'The Retreat' of Henry Vaughan is a religious poem as well as a metaphysical poem, better to say a perfect example of metaphysical religious poetry. That the poem is a religious one is conspicuous in the very form of the title word. The term 'Retreat' conforms with the Military Terminology, as it is the signal for a military force to withdraw the army, going back from threatened position. Such a term of hard reality (of battlefield) is brought to the arena of spiritualism, from pugnacity to religiosity. In simple term 'retreat' means 'going back' and obviously a desire of going back on the part of the poet has formed the subject matter and the theme of this poem. The Poet longs for the retreat.
Glorification of childhood: Covering a long path of this mundane life the poet has come to the realisation that the purity of his soul is somehow diminished to a great extent, divine feelings are declining and mind is being corrupted, sinned rather :"A several sin to every sense". Deep sense of disappointment dawns in him which finds expression in the very opening lines of the poem : "Happy those early days, when I/ Shined in my Angel-infancy !" Really, infancy is angelic as this stage is redolent with innocence, full of simplicity and purity, a perfect state for divinity. According to the Platonic doctrine of immortality and of antenatal existence of the soul the life on this temporal world is not our first state of existence, it is our 'second race'. The idea is that the soul before its birth had its existence in heaven and naturally, when the soul wears the 'fleshly dress' i.e. takes birth in this earth, it comes with full memory of that celestial place. Black art , experience or earthly sins can not corrupt the angelic state of innocence and purity of childhood and for this a child "Could see a glimpse of His bright face" , the face of his ‘First Love’, the face of God. In the weaker and broken memory of a child “Some shadows of eternity” are reflected and divine rays enter through every pores of the ‘fleshly dress’. To much stay in this seemingly delightful and pleasurable world, to much absorption in the money, wealth and worldly relation pose as the hindrance for going back to the celestial state of mind. Poet’s dolour of mind is manifested in his candid confession : “ O how I long to travel back / And tread again that ancient track !” That the childhood is the best part of human life is acknowledged and acclaimed in the ‘The Retreat’.
Religious aspect : Herbert, the saint of the metaphysical school, influenced much on Henry Vaughan and turned him to the field of religious poetry. Religion helps a person to realize his/her present profane position and directs that person the way of deliverance, the way of liberation of the soul from the gross body and the delusion of human life. Only the divine field and feeling can help one to find the outlet of this labyrinthine world. That very religious message is explicitly uttered by Vaughan in this poem. The avidity for the retreat to the ‘Angel-infancy’ is nothing but the poet’s longing for the divinity, his ‘total surrender’ to God. “Sin has dimmed the eye of the soul” and God’s revelation is not felt by the poet. The reminiscence of childhood may lead him to the thought of God and Eden, the garden of paradise . As the poem is replete with the Christian belief , it a religious poem with least doubt. The poem expresses the longing for God, for the lost vision of innocence and the sin-fettered existence of man in his sojourned life in this world. The expressions like ‘Angel-infancy’, ‘second race’, ‘first love’, ‘shadows of eternity’, ‘Bright shoots of everlastingness’, ‘City of palm trees’ etc. confirm the religious ambience of this poem , Biblical touch throughout the verse.
Metaphysical and philosophical ideas: ‘The Retreat’ of Vaughan is a Metaphysical poem and a philosophical lyric. The poem is metaphysical in the intimate sense of the term as the theme is imbrued and inspired with the philosophical conception of life and the universe. Sudden beginning and the argumentative structure, though not direct, add to the metaphysical quality. There is no dearth of metaphysical conceit, ‘Bright shoots of everlastingness’ being a very compact and effective example of it.
The philosophical idea lies in the eternal law that governs human life and existence. Human being who is destined to live in this world has no power to recede, a grown-up person can never regain his/her childhood physically. Poet’s craving for ‘backward steps’ is not possible, if he rejects the ‘forward motion’. Only the ‘forward motion’ can take this perishable body to the last moment on this earth. Rebirth may again award a person the ‘Angel-infancy’, the blissful childhood, and this is comprehended and confirmed by the poet in the concluding lines : “ And when this dust falls to the urn, / In that state I came, return.”
