It remains a natural process, even if it is being given supernatural meaning as well. This is akin to the idea of the correspondence of microcosm and macrocosm seen in Donne.
A Pilgrim's Eye
Vaughan uses the ‘Pilgrims Eye' as a simile. He seems to be saying: ‘It was like being a pilgrim caught in some featureless place, far from anywhere, looking into this blank sky…' Ironically of course, the poet is a pilgrim, making his spiritual journey: that is the central image of the poem. This provides insight into a mystical use of language in which the categories of the natural, the literal, the figurative and supernatural lose their sharp boundaries and begin to merge into one another. There are moments in Wordsworth's poetry when the same thing happens. With Wordsworth it is a kind of ‘nature mysticism'; with Vaughan, it is still strongly Christian.
God's generosity
Beyond this, there are some metaphors that stand out without having symbolic meaning loaded on to them, such as
The unthrift Sunne shot vital gold
A thousand pieces
This is a very effective description of sunlight. ‘Unthrift' means ‘generous', and stands in contrast to the ‘surly winds' of the poet's own inner weather. It points to God's generosity and grace.
Investigating Regeneration
- What images stand out for you in Regeneration?
- Are they ‘symbolic' or just descriptive?
- How does Vaughan appeal to our senses in this poem as well as to our mind?
1. A branch of philosophy
2. The Metaphysical Poets were a group of seventeenth century English poets who used philosophical ideas extensively in their imagery and especially in conceits.
Figure of speech in which a person or object or happening is described in terms of some other person, object or action, either by saying X is Y (metaphor); or X is like Y (simile). In each case, X is the original, Y is the image.
Something which represents something else through an association of ideas.
An image that seems far-fetched or bizarre, but which is cleverly worked out so that the reader can understand the link.
1. The Creation, especially the part not made by man or not urban, and therefore the countryside. 2. A power considered to have power of the things in this world
The technical name for a verse, or a regular repeating unit of so many lines in a poem. Poetry can be stanzaic or non-stanzaic.
In literature, words are used in a non-literal sense much of the time, to make the language striking and persuasive. Sounds are also carefully arranged to have certain effects. This is all figurative language.
1. Someone who undertakes a journey to a holy place (such as a biblical site or the shrines of the saints) to seek God's help, to give thanks or as an act of penance.
2. A Christian journeying through life towards heaven.
The little world, human beings and their inner world, often seen as paralleling the macrocosm.
The bigger world or cosmos. Anything from a planet to the whole universe.
An image where one thing is said to be 'as' or 'like' another: e.g. 'He jumped up like a jack-in-the-box'.
1. Consisting of or relating to (the) spirit(s), rather than material or bodily form.
2. Relating to matters of the soul, faith, religion, or the supernatural.
3. A type of religious song whose roots are in the slave communities of North America.
The seeking of direct spiritual encounter with God, usually through a life of self-denial and contemplation. Mystics often have visions or other supernatural revelations of God.
Name originally given to disciples of Jesus by outsiders and gradually adopted by the Early Church.
An image or form of comparison where one thing is said actually to be another - e.g. 'fleecy clouds'.
In literature, something that is chosen to take on a particular meaning by the writer, e.g. clouds as symbols of mutability.
The Bible describes God as the unique supreme being, creator and ruler of the universe.
