Editing Henry Vaughan (section)

==Secular works==
Vaughan took his literary inspiration from his native environment and chose the descriptive name "Silurist", derived from his homage to the [[Silures]], a [[Celt]]ic tribe of pre-Roman south [[Wales]] that strongly resisted the [[Roman invasion of Britain|Romans]]. The name reflects the love Vaughan felt for the Welsh mountains of his home, in what is now part of the [[Brecon Beacons National Park]] and the [[River Usk]] valley, where he spent most of his early and professional life.

By 1647, Vaughan with his wife and children had chosen life in the countryside. This was the setting in which Vaughan wrote ''Olor Iscanus'' (The Swan of Usk). However, it was not published until 1651, over three years after it was written, which presumably reflects some crisis in Vaughan's life.<ref>[http://www.bartleby.com/217/0211.html His conversion] in ''The Cambridge History of English and American Literature''.</ref> During those years, his grandfather William Vaughan died and he was evicted from his living in Llansantffraed. Vaughan later decried the publication, having "long ago condemned these poems to obscurity."

''Olor Iscanus'' is filled with odd words and [[simile]]s that beg attention, despite its dark and morbid cognitive appeal. It is founded on crises felt in Vaughan's homeland, Brecknockshire. No major battle was fought there in the Civil War, but the effects of the war were deeply felt by him and his community. The [[Puritan]] Parliament visited misfortune, ejecting [[Anglican]]s and Royalists. Vaughan also lost his home at that time.<ref name=Calhoun>{{Cite book |title=Henry Vaughan: The Achievement of the Silex Scintillans |last=Calhoun |first=Thomas O |publisher=Associated University Presses, Inc, 1981 |location=New Jersey}}</ref>{{Rp |p40}}

There is a marked difference in the atmosphere Vaughan attempts to convey in this work and in his most famous work, ''Silex Scintillans''. ''Olor Iscanus'' represents a specific period in Vaughan's life, which emphasises other secular writers and provides allusions to debt and happy living. A fervent topic of Vaughan throughout the poems is the Civil War, and it reveals Vaughan's somewhat paradoxical thinking, which ultimately fails to show whether he took part or not. Vaughan states complete satisfaction at being clean of "innocent blood", but also provides seemingly eyewitness accounts of battles and his own "soldiery". Although Vaughan is thought to have been a Royalist, these poems express contempt for all current authority and show a lack of zeal for the Royalist cause.<ref name="Bartleby"/>{{Rp |s9, p. 21}} His poems generally reflect a sense of severe decline, which may mean he lamented the effects of the war on the monarchy and society. His short poem "The Timber", ostensibly about a dead tree, concludes: "thy strange resentment after death / Means only those who broke – in life – thy peace."

''Olor Iscanus'' includes translations from the Latin of [[Ovid]], [[Boethius]], and the Polish poet [[Casimir Sarbiewski]].