On My First Sonne

‘On my first Sonne’ – an interpretation

Jonson, kneeling by the side of his son’s grave, spoke softly. “Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy,” he whispered. He sought for reasons why his dear son should be taken from him. Perhaps he had loved him too much? Perhaps he should have loved God more? “My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy…” At any rate, he saw that his son had been a kind of loan – and now it was time for repayment. “Seven years you were lent to me, and I thee pay, exacted by thy fate, on the just day.” How ‘just’ it was that little Ben’s death should occur on his seventh birthday – and how dreadful.

His sorrow momentarily overcame him. “Oh, could I lose all, father, now,” he cried. Then he collected his thoughts and tried to see what had happened from his son’s point of view. His son would be in heaven and would not suffer the difficulties and pains of life on earth. “For why,” said Jonson to himself, “will man lament the state he should envy? To have so soon escaped world’s, and flesh’s rage, and, if no other misery, yet age?”

“Rest in soft peace,” he said. He looked up and noticed his friend and colleague standing quietly nearby. He was holding a volume of Jonson’s poems. Jonson rose from his knees and spoke softly. “Here lies Ben Jonson’s best piece of poetry!”

To no one in particular, he said, “For whose sake, henceforth, all my vows be such, so what I love, I may never like too much.”

The keen-eyed reader will notice that I have added punctuation here and there, and taken liberties with some lines. Both these will affect the meaning. Feel free to change it back again – or add your own interpretation.