On My First Sonne
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On My First Sonne, a poem by Ben Jonson, was written after the 1603 death of Jonson's first son Benjamin at age seven. [1] The poem, a reflection a father's pain in his young son's death, is rendered more acutely moving when compared with Jonson's other, usually more cynical or mocking, poetry. he smells
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[edit] Text
Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;
My sinne was too much hope of thee, lov'd boy
Seven yeeres thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay,
Exacted by thy fate,on the just day.
O, could I loose all father, now. For why
Will man lament the state he should envie?
To have so soone scap'd worlds, and fleshes rage,
And, if no other miserie, yet age?
Rest in soft peace, and, ask'd, say here doth lye
Ben. Jonson his best piece of poetrie.
For whose sake, hence-forth, all his vowes be such,
As what he loves may never like too much.
[edit] Commentary
This poem is a touching piece on grief and personal loss. Jonson steps out of his boundary as a metaphysical poet and expresses his sadness at the loss of the "child of his right hand", which significantly is the Hebrew translation for Benjamin, (his son's name). The sad tone of the poem is at its peak, perhaps, when the poet states that he almost envies his son, for he simply died and his father now wishes for death. By this, the reader can understand the poem's ending in such a morbid state of mind.
