What sets Ben Jonson apart from the Cavalier poets is not merely the lack of love as a subject of his work, or the lack of sonnet structure, but his tersely philosophical style. This is one of the primary arguments of “Poetry and the Potential Moral: The Counterfactual Form of Ben Jonson’s ‘To the Fine Lady Would-Be’” by Colleen Ruth Rosenfeld. Rosenfeld begins by addressing disputes on whether Jonson’s epigram “To Fine Lady Would-Be” is a sonnet, and she asserts that, structurally, it is not. This poem in particular poses questions and moral demands that confront the lady, hence Rosenfeld’s later declaration that the mood is imperative. The article is situated historically as it refers to Phillip Sidney, and it uses the poem to analyze Jonson’s ultimate mood (both subjunctive versus imperative and aesthetically). Jonson’s location as a Cavalier poet is evident in this argument because his poetry is not exclusively focused on structure, and utilizes the idea of value.
Rosenfeld, Colleen Ruth. “Poetry and the Potential Mood: The Counterfactual Form of Ben
Jonson’s ‘To Fine Lady Would-Be.’” Modern Philology: Critical and Historical Studies in Literature, Medieval Through Contemporary, vol. 112, no. 2, Nov. 2014, pp. 336-357. https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.mnsu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2014396910
