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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ben Jonson
Very little is known of the early life of poet, essayist, and playwright Ben Jonson. He was born in 1572 in London, England. His father, a minister, died shortly before...
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FURTHER READING
Poems About Sons
Come Up From the Fields Father
by Walt Whitman
Deer Hit
by Jon Loomis
Fishing in Winter
by Ralph Burns
Odysseus to Telemachus
by Joseph Brodsky
With Kit, Age 7, at the Beach
by William Stafford
Yesterday
by W. S. Merwin
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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 thou'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
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.
For whose sake, henceforth, all his vows be such,
As what he loves may never like too much.
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