Saturday, April 21, 2018

101 Poems, Number 82


Favorite Poems Throughout My Life


82: “On My First Son,” 1616, by Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

So old, the poetry of pain.
And lines like these can help explain
The universal sort of grief
We feel—and how there’s no relief.

Yes, infant death was common then—
But painful still. No matter when
Such loss occurs, the absent child
Makes sufferers feel lostexiled.

And Jonson finds the words to say
What can’t be said. He’s found the way
To capture in his lines how death
Removes, as well, survivors’ breath.

Link to poem.

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