The following version of this poem was used to create this guide: Philips, Katherine. "A Country Life." PoetryNook. https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/country-life-3.

Note that all parenthetical citations within the guide refer to the lines of the poem from which the quotations are taken.

Katherine Philips was born Katherine Fowler in January 1632 in London. Her father was a prosperous half-merchant, and she had three half-siblings. She began writing when she was about 15 years old. In 1648, she married James Philips, a relative of her stepfather's. He was 54, and she was 16. He was a member of Parliament, and she sometimes accompanied him to London for his work.

They had two children, a son (Hector) who died in infancy and a daughter, also named Katherine. Throughout her life, Philips was a prolific writer. She wrote under the name Orinda, and many of her poems were inspired by events in the social world around her. She wrote extensively about female friendship in particular. She died in 1664 of smallpox, just a few months before her poems were officially published.

In this poem, "A Country Life," Philips writes of the joys of a peaceful life in the countryside.