On My First Son
by
Ben Jonson
Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy ;(He says goodbye to the son who made him happy)
My sin was too much hope of thee, lov'd boy.(He blames himself somewhat for what has happened to his son)
Seven years thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay,
Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.(After seven years with his son, he loses him to death)
Oh, could I lose all father now ! For why
Will man lament the state he should envy?(He grieves for his own fatherhood and envies the son's peaceful rest)
To have so soon 'scaped world's and flesh's rage,
And if no other misery, yet age !(The son being dead leaves the physical pain of life and doesn't have to age anymore)
Rest in soft peace, and, asked, say, Here doth lie
Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry.(From his son's death, He says his son was the best poetry he wrote)
For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such
As what he loves may never like too much. (For his own sake, the speaker vows in future not to like the things he loves too much.)
My sin was too much hope of thee, lov'd boy.(He blames himself somewhat for what has happened to his son)
Seven years thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay,
Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.(After seven years with his son, he loses him to death)
Oh, could I lose all father now ! For why
Will man lament the state he should envy?(He grieves for his own fatherhood and envies the son's peaceful rest)
To have so soon 'scaped world's and flesh's rage,
And if no other misery, yet age !(The son being dead leaves the physical pain of life and doesn't have to age anymore)
Rest in soft peace, and, asked, say, Here doth lie
Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry.(From his son's death, He says his son was the best poetry he wrote)
For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such
As what he loves may never like too much. (For his own sake, the speaker vows in future not to like the things he loves too much.)
I believe this has literary merit to a fine degree. He is able to use the death of his son into an epigram that captures people's attention. His words throughout this epigram describe how he felt during his son's death and it gives a mental picture of grief and sadness. The setting of this story itself is enough for anyone to feel a sense of sadness coming from the words he writes. He writes "O, could I lose all father now!" which speaks words about how he felt while writing this. He effectively uses rhyme to keep the flow of the epigram going. Through the flow of the words to the deep meaning behind it, Jonson is able to write a compelling piece of work.
Works Cited
Horton, Ronald A.. "The Stuart Period." British literature. 2nd ed. ; Teacher's ed. Greenville, S.C.: BJU Press, 2004. 303. Print.
"Shallow Hal." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2013. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256380/>.
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