“On My First Son” by Ben Jonson
Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy; My sin was too much hope of thee, lov’d boy. Seven years tho’ 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 5 Will man lament the state he should envy? To have so soon ‘scap’d world’s and flesh’s rage, And if no other misery, yet age? Rest in soft peace, and ask’d, say, “Here doth lie Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry.” 10 For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such, As what he loves may never like too much. On the surface, this poem is a simple elegy (a poem of serious reflection, normally a lament for the dead) from father to son. But do a little research and deeper thinking, and it will open a whole new world for you. Historically, Ben Jonson was best known for his satire. Other than the moving lyrical prose, the reason this poem packs a punch is that it’s so different than Jonson’s normal work, it stands out. According to the Kübler-Ross model, there are five stages of grief: anger, denial, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Jonson demonstrates all of these stages, except denial, in his elegy to his son. Denial is not present in this poem because the poem was written an unknown time after the burial. The first stage, anger, is reflected in “O, could I lose all father now!” (line 5). Jonson’s tone in this line is very much angry. He is literally saying that he cannot be a father without a son; he doesn’t even want to be a father without his son. Bargaining is the third stage. In this poem bargaining is present, but you have to go looking for it. Lines 3-4 say, “Seven years tho’ wert lent to me, and I thee pay/Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.” Jonson is saying here that God lent him his son for seven years, but he would pay to get him back again. Even though his son has to be “returned” to Heaven, Jonson wishes he didn’t have to be. The fourth step, depression, is littered throughout the elegy. “Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy”, “My sin was too much hope of thee, lov’d boy”, and “To have so soon ‘scap’d world’s and flesh’s rage/And if no other misery, yet age” are all examples of the immense sadness Jonson feels when his favorite son has passed away. Finally, the last two lines of the poem offer the acceptance Jonson feels about his son’s death. “For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such/As what he loves may never like too much” (lines 11-12) simply state that the speaker is vowing to never love somebody or something so much again as to avoid the emotional rollercoaster that his son’s passing brought. Envy is another huge concept of this elegy. Jonson explores the jealousy he feels towards his son in lines 5-8. “For why/Will man lament the state he should envy?/To have so soon ‘scap’d world’s and flesh’s rage,/And if no other misery, yet age?” Here, the speaker is grateful that his son escaped a hateful world and will remain forever young. There is an underlying tone of envy in this passage because he wonders why living beings cry for the dead but do not see the blessing in it. They get to leave this world and breathe without pain for the first time. In common words, they’re in a better place. Grief about the death of a loved one is universal. Everybody understands what is it like to lose someone precious and how long the recovery afterwards takes. However, the loss of a child hits the hardest because they don’t get to experience a full life. Multiple artists explore the feeling of losing a child. “Ronan” by Taylor Swift, “Tears in Heaven” by Eric Clapton, and “Fly” by Celine Dion tie into this poem because they’re all sung from a parent’s point of view to a passed child. Finally, the line of the poem that packs the hardest punch are lines 9 and 10, “Rest in soft peace, and ask’d, say, ‘Here doth lie/Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry.’” Jonson is calling his son a work of art, the best part of him, and his heart and soul. Basically, if the angels ask who you are, tell them you are my favorite work of art. These tear-jerking lines hit me really hard because before she died, my grandmother used to call me her heart. The simple quietness of the poem (and especially these lines) reveal truly how devastated Jonson is over the death of his son, but that he accepts it.
