Country House Poems have a very well-defined function in seventeenth-century English culture, a function that is defined by the patronage system, in which noble men and women sponsor poets and playwrights, providing them with financial and social support and often welcoming them into their homes for extended stays. In return for their patrons' and patronesses' generosity, the poet was obligated to provide poetry that in some way served the nobility. Such obligation could result in mere flattery, but the best poets' works combine praise of the nobility with counsel and exhortation in order to produce functional poetry that not only pleases and instructs readers (as all poetry was supposed to do according to the widely-recognized formula found in the works of the Roman poet, Horace) but that actually shapes and defines readers' sense of self, setting up an ideal version of nobility that aristocratic patrons and patronesses must seek to fulfill in themselves. In Country House poems, the methods used by poets to accomplish this goal are various, but a number of methods appear again and again:

1. Use of pastoral conventions, including extensive description of beautiful natural scenery, references to the classical gods and demigods of nature (such as fauns, satyrs, Pan, Ceres), and the "pathetic fallacy," in which nature is sympathetic to human emotions and responds to them in kind. I would note, however, that though the Country House Poem incorporates such aspects of pastoral, it is not really a part of the pastoral mode, since it celebrates the noble estate as an ideal of courtesy and aristocracy, rather than dealing with the lives and loves of rustic shepherds, as pastorals do.

2. Emphasis on the Country House as a place defined by all the courtesy of Court and all the civility of the City without the corruptions of either of the other two venues.

3. References and allusions to the Golden Age and to Eden, with implications that the country house is a little Eden in and of itself, unspoiled and perfect.

4. The poem is often addressed to the estate or house itself rather than to the noble inhabitants, though the inhabitants and those who know them are of course the primary intended readers of the poem.

5. Emphasis on the moral rectitude and religious piety of the inhabitants; particularly important are the virtues of integrity, generosity, hospitality, and (in the case of the noble women of the family) chastity.

6. Emphasis on the natural abundance of the land; this is closely linked to the generous hospitality of the estate's inhabitants.

7. Emphasis on the first-person perspective of the poet, with particular attention to his or her experience of the estate and/or relationship with the inhabitants.

8. Emphasis on and definition of the role of the noble inhabitants in the social and political structure of England, noting their relations with those they rule and are supported by (the peasantry) and those they serve and support (royalty, the monarch).

Study Questions on Poems by Jonson and Lanyer
1. Until Lanyer's work was discovered and began to be studied seriously about 20 years ago, Jonson's "To Penshurst" was thought to be the first country-house poem written. It was certainly an influential model for others (including poems by Carew, Herrick, and Marvell) written a bit later in the century. In what ways does "To Penshurst" establish the characteristics of the genre as described above?

2. What does Jonson value about the physical building at Penshurst? How are these qualities connected with the characters of the Sidney family?

3. Note the references to envy in both "To Penshurst" (1, 4, 47, 68-70) and "Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue" (244-245). Why is it so important in these works to avoid and/or defeat envy?

4. Compare Jonson's role as guest in the Penshurst poem with his role as host in "Inviting A Friend to Supper" (1221-1222). What do both these roles have to do with his role as a poet?

5. What does the anecdote about the king's unexpected visit (lines 76-88) contribute to the poem?

6. Be prepared to discuss the contrast between the verbs "have built" and "dwells" in the final line. What do these verbs mean in context?

7. Though much less influential than "To Penshurst," Lanyer's "The Description of Cooke-ham" was almost certainly written earlier. Does it perform the same function as Jonson's poem? Does it use the techniques that would come to characterize the country-house genre?

8. How does Lanyer's way of praising Cookham compare to Jonson's way of praising Penshurst? Which poem ("To Penshurst" or "Upon Cookeham") do you like better, and why?

9. To what extent does Lanyer make gender--her own and that of her addressees--an issue in her poetry?

10. In "Upon Cooke-ham," Lanyer repeats certain words again and again in various forms: grace, delight, grief. Does this repetition mar the poetry, or does it work to produce a particular effect?

11. What does the anecdote of the tree and the Countess's kiss (lines 157-178) contribute to the poem?