The Complete Poems

The Laurel Poetry Series

by Ben Jonson, George Parfitt (Introduction)

His adoption of classical ideals was combined with a vigorous interest in contemporary life and a strong faith in native idiom. Within the urbane elegance of his verse forms he contrived a directness and energy of statement clearly related to colloquial speech, and this characteristic fusion of restraint and vitality gave to the seventeenth-century lyric its most distinctive quality. As well as the entire body of Jonson's non-dramatic verse, extensively annotated, this edition contains many of the songs from his plays and masques and his translation of 'Horace, of the Art of Poetry'. His 'Conversations with Drummond', which adds much to our sense of the man, appears as an Appendix, as does 'Discoveries'; together they shed valuable light on Jonson's poetic theory and practice.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Renaissance, Fiction, 17th Century, British Literature, Literature

640 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1925

About the author

Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems. A man of vast reading and a seemingly insatiable appetite for controversy, Jonson had an unparalleled breadth of influence on Jacobean and Caroline playwrights and poets. A house in Dulwich College is named after him.

See more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Jonson

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rare Ben. England's greatest playwright...except for one intruder, the Upstart Crow. And along with Robert Herrick, the best translator of Latin verse, especially the lyric. Many fine translators of the epic, like Dryden and Pope, but many fewer of Horace, Catullus, Ovid...Oh, and the epigram, Martial. Ben Jonson,
"Come, my Celia, let us prove / While we may, the fruits of love./ Time will not be ours forever,/ It at length our goods will sever/ Spend not then love's gifts in vain / Suns that set will rise again, / But when once we lose this light / 'Tis with us perpetual night." Catullus put this line, "Nox est una perpetua dormienda." A resonant cave of sounds, to Jonson's light, urbane touch. And Jonson fits the Latin lyric into his play, "Cannot we delude the eyes / Of a few poor household spies ?" Catullus simply colludes, two youths against the gossiping geezer censurer--Rumoresque senum severiorum.
His student in the London cafe, maybe the Cheshire Cheese down the road from the other Johnson's house,Robert Herrick, mastered Jonson's colloquial touch with Latin. "Whenas in silks my Julia goes / Then then (me thinks) how sweetly flowes / The liquefaction of her clothes." Not colloquial, you say, "liquefaction"? True, but that's Herrick's little addition to Jonson: he includes some killer Latinate words in the simplicity of his speech, and meter. It's his characteristic, never equaled.
Herrick, the most famous of the Sons of Ben. Ben Jonson, the (adoptive, perhaps?) bricklayer's son.
Who killed a man in a duel, and got off because he was literate: "benefit of clergy," a plea derived from the days of Latin and clerical impunity in the civil courts. Boy WAS Jonson literate! By Jonson's time, roughly Shakespeare's career, 1587-1616, a man could get off a murder charge by reading a passage in the English Bible--often the same passage, so occasionally an illiterate may have memorized it and voila! A woman could plead "the belly," pregnancy: Q.E.D. Pregnancy and Literacy were roughly equivalent, under the law. And in the language: Shakespeare never uses "pregnant" for enceinte, but always for a full or witty mind. But I digress.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to read less than half of his poems for British Literature class this semester. I was thrilled to be able to read more of them. I have read some of his poetry before but only in Anthologies. In doing so I have only read his more popular pieces. Reading this collection made it so I could read poems that did not find favor in this day. If you like his more popular poems, I suggest reading this collection. You'll be sure to find some new favorites among these.

[Richard Epstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

The odd thing is, that many readers would call these poems versified prose or doggerel or some other time-bound term of derogation. The poems don't mind. They are infinitely patient. Or just indifferent.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the greatest writers and smoothest tongues in all of poetry. READ HIM.

[Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always wanted to be that clever.

[siren☆]

Titles read:
-“To Sir Thomas Roe”
-“To Penshurst”
-“To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare, and What he Hath Left Us”
-“Ode to Himself”

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favourite poems by Jonson are 'On my First Sonne' and 'To the memory of my beloved Shakespeare...', which are also probably his most well-known. They are both elegies, but somehow the writer's entire personality jumps out of both of them; his ego and the importance of self-presentation, though still present (he represents himself as a king and a judge in the Shakespeare elegy etc.) are humbly and touchingly set aside.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed Jonson so much more than I thought I would! He tells poems of manners, but is quite acerbic about it actually, and the classical throwbacks are fun. Never expected to enjoy him as a poet more than as a dramatist!

[Lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic collection of Jonson's poetry.

[David Sterritt]

Reading through the Complete Poems of Ben Jonson has been quite a trip. You have to love the poet who penned “A Fit of Rhyme against Rhyme,” an attack on rhyming verse written in rhyming verse, and “Natural Progress,” a first-person account of a spermatozoan swimming toward an ovum, is remarkably bold, modern, and terrific. I also salute “Come, My Celia” for its good-humored sexual candor, and various poems addressed to seventeenth-century contemporaries still seem relevant and engaging. O rare Ben Jonson indeed. Recommended.

[Leslie Wexler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whenever friends gather with poetry and food, that moment has an ancient pulse. Parentheses mine:

"Inviting a Friend to Supper"
Tonight, grave sir, both my poor house and I
Do equally desire your company;
Not that we think us worthy such a guest,
But that your worth will dignify our feast
with those that come; whose grace may make that seem
Something, which else could hope for no esteem.
It is the fair acceptance, sir, creates
The entertainment perfect, not the cates.
Yet shall you have, to rectify your palate,
An olive, capers, or some better salad
(ah...the "better salad" always came later in the night, made as it was, on the spot)
Ushering the mutton; with a short-legged hen,
If we can get her, full of eggs, and then
Lemons, and wine for sauce; to these, a coney
Is not to be despaired of, for our money;
And though fowl now be scares, yet there are clerks,
The sky not falling, think we may have larks.
I'll tell you of more, and lie, so you will come:
Of partridge, pheasant, woodcock of which some
May et be there: and god wit, if we can;
Knat, rail and full, too. Howsoe'er, my man
Shall read a piece of Virgil, Tacitus,
Livy, or some better book to us, (like the Dialectic of Enlightenment!)
Of which we'll speak our minds, admist our meat;
And I'll profess no verses to repeat;
To this, if aught appear which I not know of,
That will the pastry, not my paper, show of.
Digestive cheese and fruit there sure will be; (if not 5 or 6 cheeses)
But that which most doth take my muse and me
Is a pure cup of rich Canary wine,
Which is the Mermaid's now, but shall be mine;
(She's the incarnation of Venus Carlita drinking Symposium)
Of which had Horace or Anacreon tasted,
Their lives, as do their lines, till not had lasted.
Tobacco, nectar, or the Tespian spring
Are all but Luther's beer to this I sing.
Of this we will sup free, but moderately;
And we will have no Poley or Parrot by;
Nor shall our cups make any guilty men,
But at our parting we will be as when
We innocently met. No simple word
That shall be uttered at our mirthful board
Shall make us sad next morning, or affright
The liberty that we'll enjoy tonight."

[Poli]

read: “Queen and Huntress” and “Song: To Celia”

[Shaunaly Higgins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of his beautiful poems!!

[Jaycee]

Read To the Memory of My Beloved, and On My First Son for school.