Ben Johnson's "On My First Son," is about the brief life of his son. From reading this poem we can tell that they were really close. Ben and his son Benjamin were such good friends that he wanted to make sure he had the world. He focused so much on all the things he wanted for his son that he was living in those moments of what he thought would be the future, instead of living in the present. After his son's death, he then began to beat himself up and wonder if he would ever be given the chance again to be a father. This paper will explore the rhyming words, elegy, emotive vocabulary, exclamation and imagery in "On My First Son.".
As the poem goes on, we may place ourselves in the father's shoes. His only son died at such an early age that he didn't get the chance to fully experience the world. There were only so many things he could do between his birth and his death on his seventh birthday. He did not have the chance to get an education, a job, a wife, kids, etc. He was not fortunate enough to experience the great things he could have achieved in life. This poem is like one of Shakespeare's sonnets, which were generally love poems, showing how he loved his son. However it is cut short by 2 lines illustrating how his son's life was cut short.
This poem has a few poetic devices throughout its structure. Form beginning to end, this poem is completed with rhyming words at the end of each sentence. For example, the first two sentences of the poems say:.
"Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy; .
My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy" (lines 1-2). .
Beginning the poem with the word "Farewell" shows that it is an elegy (a poem in honor of the dead). The rhyme of "joy" and "boy" shows how much he loved his son. Using rhyme in poetry gives it a repetitive quality, allowing it to gain a songlike quality, and it is often used to make the poems easier to remember.