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Eating Together
I know my friend is going, though she still sits there across from me in the restaurant, and leans over the table to dip her bread in the oil on my plate; I know how thick her hair used to be, and what it takes for her to discard her man’s cap partway through our meal, to look straight at the young waiter and smile when he asks how we are liking it. She eats as though starving—chicken, dolmata, the buttery flakes of filo-- and what’s killing her eats, too. I watch her lift a glistening black olive and peel the meat from the pit, watch her fine long fingers, and her face, puffy from medication. She lowers her eyes to the food, pretending not to know what I know. She’s going. And we go on eating. In the poem, “Eating Together”, Kim Addonizio doesn’t dance around the main point of the poem, but doesn’t come outright and say it. She uses the narrator’s thoughts to communicate to the readers, while her body language remains the same throughout the poem. The use of an everyday setting (a living room, street, a field) is a common theme in much of Addonizio’s poetry. In this one, it’s a Greek restaurant. The simplicity of the location makes this poem seem like real life. Actually, this situation could have happened to Addonizio and she wrote about her feelings. The unspoken agreement between the narrator and her friend sets the tone of the poem because even though neither one speaks, the readers know exactly what’s being presented. “I know my friend is going, though she still sits there” (lines 1-2) offer the readers the first clue about the narrator’s sick friend. The next, larger clue is “I know how thick her hair used to be, and what it takes for her to discard her man’s cap partway through our meal,” (lines 5-8). “Her face, puffy from medication” (lines 18-19) gives the reader another clue as to she has cancer or another debilitating condition. “She eats as though starving—chicken, dolmata, the buttery flakes of filo- and what’s killing her eats, too” (Lines 11-15) give the reader the biggest clue to what is going on. This line cements that her friend has cancer, and the narrator is concerned. Lines 19-21 state, “She lowers her eyes to the food, pretending not to know what I know.” The unspoken agreement between the narrator and her friend is present here. From personal experience, when you’re really sick and you want to hang out with friends, you don’t want to talk about your illness. All you want to do is normal things like, watch movies or eat at restaurants and talk. I think that Addonizio described this potentially awkward situation perfectly. “ She’s going. And we go on eating.” (Lines 21-22). The final lines are poignant and heartbreaking, but perfect for ending the poem. “What Was”
The streets fill with cabs and limos, with the happy laughter of the very drunk; the benches in Washington Square Park, briefly occupied by lovers, have been reclaimed by men who stretch out coughing under the Chronicle. We're sitting on the cold slab of a cathedral step, and to keep myself from kissing you I stare at the cartoony blue neon face of a moose, set over the eponymous restaurant, and decide on self-pity as the best solution to this knot of complicated feelings. So much, my love, for love; our years together recede, taillights in the fog that's settled in. I breathe your familiar smell - Tuscany Per Uomo, Camel Lights, the sweet reek of alcohol - and keep from looking at your face, knowing I'm still a sucker for beauty. Nearby, a man decants a few notes from his tenor sax, honking his way through a tune meant to be melancholy. Soon I'll drive home alone, weeping and raging, the radio twisted high as I can stand it - or else I'll lean toward you, and tell you any lie I think will bring you back. And if you're reading this, it's been years since then, and everything's too late the way it always is in songs like this, the way it always is. Kim Addonizio’s tragic poem about lost love is perfect for the month of February and Valentine’s Day. It opens up as light, cheery, and romantic. Addonizio paints a picture of a young couple enjoying a night, but the image is soon shattered. Washington Square Park is mentioned in line 3 as the location of the poem. This park is in Greenwich Village, New York City and traditionally the home of artists, musicians, writers, lovers, and free spirits. Addonizio’s choice of Washington Square Park is most likely intentional to establish the amount of lovers and happiness. With the first half of the poem containing “The streets fill with cabs and limos, with the happy laughter of the very drunk” (lines 1-2), “the benches in Washington Square Park, briefly occupied by lovers” (lines 3-4), and “Nearby, a man decants a few notes from his tenor sax, honking his way through a tune meant to be melancholy” (lines 18-20), it’s hard not to imagine couples in love. Addonizio moves from multiple couples to focusing only on her and her boyfriend. It’s very easy to see the passion the narrator feels for him as she says, “to keep myself from kissing you I stare at the cartoony blue neon face of a moose” (lines 7-9), and “I'm still a sucker for beauty” (line 18). At the same time however, Addonizio highlights how he smells like “Tuscany Per Uomo, Camel Lights, the sweet reek of alcohol” (lines 15-16), which are traditionally disliked scents. The narrator also feels self-pity when she’s sitting with her love on the cathedral steps- another warning sign. The shift in the poem occurs suddenly in line 24. Addonizio goes from a picturesque setting of two lovers in New York City to “I'll drive home alone, weeping and raging, the radio twisted high” (lines 21-22). It becomes clear that the previous 20 lines were all a flashback. The narrator is even begging herself to stay away from her ex; “the radio twisted high as I can stand it - or else I'll lean toward you, and tell you any lie I think will bring you back” (lines 22-24). Addonizio closes out the poem almost like a letter with, “if you're reading this” (line 28). The narrator knows that the love is too dead and gone to come back to life, but that it hasn’t been forgotten, especially when melancholy songs begin to play. New Year’s Day
