Search results
Learn about Ben Jonson, a prolific dramatist and poet of the English Renaissance, who influenced the Augustan age with his classical learning and literary criticism. Explore his life, works, and legacy, including his satirical comedies, masques, and tragedies.
Jonson's poetry is characterized by its precise language, formal control, and intellectual rigor. He favored traditional forms, such as the sonnet and the epigram, but infused them with his own distinctive voice. His poems often explore themes of morality, ambition, and the human condition.
A romantic poem by Ben Jonson, a contemporary of Shakespeare, addressed to his friend and lover Celia. He compares her eyes to a drink of nectar and a rosy wreath, and asks her to pledge with him.
Read the full text of On my First Son, a moving and powerful poem by Ben Jonson, a contemporary of Shakespeare. The poem expresses the grief and regret of a father who lost his son at a young age.
Jonson’s poetry is informed by his classical learning; among his well-known poems is his elegant countryhouse poem ‘To Penshurst’. He could also, however, write with touching simplicity in poems such as‘My Picture Left in Scotland’ and those written on the death of his children.
Ben Jonson. 1572 –. 1637. Drinke to me, onely, with thine eyes, And I will pledge with mine; Or leave a kisse but in the cup, And Ile not looke for wine. The thirst, that from the soule doth rise, Doth aske a drinke divine: But might I of Jove's Nectar sup, I would not change for thine. I sent thee, late, a rosie wreath,
The Noble Nature. Ben Jonson. 1572 –. 1637. It is not growing like a tree . In bulk, doth make man better be; . Or standing long an oak, three hundred year, . To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere: . A lily of a day . Is fairer far in May, . Although it fall and die that night— . It was the plant and flower of Light.
