Overview

The poem is an elegy written by Ben Jonson after the death of his seven-year-old son. Jonson expresses heartbreak and says goodbye, calling his son his "best piece of poetry". The poem shows the depth of his love and the pain of his loss.

Main themes

The poem explores grief, the love between parent and child, death, and faith. Jonson also questions whether death might be a peaceful escape from the struggles of life.

Tone and voice

The tone is melancholic, heartbroken and deeply personal. Jonson speaks directly to his son, showing their closeness and how much he misses him.

Context

Jonson was a famous poet, usually known for satire and comedy, but this poem is unusually serious and emotional. He was interested in religion, which appears in the poem through references to sin and God. The title’s possessive "my" makes the poem personal, and in Elizabethan England, a "First Son" was especially significant.

Form and structure

The poem is 12 lines long, written in heroic couplets and iambic pentameter. The short length may reflect the shortness of his son’s life. Jonson uses an elevated poetic form for a private tragedy, showing the importance of his grief.

Poetic devices to spot

• Apostrophe – Jonson addresses his son directly, who cannot reply.
• Metaphor – calling his son his "best piece of poetry".
• Rhetorical questions – Jonson asks if death might be better than life.
• Caesura – frequent pauses show hesitation and emotion.
• Symbolism – "child of my right hand" suggests importance and biblical reference.
• Imagery of wealth – words like "lent", "pay", and "just day" show his son as precious and borrowed from God.

by Ben Jonson

Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;
My sin was too much hope of thee, lov'd boy.
Seven years tho' wert lent to me, and I thee pay,
Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.
O, could I lose all father now! For why
Will man lament the state he should envy?
To have so soon 'scap'd world's and flesh's rage,
And, if no other misery, yet age?
Rest in soft peace, and, ask'd, say here doth lie
Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry.
For whose sake, henceforth, all his vows be such,
As what he loves may never like too much.

The text of this poem is available in the CCEA Poetry Anthology, which can be downloaded from the CCEA website.

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An elegy – a serious poem usually written to reflect on and show sorrow for someone’s death – written to the poet’s seven-year-old son who died of plague. Written in 1603 – Queen Elizabeth I died the same year.

• Title: The possessive “my” makes the poem personal; a person’s “First Son” was a significant child in a patriarchal society like Elizabethan England, traditionally inheriting most of the family wealth.
• Themes: Loss, grief/mourning, parent-child relationship, death, faith.
• Tone: Melancholic, heartbroken, inconsolable.
• Speaker: First person, voice of the poet. This is a personal account, addressing his son directly.

• Jonson was an important, influential poet and dramatist, and the first Poet Laureate. His friend William Drummond called him “a great lover and praiser of himself”; he was very confident and took much pride in his work; this makes it significant that in this poem he refers to his son as his “best piece of poetry”.

Rest in soft peace, and, ask'd, say here doth lie
Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry.

• Jonson usually wrote works of comedy and satire; he is unusually vulnerable and sad in this heartfelt, serious poem.

• He was interested in theology, especially Catholicism, at a time when Catholics were persecuted in English society. This may explain some religious imagery in the poem (such as “my sin”), and the way he struggles with his religious faith, refusing to be consoled.

Only a little context is needed for each poem; where used, it should be applied to the point you're making.

• On my First Son is 12 lines long – that’s two lines shorter than a sonnet. Perhaps Jonson did this on purpose, to suggest his son’s life was cut short.

• Iambic pentameter was a common poetic metre in the time Jonson was writing – it was considered to be dignified and he would have been used to working in this rhythm.
  
  One ‘iamb’ is a two-beat combination: an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed (emphasised) syllable, making a ‘da-DUM’ pattern, like a heartbeat. Pentameter means five of these two-beat units per line, making 10 syllables altogether.

|Farewell,| thou child| of my |right hand, | and joy; |
|da-DUM | da-DUM | da-DUM | da-DUM | da-DUM |

• The poem is made up of six heroic couplets, an elevated form of writing usually reserved for tales of famous heroes and their grand deeds. Jonson takes this eminent form and uses it for his private tragedy; he is showing the world how important his personal grief is to him.

• This poem is an elegy, a particular poetic form usually used for writing about the loss felt after a death.

• Apostrophe: On my First Son uses apostrophe – not the punctuation mark, but a figure of speech where the poet addresses someone who cannot answer back. This could be someone who has departed for another place, or even an inanimate object; in this case, it is the son’s death that means he is absent as the poet speaks directly to him. This both highlights the son’s absence and shows how close the poet felt to him.

Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;
My sin was too much hope of thee, lov'd boy.

• Metaphor: The poet tells his son that if anyone asks who he is, he should tell them he is Ben Jonson’s “best piece of poetry”. Jonson thought very highly of himself and his work, so this is high praise from him, intended to show how much more he loved his son even more than the work he valued so highly. “[B]est” is a superlative – there can be nothing better. The idea of his son being a piece of poetry he wrote uses imagery of craftsmanship and quality; it also puts forward the idea that parenting a child is quite like authoring a piece of creative work, tying Jonson’s two main roles in life together.

• Rhetorical questions: Jonson asks whether we should mourn death or actually wish for it ourselves, since it would free us from the concerns of the world and the threat of our bodies ageing and decaying. This could seem like a thoughtful or maybe even positive way to look at death, but in the middle of the other sadness Jonson expresses in this poem, it could seem more like he is trying to convince himself. The questions show his uncertainty and suggest his faith in religion, and maybe even life itself, is wavering.

Will man lament the state he should envy?
To have so soon 'scap'd world's and flesh's rage,
And, if no other misery, yet age?

• Caesura: Use of punctuation such as dashes and commas to create pauses throughout the poem gives it a hesitant quality, as though he is stopping frequently. Maybe this shows him pausing to think as he speaks, or perhaps it is simply too hard for him to speak freely about such a painful matter.

• Symbolism: In most people, their right hand is typically considered the most useful and strong; this idea appears in general culture too, with phrases like “right-hand man” meaning a most helpful assistant. Jonson uses this symbol too – “Son of my right hand”. It not only suggests his son’s importance to him personally, but also evokes various Biblical references that in Heaven, Jesus will sit at “the right hand of the Father”.

• Imagery of wealth/money-lending: The terms “lent”, “pay”, “exacted” and “just day” were all used in money-lending; Jonson therefore not only creates an image of his son being borrowed (presumably from God), but equates him to wealth or treasure, showing his value. The idea of him being “lent” to the father also creates tension with the possessive “my” in the title – which is correct? Perhaps both are somehow true to Jonson in his grief and confusion.

This is not a list of every method or notable use of language and structure in On my First Son.

Look at the poem again. Can you find any of the following?

If you have found these methods, consider what you know about the poem and the poet already.

What effects do these methods create? Why has she used them?

• Long Distance II – another poem about coping with grief after a loss; shows a different but still close family relationship.
• Funeral Blues – also about being devastated by a death; also uses heroic couplets.
• Before You Were Mine – also an elegy written to a family member (albeit one who is not dead)

Use these questions to hone your knowledge of On my First Son, and to practise using your notes and analysis in organised paragraphs that focus on how particular themes or ideas are shown in the poem.

• How does Jonson show the extent of the loss he feels in On my First Son?
• What does On my First Son show us about Jonson’s attitude to being a father?
• How does Jonson show his feelings about death in On my First Son?
• How does Jonson create a tone of sadness in On my First Son?

Below is a demonstration of how to use the material in this section to answer an example essay question. The answer below is not a full essay, but only an extract of a longer answer showing some of the points that could be made.

Q: How does Jonson show the extent of the loss he feels in On my First Son?

A: Jonson firstly shows the extent of the loss he feels in his elegyOn my First Son by showing how much his son meant to him. He starts by using a metaphor, calling him “son of my right hand” – the right hand is considered the strongest and most useful, which shows the son’s importance to the poet. This is further emphasised if the reader is aware of Biblical references to Jesus being “seated at the right hand of the Father” in Heaven – Jonson was interested in theology and would have been aware of this allusion.

He further metaphorically refers to his son as “joy”, maybe evoking the saying “pride and joy” and showing how his son brought him such pure happiness it was as though he was Joy itself in human form. The son’s importance to him is further reflected in several references Jonson makes to imagery of money-lending: “lent”, “pay”, “exacted” and “just day”. By doing this, he is comparing his son to a large sum of money or wealth, showing his immense and precious value as though he were a treasure of some kind.

This essay could go on to make the following points, backed up by evidence from the poem and detailed analysis of that evidence:

• Jonson cannot find any consolation for this loss.
• Jonson feels that his son was his greatest achievement.
• Jonson finally shows in the last two lines that this loss is so great to him that it will affect how he feels about everything and everyone in his life from now on.