Renaissance Country House Poetry Essay examples -- Poem Poetry Poet Es

Renaissance Country House Poetry Country category poetry is a sub-genre of Renaissance poetry and was first written during the seventeenth century. It was closely linked to patronage poetry, in which poets (sometimes outrageously) flattered patrons in order to gain sponsorship and status. At this time, many houses were construct in the agriculturalside as a display of wealth, and as a retreat for the courtier when overwhelmed by the court and city life. Country houses were not, originally, just large houses in the country in which rich tribe lived. Essentially they were power houses - the houses of a ruling class. As such they could work at the local level of a manor house, the house of a squire who was a little king in his village and ran the county. They could work at a local and national level as the seat of a landowner who was also a member of parliament. Basically, people did not live in country houses unless they either possessed power, or, by backing up in a country hous e, were making a bid to possess it. Country house poems generally consisted of complimentary descriptions of the said country house and its surrounding area which often contained pastoral detail, and praised cultivated nature. The purpose of the central part of this essay is to assess the effectiveness of Renaissance country house poetry as hearty criticism. Country house poems were written to flatter and please the owner of the country house. Why did poets do this? Until the nineteenth century the wealth and population of England lay in the country rather than the towns landowners rather than merchants were the dominating class. Even when the economic balance began to change, they were so thoroughly in control of patronage and legislation, so strong throu... ...ely that people read country house poetry to be provided with political or social insights, so it is likely that many of the allusions were lost on the majority of readers.Endnotes1 The Penguin Book of Renaissance versi fy 1509-1659, p.4202 Ibid. p.4203 Life in the English Country House, Mark Girouard, p.7.4 The Penguin Book of Renaissance verse 1509-1659, p.4205 Ibid.p.4216 Ibid.p.4217 Ibid.p.4218 Ibid.p.4219 Ibid.p.42210 Ibid.p.42211 Ibid.p.42212 Ibid.p.42213 The Description of Cooke-ham, Renaissance Verse, p.414.14 The Penguin Book of Renaissance Verse 1509-1659, p.41715 Ibid.p.41816 Marvells Upon Appleton House, Robert Markley, p.91.BibliographyMark Girouard. Life in the English Country House, Yale University Press, 1978.Maclean, Landry and Ward. The Country and the City Revisited, Cambridge University Press, 1999.