Country House Flashcards
What period were Country House poems popular?
Early 17th century
Which of the two country house poems was published first?
Amelia Lanyer’s ‘Description of Cookham’
Then Jonson’s ‘To Penshurst’
What are the two Country House poems we studied?
Ben Jonson: To Penshurst
Aemilia Lanyer: ‘Description of Cookham’
Which King visits the family in Jonson’s ‘To Penshurst’?
King James (and Prince Henry and family)
Who is the patron to whom Jonson is writing ‘To Penshurst’?
Robert Sidney (who later became Earl of Leicester)
Why are ‘To Penshurst’ and ‘Description of Cookham’ major country house poems?
They inaugurated the genre
according to the Norton Anthology English Literature edition notes
Who is Robert Sidney?
He is the patron to whom ‘To Penshurst’ is written.
He later become the Earl of Leicester.
Why did Country House poems idealise the country?
To resist the urban.
Because the country was of life was under threat.
(Also an element of complimenting the patron?)
Generally, how does the style of Country House poems serve its purpose?
It’s meant to capture the estate.
It’s structure and form are meant to echo the architecture and grandness of the house.
How does the theme of identity come into Country House poems?
Country Houses were a way of fashioning identity.
Both the houses themselves and the poems created identity. One for the family and one for the poet.
What is one of the effects of presenting country houses as natural and organic?
The ideology they present also seems natural.
Who was Lanyer me in terms of family background?
Daughter of court musician, therefore very much on the outskirts of court. Entirely dependent on patronage.
She was a mistress, but later married off when she got pregnant.
What collection what ‘Description of Cookham’ first published in?
A religious work of four poems by women.
These religious works gave women more prominence in male-dominated religion.
Importance of women in Description of Cookeham?
Written by a woman for a woman.
A law suit by Clifford’s daughter (Anne) to own the estate rather than male relative.
Celebrates educated women.
Anxieties about dependency.
Who was the patron to whom Aemilia Lanyer was writing?
Anne Clifford, but the poem mainly honours Margaret Clifford, her mother. As they were very close, complimenting her mother would have earned Anne’s approval.
Who was Anne Clifford?
The patron to whom Lanyer was writing, although the poem focuses mainly upon honouring her mother, Margaret Clifford.
What is the effect of removing the servants from ‘Description of Cookeham’?
It mystifies social relations.
Removes human labour.
Removed any distraction from the celebration of the family who own the house.
What is interesting about Cookeham and its addressing the Margaret and Annie Clifford?
They didn’t own the house.
What is the general movement/structure of ‘Description of Cookeham’?
Summer > Autumn
Happiness > loss
(Written in retrospect, so the whole thing has an awareness of dependency and sadness)
In what tone does ‘Description of Cookeham’ end?
Dependency and sadness.
In the Country House poems, what is one thing that summer represents?
Perpetual paradise. (Eden-like)
Name a way that women in ‘To Penshurst’ are presented differently than in ‘Description of Cookeham’?
Cookeham: They are outside the house
Penshurst: They are within the house. (Although: ‘Thy Lady’s Oak’)
What did Raymond William say about Country house poems?
The poems are ‘not country life but social compliment’. (1973)
Who said country house poems are ‘not country life but social compliment’.
Raymond Williams (1973)
