On My First Son by Ben Jonson (1572-1637)

I will be analysing a poem called ‘on my first son’ by Ben Jonson (1572-1637) was an actor, play write poet. He wrote his plays around the same time as William Shakespeare.
This poem expression of grief over the death of eldest son, this is a real story which occurred to Ben Jonson himself. Ben Jonson left London early in 1603, to stay at a country house, just as a bout of plague was about to envelop the city. He seems to have been worried about his eldest son, called Ben his father, because he had a dream about him: “he saw in a vision his eldest son appear unto him with the mark of Red Cross on his forehead”. This was frightening, because the Red Cross was the sign put on houses struck by the plague. And after few days he received a letter from his wife telling him that his son Benjamin had died. Jonson writes the poem as if he is talking to his son, and he assumes that the boy can hear or read his read. He calls him the child of his “right hand” both to suggest the boy’s worth and also the fact that he would have been the writer’s successor (the image comes from the bible, it reflects on the way Jesus is shown as sitting at God’s right hand).
The mood of this poem shows the sombre and grief but on the other side it also shows a bright side how he loved his son. The atmosphere/tone is reflecting on him talking about his son, how his son was everything and he put his son in place instead of god. Beginning is sad as it shows straight away that he loves her but suggests that something bad has happened –death. A calmer atmosphere pervades in the last four line, where the poet is in positive mood, seeing his son as his finest creation. The middle section from line 5 is the most emotional one, but Jonson tries to be philosophical about his grief seeing death as an escape from a troubled world.