Ben Jonson's Poetry Quotations

Question 1

Summarise Ben Jonson’s On My First Daughter

Answer 1

Jonson’s elegy laments the death of his infant daughter.

Question 2

What are the three themes that make up Ben Jonson’s On My First Daughter?

Answer 2

Religion, Grief and Memento Mori and Death

Question 3

How does Ben Jonson open his On My First Daughter?

Answer 3

‘Mary, the daughter of their youth; / Yet all heaven’s gifts being heaven’s due,’

Question 4

What is an important adjective Ben Jonson uses in his On My First Daughter elegy in line 6?

Answer 4

‘Innocence’

Question 5

What does Ben Jonson say about his daughter’s name in the elegy dedicated to her?

Answer 5

‘Whose soul heaven’s queen, whose name she bears, […] Hath placed amongst her virgin-train:’

Question 6

What does elegy mean in Ancient Greek?

Answer 6

To ‘lament’ something or someone.

Question 7

What is important to note about the Memento Mori theme in Jonson’s O.M.F.D elegy?

Answer 7

In the middle section of the elegy, the readership is made aware that the child died when they were six months’ old; in doing so, Jonson shows that death does not discriminate and will take anyone, at any age. Furthermore, that death is an experience that we must all endure.

Question 8

What are the five themes that make up Jonson’s On My First Son elegy?

Answer 8

Grief and Extreme Sadness, Memento Mori and Death, Love, Patriarchy, and Religion

Question 9

Summarise Jonson’s On My First Son elegy

Answer 9

Jonson’s elegy laments the death of his seven-year-old son.

Question 10

How does Jonson open his O.M.F.S. elegy?

Answer 10

‘Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy; […] Seven years thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay,’

Question 11

What does Jonson say about him losing the ability to be a father in his O.M.F.S. elegy?

Answer 11

‘O could I lose all father! […]’

Question 12

What does Jonson say about his son resting in peace and poetry in his O.M.F.S elegy?

Answer 12

‘Rest in soft peace, and asked, say, “Here doth lie / Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry.”’

Question 13

What does ‘Poet’ mean in Ancient Greek?

Answer 13

Maker

Question 14

How does Jonson’s O.M.F.S elegy compare to his O.M.F.D elegy?

Answer 14

I feel as if this poem is more emotive. It feels as though it is more emotionally charged. This could be caused by the extended ‘O’ sound in line 5 which mimics the sound of wailing.

Question 15

What line mimics the sound of wailing in Jonson’s O.M.F.S. elegy?

Answer 15

Line 5 - due to the extended ‘O’ sound.

Question 16

Why do you thin O.M.F.S is more emotive than O.M.F.D?

Answer 16

Refer to scene analysis theme explanation.

Question 17

What poem does Ben Jonson’s Inviting A Friend to Supper remind me of?

Answer 17

To Penshurst

Question 18

What themes make up Jonson’s Inviting a Friend to Supper?

Answer 18

Gluttony and the Grotesque, The Home and the Domestic Sphere and Country House Poem and the Metaphysical Poem

Question 19

Summarise Ben Jonson’s Inviting a Friend to Supper

Answer 19

Ben Jonson makes a graceful and witty invitation to his patron, William Herbert

Question 20

How does Jonson open I.A.F.T.S.?

Answer 20

‘Tonight, grave sir, both my poor house and I / Do equally desire your company: / Not that we think us worthy such a guest,’

Question 21

What food does Jonson describe will be at the dinner in I.A.F.T.S.?

Answer 21

‘Yet shall you have, to rectify your palate, / An olive, capers, or some better salad / Ushering the mutton; with a short-legged hen,’

Question 22

What does Jonson say about lying in I.A.F.T.S.?

Answer 22

‘I’ll tell you of more, and lie, so you will come:’

Question 23

How does I.A.F.T.S. conclude?

Answer 23

‘Shall make us sad next morning, or affright / The liberty that we’ll enjoy tonight.’

Question 24

What other genre of poem is Jonson’s I.A.F.T.S. reminiscent of and why?

Answer 24

Country House poem due to it being written to a patron and describing house - even though, typically in C.H.P the house of the patron is described. Here, it is Jonson’s house - so a reverse.

Question 25

What four themes make up To Penshurst?

