by Chris Allen

Created on: May 25, 2010   Last Updated: October 18, 2010

On my First Sonne, written in 1603 by Ben Jonson, tells of a father whose 7 year old son has died. It shows how the father feels, how he copes with the terrible untimely loss and how he tries to convince himself that it is for the best that his son has gone. The poem itself was written after the tragic death of Jonson's first son, Benjamin, and so is a rather moving reflection of events painfully close to Ben Jonson's own life.

The poem is one stanza long, and contains 12 lines. The use of 1 stanza shows the one and only thing on the poet's (or the poem's protagonist's) mind, and how they cannot escape or cannot cease praising the young boy who tragically died so young. Rhyming couplets throughout (joy, boy/pay, day) add to the romance and compassion of the poem, to show just how much his son meant to him. We can tell he means a lot to Jonson, as he named his son after himself, Ben. He then calls him "his best piece of poetrie", which indeed is high praise. All Jonson's livelihood and work pales in comparison to the pride he felt for his son. The only sin was "too much hope of thee", so Jonson loved his son almost too much, and expected too much of him.

Despite his grief, Ben tries to view the disaster in a positive light. "why will man lament the state that he should envy?" His son is in heaven, a better place, so he should be grateful that his son has escaped the horrors of this world and gone to paradise. He also states "to have soon scap'd worlds and fleshes rage, and if no other miserie yet age?", meaning his son died before he had the chance to let old age ravage him, and surely that can only be a good thing, he suggests.

In the final two lines, we discover that Jonson already has other children, yet vows "what he love may never like too much" - he promises not to love his other children as much as he loved Ben, for fear of feeling this much pain should a similar fate befall one of his other offspring. This poem was written in 1616, so childhood mortality was not uncommon. He however only vows, and almost certainly will break his promise.

The poem is stunningly poignant, moving and thought-provoking, stirring the emotions of readers 394 years after it's conception. It makes us all think about how we would react if such a tragedy was to happen to us, and the emotive language used makes us empathise extremely strongly with this glorious work.

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