by Kim Addonizio https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/42518 In Addonizio’s poem, “New Year’s Day”, the poem could literally mean January 1st. The mention of snow on the ground in line two supports this idea, but most people make new year’s resolutions around this time of year in hopes of becoming thinner, healthier, richer, and better. To me, Addonizio chose the title “New Year’s Day” to represent the change we see in people for the better. Addonizio uses the weather to exemplify these new beginnings. Lines 1-5 talk about rain washing away the last of the snow and grass starting to grow again. To me, this is a pretty clear that the rain is washing away one season and getting ready for a newer, brighter one. It's not until the end of the poem does Addonizio use weather as a descriptor of a “new year”. Lines 39-42 discuss the “cold blessing of the rain” coming down on the narrator’s face rather than washing away the snow. This symbolizes the shedding of an old skin and ultimately becoming someone new. The middle section of the poem utilizes people instead of the weather to symbolize new beginnings. The narrator is known to be alone because while she’s wondering about her west coast lovers she mentions, “Here in Virginia I walk across the fields with only a few young cows for company” (Lines 8-10). Somehow these young cows remind her of the shy girls she went to junior high with. The narrator wonders if these now women are like her and “must sometimes stand at a window late at night, looking out on a silent backyard, at one rusting lawn chair and the sheer walls of other people’s houses” (Lines 18-22). This further creates a feeling of loneliness. She imagines that they probably also cry for past lovers and wonder how they got this far without knowing anything. If the narrator is trying to connect with them, it means she probably does the same thing. Lines 29-38 signals a shift in the poem because all of a sudden the narrator stops feeling pity for herself and these other women and says, “I don’t know why I’m walking out here with my coat darkening and my boots sinking in, coming up with a mild sucking sound I like to hear. I don’t care where those girls are now. Whatever they’ve made of it they can have. Today I want to resolve nothing.” These lines signal the ultimate beginning because the narrator unknowingly decides she wants to become new. Even though she wants to “resolve nothing”, the rain coming down on her face symbolizes her transformation. SO WHAT
Guess what. If love is only chemistry- Phenylethylamine, that molecule that dizzies up the brain’s back room, smoky with hot bebop, it won’t be long until a single worker’s mopping up the scuffed 5 and littered floor, whistling tunelessly, each endorphin cooling like a snuffed glass candle, the air stale with memory. So what, you say; outside, a shadow lifts a trumpet from its case, lifts it like an ingot 10 and scatters a few virtuosic riffs toward the locked-down stores. You’ve quit believing that there’s more, but you’re still stirred enough to stop, and wait, listening hard. Kim Addonizio’s poem “So What” evokes a feeling of loneliness and struggle. When I first read the poem, it reminded me of unrequited love and loss. However, the second time I read it, I began to think more of drug addicts and their fight to remain clean. To support this claim, line 1 says that “love is only chemistry”. If love is such a good feeling, but is scientifically proven to be made up of chemicals, is it all of a sudden a lie? The most addicting substances in the world (i.e. drugs and the feeling of falling in love) are made up of pure compounds and neurotransmitters. Since their roots are in basic chemical structures, are they really so dangerous? Phenylethylamine (line 2) is a member of a class of chemicals that is known for its psychoactive and stimulative effects. It’s interesting that Addonizio would mention it in her poem because phenylethylamine is not an active compound in addictive drugs or the chemistry of love. So it’s not terrible, right? Lines 2-4 say, “that molecule that dizzies up the brain’s back room, smoky with hot bebop,” These lines support the fact that whatever the narrator is high on (be it romance or drugs), it causes a fulfilling feeling. The poem changes when Addonizio says “it won’t be long until a single worker’s mopping up the scuffed and littered floor,” meaning that while the high is enjoyable, it is short and the fall is painful. Lines 7-8 say, “each endorphin cooling like a snuffed glass candle, the air stale with memory.” The feelings from the intoxication are wading away and regrets from the