o Vaughan, not to Milton. If Milton persuades us to a willing
suspension of disbelief for the moment, Vaughan thrills us with a sense
of vivid reality. His _Ascension Day_ is a thing seen, as if it were a
memory of yesterday:--

The day-star smiles, and light, with thee deceast,
Now shines in all the chambers of the East.
What stirs, what posting intercourse and mirth
Of Saints and Angels glorifie the earth!
What sighs, what whispers, busie stops and stays;
Private and holy talk fill all the ways!
They pass as at the last great day, and run
In their white robes to seek the risen Sun;
I see them, hear them, mark their haste, and move
Amongst them, with them, wing'd with faith and love.

To the intensity of his aspiration and hushed expectance the world seems
only a turbulent passing pageant, or a hard wayfaring, suffered in a
dream:--

Who stays
Here long must passe
O'er dark hills, swift streames, and steep ways
As smooth as glasse.

Or a brief sickness:--

So for this night I linger here,
And, full of tossings to and fro,
Expect still when thou wilt appear,
That I may get me up and go.

His eyes are fixed on the shining lights that beckon him; the world is
full of voices, but its sights and sounds appeal to him in vain; the
beauties that surround him are things of naught--

Glorious deceptions, gilded mists,
False joyes, phantastick flights.

In the distance before him there shines

An air of glory
Whose light doth trample on my days;
My days, which are at best but dull and hoary,
Meer glimmering and decays;

and he lifts up his voice in passionate desire for the ultimate
deliverance:--

Ah! what time will it come? When shall that crie
_The Bridegroome's comming_! fill the sky?
Shall it in the evening run,
When our words and works are done?
Or will thy all-surprising light
Break at midnight?

He broods over it till nothing else is present to him in the
night-watches:--

I saw Eternity the other night
Like a great ring of calm and endless light.

The history of the struggles and corruption of mankind may close at any
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at a signal given:--

All's in deep sleep and night; thick darkness lyes
And hatcheth o'er thy people--
But hark! what trumpet's that, what angel cries
_Arise! Thrust in thy sickle!_