Ben Johnson- On my first Sonne

Structure
• One stanza- makes grief plainly known and nothing has to be unpicked as it is easy to
see he loved his son and respects fate
• Rhyming couplets
- Appropriate as his tribute to a young son
- Give the poem structure—may help him hold the memory of his son
• Iambic pentameter- 10 syllables in each line- creates a rhythm
• 12 lines long- 2 lines short of being a sonnet- perhaps his grief was too great to
complete the poem
• Is an elegy (mournful poem)- mourning the death of his son

Language
• Pride and affection
o“lov’d boy” Poem written as if it’s directly to him- makes it more affectionate and
personal
o “Farewell, thou child of my right hand”- Significant as it is a religious first line- Jesus
sat on the right side of God.
- Could also mean that he was better than most and favoured as left-handed children
were scolded.
- Also suggests the Boy’s great worth as he was the eldest, and they were always
seen as the most important child, so he would sit at his father’s right side at the
dining table and would have been the writer’s heir.
- Also- Benjamin is a Hebrew name- means “child of the right hand”
o “his best piece of poetrie”
- Johnson was extremely proud of his poetry- but here he says his son was his best
creation and more important to him than anything he every wrote
• Like a thought pattern
o“Doth lye/ Ben. Johnson”
- Enjambment- heightens importance- makes it seem like thought pattern- goes on
and on
- Caesura- pausing in thought pattern when he comes to his name as if he is about to
cry from grief
• Simple, direct language
- Conveys poets sincerity and grief
- Not trying to impress with “poetic” language and effects/devices- simple funeral
poem

Themes
• Paradox
 different ideas about death
o “seven yeeres tho wert lent to me, and I thee pay”
- This metaphor is saying that his son was only lent to him, so his boys life is shown
in the terms of a loan, which he has to repay after seven years, on the day it was
due “exacted...the just day”
o“My sinne was too much on thee, lov’d boy”
- He loved his son too much, which was a sin that caused the boy’s death
o “exacted by thy fate”
- He thinks’ the boy’s death was inevitable and something he couldn’t control
 We mourn over something we should envy
o“will man lament the state he should envy”
- He has escaped “fleshes rage...miseries...age” the diseases of the body and the
miseries of growing old
• Religious ideas- as he was Christian
 o “right hand”
- Jesus was the right hand of God
o “exacted by thy fate, on the just day”
-Extended metaphor- all people belong to god and are permitted to spend time in
this world
• Should be careful about love
o“My sinne...too much hope... i loose all father now”
- This means that his sin was hoping that his son would live for a long time and
loving his son too much. This caused him a grief so great he wishes he could lose all
feelings of a father
olast two lines
- epigram- a complex idea in two rhyming lines
- Last line- difference between like and love. in future he will not be as pleased and
pleasured by the things he loves- because the grief is too much when we lose them

Imagery
• Metaphor
o “Severn yeeres th’wert lent to me and I thee pay”
- Money is a metaphor for God taking and receiving life at his will

Sound
• Sibilance
o“Rest in soft peace”
- Creates a sense of peace and tranquillity