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Voice of the Country-House Poem There exists a small genre of poetry, dating from the early seventeenth century, known as the country-house poem. Ostensibly the impulse of these poems was to praise and please a wealthy patron, thereby gaining favour, status and wealth. A less apparent facet also existed within these poems, and that was the poet's embedded observations with regard to social values of the time that subtly and effectively criticized and praised the existing system. The dexterity with which a poet combined these opposing purposes, while avoiding implicating the intended patron in the criticism ultimately ensured continuation of the crucial patronage, which pervaded all aspects of the period's social system. Ben Jonson's To Penhurst, often touted as the prototype of the country-house poem, extols the Sydney estate as the archetype of the country estate that is both bounteous and cultured, while subtle irony reveals the innate criticism of...

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