Research paper - Poetry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Research paper - Poetry - Essay Example A close critique of the poem, however, suggests that Jonson may have had different views than those that are assumed of many of his readers. While it might have served him well, as a poet an a man in need of social stability, to praise his apparent social betters, this does not mean that â€Å"To Penshurst† was not written from a hidden, disapproving standpoint. Jonson himself was part of a different lifestyle to that of the Sidney’s, and as such he could see that their luxury was based on a fundamental societal structure that was only perpetuated from ownership of such residences as Penshurst. Jonson, born sometime in 16th century England, grew up in London and claimed himself the â€Å"posthumous son of a minister† (Loxley 8), although experts cannot be sure whether or not this is true. Whatever his father had been, Jonson’s mother remarried to a bricklayer who despite the general condition of the London working class at the time was literate and had his stepson educated from an early age. With the second marriage of his mother, Ben Jonson suffered socially because of the loss of aristocratic society with which his clergyman father might have affiliated himself; a bricklayer’s son, although educated, was not expected to keep company with anyone outside this working class ranking and therefore it was with great difficulty that Jonson established himself as an artisan. His success can surely be attributed to an education that was above par: first he attended private school and later a prestigious school in Westminster near Whitehall Palace. Arguably it is the fact that Jonson was educated in the style of a boy from a higher social ranking that not only gave him some perspective of his own place in society but caused him to look at the lifestyles of those he attended school with in a different light. He will have met other boys from wealthier families and whose lot in life would be very different from his own simply because