In “On My First Son,” the speaker mourns the loss of his young son. Explain what the speaker means when he says, “Seven years thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay, / Exacted by thy fate, on the just day” (lines 3–4)?
The speaker means that his son was lent to him by God or fate for seven years, but fate reclaimed him on the predetermined day. The son was therefore not permanently his possession; he had to return what had been entrusted to him.
In “On My First Son,” the speaker tries to comfort himself over the loss of his son. Why does he suggest that his son’s death is a “state he should envy” (line 6)? Support your answer with one other line from the poem.
He calls his son’s death a state he should envy because the boy died before facing the suffering, temptations, and aging that come with life. The speaker says that his son has “so soon ’scaped world’s and flesh’s rage,” meaning he was spared the world’s troubles and the weaknesses of the human body.
Based on your reading of “On My First Son,” whom can you hypothesize is the speaker of this poem? Explain why your answer choice is correct.a. Ben Jonsonb. a ministerc. a fatherd. a son
c. a father. The speaker mourns the death of his “first son,” calls the child “my loved boy,” and describes the seven years that the child was “lent” to him. These details show that the speaker is the boy’s father. (Historically, the poem was written by Ben Jonson, but the speaker within the poem is a grieving father.)
In “On My First Son,” the speaker reveals to the reader a lesson he has learned from the loss of his son. What twist in meaning exists in the following line: “What he loves may never like too much” (line 12)?
The speaker vows not to love anything too much because excessive love can lead to overwhelming grief when the loved person or thing is lost. The line is also ironic: although he claims he will control his love in the future, the poem’s intense sorrow shows that he loved his son deeply and cannot easily escape that love.
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