Ben Jonson, To Penshurst

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Ben Jonson’s “To Penshurst” stands as the exemplar of the small, but important, country house poem genre, particularly popular in England during the first half of the seventeenth century. In 1616 Jonson published a folio of

Works of Benjamin Jonson

, a compilation of his drama, masques, and a collection of poetry titled

The Forest

. The second poem in

The Forest

, “To Penshurst”, praises the estate of Robert Sidney, a member of an aristocratic and literary family of writers and patrons, and presents a world that functions free of struggle or even labour. In “To Penshurst” the animals willingly and happily sacrifice themselves for the feast, to which everyone is invited: “all come in, the farmer and the clown” (line 48). Guided by a framework of symbiotic relationships,…

1761 words

Citation: Beskin, Anna . "To Penshurst". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 March 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=34873, accessed 19 March 2024.]

34873 To Penshurst 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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