On my first Sonne Ben Jonson 1616

An elegy - a poem of sorrow about a father’s grief for his dead son. In 1603 Jonson left London to stay at a country house. The plague broke out in London and Jonson’s wife wrote to tell him his son had died. The poem is about the death of the poet’s son, Benjamin, age 7 years On my first Sonne

Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy; My sinne was too much hope of thee, lov'd boy ”Thou” second person singular pronoun used here rather than “you’ to express closeness of relationship. “Benjamin” linked to Hebrew words ‘ right hand’ Son addressed directly, saying goodbye Error or mistake but with religious significance Punished for expecting too much of his son

Seven yeeres thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay, Exacted by thy fate, on the just day Speaking of the seven years of his son’s life as a loan from God Has to be paid back – but ‘just’ could mean the correct or exact time Paying for the life with the son’s death

O, could I loose all father, now. For why Will man lament the state he should envie? I would like to stop being a father now Be sad aboutDeath as a relief from all the problems of life, being at one with God

To have so soone scap'd worlds, and fleshes rage, And, if no other miserie, yet age? alliteration To have escaped the demands of passion Having got through life, old age itself is a fearful stage Trying to convince himself his son is better off dead

Rest in soft peace, and, ask'd, say here doth lye Ben. Jonson his best piece of poetrie. This contrasts with ”fleshes rage” in the previous couplet His proudest creation is his son The epitaph for his son

For whose sake, hence-forth, all his vowes be such, As what he loves may never like too much. Don’t love anything too much as the pain of losing it is too much. simple language, the only metaphor is of the boy as a loan rhyming couplets divided into 3 sections