GRE Audio Books

Ben Jonson’s “To Penshurst” is a classic example of an estate poem, a term the GRE Literature may want you to know. This form, which became fashionable in the 17th century, describes a landscape attached to a noble house and typically becomes a meditation upon the relationships between nature & culture. Here’s the opening- read the full text of “To Penshurst” here.

TO PENSHURST.

Thou art not, PENSHURST, built to envious show
Of touch, or marble ; nor canst boast a row
Of polish’d pillars, or a roof of gold :
Thou hast no lantern whereof tales are told ;
Or stair, or courts ; but stand’st an ancient pile,
And these grudg’d at, art reverenced the while.
Thou joy’st in better marks, of soil, of air,
Of wood, of water ; therein thou art fair.
Thou hast thy walks for health, as well as sport :
Thy mount, to which thy Dryads do resort, 10
Where Pan and Bacchus their high feasts have made,
Beneath the broad beech, and the chestnut shade ;
That taller tree, which of a nut was set,
At his great birth, where all the Muses met.

When dealing with 17th-century poetry, it may be helpful to classify poets as cavalier or metaphysical poets, as this distinction often appears on the GRE literature.  According to The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia:
“The foremost poets of the Jacobean era, Ben Jonson and John Donne, are regarded as the originators of two diverse poetic traditions—the Cavalier and the metaphysical.”

A brief comparison of these authors will give you a pretty good idea of their divergent styles. While Johnson’s poetry is generally light or humorous in style, secular in subject, and often deals with love or sexuality, Donne’s is characterized by subtle argumentations and “metaphysical conceits,” often dealing with the soul or religion. Several metaphysical poets, especially John Donne, were influenced by NeoPlatonism. One of the primary Platonic concepts found in metaphysical poetry is the idea that the perfection of beauty in the beloved acted as a remembrance of perfect beauty in the eternal realm. (See John Donne – A Valediction Forbidden Mourning).

metaphysical poets

George Chapman
John Donne
George Herbert
Andrew Marvell
Saint Robert Southwell
Thomas Traherne
Henry Vaughan

*sometimes considered metaphysical poets:
* Thomas Carew
* Abraham Cowley
* Richard Crashaw
* Edward Herbert
* Richard Leigh
* Richard Lovelace
* Katherine Philips
* Sir John Suckling
* Edward Taylor
* Anne Bradstreet

Cavalier poets:

Ben Jonson
Robert Herrick
Richard Lovelace
Thomas Carew
Sir John Suckling

Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor, and is generally considered to be the most influential of the cavalier poets. He was also a contemporary, friend and rival of Shakespeare. For the GRE Literature, you may need to know the following:

Plays:
Volpone
The Alchemist

Lyric Poems:

“His Supposed Mistress”
“To the Memory of My Beloved Master William Shakespeare”
“To Penhurst”
“On My First Son”

Here’s the audio recording of Jonson’s poem “His Supposed Mistress.” More to follow, as soon as I find them.

 

 Jonson, Ben - his supposed mistress [1:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

“GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a-flying :
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.”

So opens Robert Herrick’s poem To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time. The poem is often compared to Andrew Marvells’ Coy Mistress for its similar thematic content: expounding the principle of carpe diem in order to convince a female addressee to “marry” while she is still beautiful.

Herrick is often classified as a cavalier poet, and is generally known for his bawdy style and frequent references to the female body. Many of his most raunchy poems are addressed to a character named ” Julia.”

Full text

 

  Herrick, Robert - To the Virgins [0:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download