SOURCE: "Our Sad Captivity," in Henry Vaughan: Poet of Revelation, Churchman Publishing, 1986, pp. 1951.

An English literary scholar, Thomas was Head of the Department of English at Westhill College, affiliated with the University of Birmingham, for over a quarter century. His areas of specialization include seventeenth-century literature, twentieth-century drama, religious poetry of all periods, and Shakespeare's works. In the following chapter from his book on Vaughan, Thomas argues "that it is impossible to understand Vaughan's spiritual vision without recognising the enormous impact which the Civil War had upon him and upon his native Breconshire. In the midst of the persecution and bitterness Vaughan pleads passionately for the sanity, peace and the righteousness of 'the antient way'."

Henry Vaughan grew up to manhood in the Breconshire of the sixteen thirties, the years of the gathering storm. Religious and political dissent were growing rapidly and the seeds of Parliament's quarrel with...