ON MY FIRST SON

by: Ben Jonson (1572-1637)

      AREWELL, thou child of my right hand, and joy,
      My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy;
      Seven years th' wert lent to me, and I thee pay,
      Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.
      O, I could lose all father now. For why
      Will man lament the state he should envy?
      To have so soon 'scaped world's and flesh's rage,
      And, if no other misery, yet age?
      Rest in soft peace, and, asked, say here doth lie
      Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry;
      For whose sake, henceforth, all his vows be such
      As what he loves may never like too much.

"On My First Son" is reprinted from Epigrams (1616).

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