Answer 25

Country House Poem, Pastoral Literature, Praise or Satire and Judgement? and Microcosm

Question 26

Summarise To Penshurst

Answer 26

It is a Country House poem detailing Robert Sidney’s Kent estate.

Question 27

How does To Penshurst open?

Answer 27

‘Thou art not, Penshurst, built to envious show, / Of touch or marble; nor canst boast a row / Of polished pillars, or a roof of gold;’

Question 28

What does Jonson say when he refers to Bacchus and Pan in To Penshurst?

Answer 28

‘Thou hast thy walks for health, as well as sport; / Thy mount, to which the dryads do resort, / Where Pan and Bacchus their high feasts have made,’

Question 29

What does Jonson say about calves and horses in To Penshurst?

Answer 29

‘Thy sheep, thy bullocks, kine, and calves do feed; / The middle grounds thy mares and horses breed.’

Question 30

What does Jonson say about carps in To Penshurst?

Answer 30

‘Fat aged carps that run into thy net,’

Question 31

What does Jonson say about Sidney’s orchards and flowers in To Penshurst?

Answer 31

‘Then hath thy orchard fruit, thy garden flowers, / Fresh as the air, and new as are the hours.’

Question 32

What does Jonson say about peaches in To Penshurst?

Answer 32

‘The blushing apricot and wooly peach / Hang on thy walls, that every child may reach.’

Question 33

What does Jonson say about guests eating in To Penshurst?

Answer 33

‘Where comes no guest but is allowed to eat, / Without his fear, and of they lord’s own meat,’

Question 34

How does Jonson refer to King James and his son in To Penshurst?

Answer 34

‘That found King James when, hunting late this way / With his brave son, the Prince, they saw thy fires’

Question 35

What does Jonson say when he refers to Sidney’s wife and their children?

Answer 35

‘These Penshurst, are thy praise, and yet not all. / Thy lady’s noble, fruitful, chaste withal / His children thy great lord may call his own,’

Question 36

Why is the theme, ‘Microcosm’, important in Jonson’s To Penshurst?

Answer 36

Because of Penshurst self-sufficient nature.

Question 37

What are the four themes that make up Jonson’s To the Memory of My Beloved, The Author, Mr. William Shakespeare and What He Hath Left Us?

Answer 37

Awe and Admiration, Classical References, Canonisation and Immoralisation, and Elegiac elements

Question 38

Summarise Jonson’s T.T.M.O.M.B.T.A.M.W.S.A.W.H.H.L.U

Answer 38

A poem that laments and honours Shakespeare’s contribution to, not only the English canon, but also the European one.

Question 39

How does Jonson open his poem that is in dedication to Shakespeare?

Answer 39

‘To draw no envy, Shakespeare, on thy name, / Am I thus ample to thy book and fame,’

Question 40

What does Jonson say about Shakespeare being a soul of an age?

Answer 40

‘I therefore will begin. Soul of the age! / The applause! Delight! The wonder of our stage! / My Shakespeare, rise; I will not lodge thee by / Chaucer or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie’

Question 41

What does Jonson say about Shakespeare being a monument?

Answer 41

‘Thou art a monument without a tomb, / And art alive still while thy book doth live,’

Question 42

What does Jonson say about Shakespeare in relation to Britain?

Answer 42

‘Triumph, my Britain; thou has one to show / To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe.’

Question 43

How does Jonson immortalise Shakespeare?

Answer 43

He states that Shakespeare ‘He was not of an age, but for all time!’

Question 44

How does Jonson compare Shakespeare to a Swan?

Answer 44

‘Sweet Swan of Avon, what a sight it were’

Question 45

How does Jonson relate Shakespeare to the Thames, Queen Elizabeth and King James?

Answer 45

‘And make those flights upon the banks of Thames / That so did take Eliza and our James!’

Question 46

What has Shakespeare’s death caused (stated by Jonson) ?

Answer 46

‘Or influence chide or cheer the drooping stage / Which, since thy flight from hence, hath mourned like night,’

Question 47

What elegiac elements can or cannot be seen in Jonson’s poem which praises Shakespeare?

Answer 47

It laments Shakespeare’s death throughout, but lacks the sombre and sad tone that are fundamental to elegies. A sad tone is only seen in the concluding lines of the poem.