Jonathan Nauman suggests that Henry Vaughan twice inaugurated himself as a poet in a new subgenre: first as a Welsh river poet in Olor Iscanus (1651) and then as a born-again Christian poet in the first part of Silex Scintillans (1650). He argues that Vaughan established the new identity in the first poem of each book, “To the River Isca” in Olor and “Regeneration” in Silex. He accounts for the reversed order of the two books’ publication by suggesting that Olor was complete when its dedication was written in 1647 and that the “friend” who prepared it for the press did so without the author’s approval. He develops the case that Vaughan eventually found the identity as a river poet untenable in the historical and personal contexts within which he wrote. In doing so, Nauman raises some questions that my response identifies. I also discuss the larger symbolism of the river and the fountain, which may connect readers to the very private mind from which the two signature poems emerged nearly four centuries ago.

Connotations - A Journal for Critical Debate, E-SSN 2626-8183, Vol. 34, p. 70-80