Pre 1914 poetry

key notes and ideas

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On my first sonne by Ben Jonson

What happens

  • lines 1-4 :- father saying goodbye to is 7yr old son that has died.
  • lines 5-8 :- he say that he envies his son becuse in hevean you dont have to deal with the horrible truth about life.
  • lines 9-12 :- he say that his son thing he ever created. he decides never to love again because losing love hurts too much

Key quotes

  • "farewell" the father is directly addressing his son
  • "child of my right hand, and joy" he loved his son so much, he was the one person he trusted
  • "sinne" of the father wishing the son would live for a long time
  • "lov'd boy" it is almost saying that the love killed him
  • "lent" that God gave him such a good thing he only let him borrow him for seven years
  • "loose all father" he wants to die too
  • "scap'd worlds, and flesh rage, ..... yet aged?" he says there is an advantage to being dead because you don't suffer pain or growing old
  • "soft peace" through the pain he shows he still loves his dead son
  • "Ben. Jonson his piece of pooetrie" he best creation. also the full stop in the middle can imply the he is force in tears.
  • "As what he loves may never like too much" he will never love as much agian because it causes too much pain.

Feelings

  • Gref of losing he son and thinking it his fault but he could not do anything
  • Uncertainty - is it better to be dead or alive
  • Pain of loseing his son who  he loved so much
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The Man He Killed

What Happens

  • Lines 1-4:- the soilder says he could have been firends with the man he killed in war, if they had met in an inn.
  • Lines 5-8:- but they met at battle, so they shot at each other and now the other man is dead
  • Lines 9-12:- the only reason he killed him is because they are on diiferent sides.
  • Lines 13-16:- he thinks that the man he killed could have been someone like him, only enlisting because they were in need of a job
  • Lines 17-20:- he sums up. he says that war is a strange business- you kill poeple that in any other circumstances you would be friends with.

Key Quotes

  • "I shot at him as he he at me, And killed him in his place" he says it as it is a statment and the killing did not effect him (cold)
  • "because- Because" this repetion show that he is stumberling trying to think of a reason why he killed him
  • "you shoot a fellow down" it is almost phrased like a question asking would you kill a friend?
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