previous emotional/physical high begin. The trumpet sound mentioned in line 11 is described as virtuosic and almost angelic, like a savior coming. The ending lines (12-14) confirm that this particular addiction is one that’s hard to quit. Every time you say that you’ve quit smoking, using, or being with that person, you find yourself right back where you began. The wake-up call from trumpet always sounds in your head, but it never stays long enough to keep you on track. I realized that love and drugs can both be dangerous and addicting (even though they are made up of innocent chemical compounds) and that the poem weaves these two things interchangeably. One line you think is referencing a lover and the next, a drug addict. Addonizio skillfully uses the similarities of both conditions to highlight the danger of falling in love and picking up a needle. Mermaid Song
for Aya at fifteen Damp-haired from the bath, you drape yourself upside down across the sofa, reading, one hand idly sunk into a bowl of crackers, goldfish with smiles stamped on. I think they are growing gills, swimming up the sweet air to reach you. Small girl, my slim miracle, they multiply. In the black hours when I lie sleepless, near drowning, dread-heavy, your face is the bright lure I look for, love's hook piercing me, hauling me cleanly up. Kim Addonizio’s poem, “Mermaid Song”, is about how her daughter is the very best thing in her life. The poem was written for her daughter, Aya, when Aya was 15. The poem starts out innocently, describing her daughter lounging around the couch eating a snack. “Damp-haired from the bath, you drape yourself upside down across the sofa, reading,” Even though Aya is just laying on the couch and snacking on goldfish crackers, her mother thinks she is almost like an angel. Addonizio calls Aya “my slim miracle”, for the first time inferring to the reader that Aya saved her mother’s life. I think that a shift occurs right before Addonizio starts describing "The black hours," The tone changes from bright and sweet to dark and passionate almost immediately. Addonizio says that at night when she's almost given up hope, “your face is the bright lure I look for, love’s hook piercing me, hauling me cleanly up.” That last line solidifies a mother’s love and how great it can be when it comes to her daughter. In all probability, Addonizio was depressed before Aya’s birth and that all changed once she was born. Aya can be seen as like a fisherman, using her love to reel her depressed mother back to the surface of life. The title “Mermaid Song” also refers to Aya. Mermaids are supposed to be these perfect, magical beings, and to Addonizio, Aya is the perfect being. I want a red dress.
I want it flimsy and cheap, I want it too tight, I want to wear it until someone tears it off me. I want it sleeveless and backless, this dress, so no one has to guess what’s underneath. I want to walk down the street past Thrifty’s and the hardware store with all those keys glittering in the window, past Mr. and Mrs. Wong selling day-old donuts in their café, past the Guerra brothers slinging pigs from the truck and onto the dolly, hoisting the slick snouts over their shoulders. I want to walk like I’m the only woman on earth and I can have my pick. I want that red dress bad. I want it to confirm your worst fears about me, to show you how little I care about you or anything except what I want. When I find it, I’ll pull that garment from its hanger like I’m choosing a body to carry me into this world, through the birth-cries and the love-cries too, and I’ll wear it like bones, like skin, it’ll be the goddamned dress they bury me in. Kim Addonizio’s poem, “What Do Women Want?”, is centered around a red dress. At first, she appears to be writing superficially about her want for an attractive red dress. The poem opens up with her saying, “I want a red dress. I want it flimsy and cheap.” I believe that this stands for her childish wants and dreams. Addonizio thinks the dress is pretty and she wants it only because of its outward appearance. As she grows up and matures, she desires the red dress because of the fact that it stands for the sexual freedom of a desirable woman. Being a woman means to her that, “I want to walk like I’m the only woman on earth and I can have my pick.” She believes that the cheap, backless, sleeveless, red dress will give her that power. This expectation of hers cements the belief that a dress will make her into a woman. Once she realizes the dress will give her this power, she says, “I want that red dress bad. I want it to confirm your worst fears about me, to show you how little I care about you or anything except what I want.” Addonizio views the dress as a way for her to become a desirable woman who doesn’t conform to the 1950’s housewife standards. She wants to be wanted by everyone around her. I bet that it’s an invigorating experience to turn heads every which way when you walk down the street. I know that the vain part of me would enjoy that. To me, the red dress stands for so much more in the poem. If a dress brings a woman confidence, then bring it on. If Addonizio wants to live her life with a “red dress” mentality, I say more power to her. |
SarahI'm an AP English student and high school senior who loves everything about lemons and Grey's Anatomy. This is my blog to talk about literature and everything English. Archives
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