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Response to Looking for a poem

from Nonnie (nonnie@switchboardmail.com)
On My First Son by Ben Jonson

Farewell, thou child of my right hand*, and joy;

My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy:

Seven years thou 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 'scaped world's and flesh's rage,

And, if no other misery, yet age?

Rest in soft peace, and asked, 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.*

*"Child of the right hand" is a literal translation of the Hebrew name "Benjamin," which implies the meaning "dextrous" or "fortunate". The boy was born in 1596 and died on his birthday in 1603.

*Relinquish all fatherly thoughts.

*The obscure grammar of the last lines seems to recapitulate the feeling in line 2, that too much affection is fatal to the loved one. "Whose sake" is the boy's; "like" may carry the sense of "please."

Jonson's grief at the loss of his son make him think he has 'loved too much'. But his son was so dear to him as to be his "best piece of poetry" and the "child of my right hand."

(posted 9089 days ago)

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