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 lost—exiled.

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.