Compare Two Poetry - Essay Example

Comparative Analysis of “On My First Son” by Ben Jonson and “My Prime of Youth is But a Frost of Cares” by Chidiock Tichborne The poems “On My First Son” by Ben Jonson and “My Prime of Youth is But a Frost of Cares” by Chidiock Tichborne both converge to the theme of unfulfilled youth where each speaker confesses of great personal crisis that comes prematurely or at a point in life when dynamism of hopes and beauty of enthusiastic determination should have prevailed. Instead, both men from each situation lament their fates as if to convey a state of irreparable despair. While Jonson chiefly uses second person viewpoint in his “On My First Son” to show representation of another indispensable character, the speaker’s son, Tichborne necessitates first person point of view for the narrating individual who is himself the central subject of the piece “My Prime of Youth is But a Frost of Cares”. Through the work of Jonson, the reader is engaged into the grieving sentiment of a man whose first son yield to a seemingly untimely death which the father recounts in bitter yet fond memories of affection, expressing “Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy.” As the text progresses in monologue, it appears as though the man illustrates how he has been through suffering and pain with the child yet despite this, he exhibits remorse, stating “My sin was too much hope of thee, lov’d boy.” One could be drawn to perceive a scenario of a literally dying son whom the father chooses not to save for another great cause or ground more essential than life. On exclaiming “O, could I lose all father now!” the speaker acknowledges his own weakness and shortfall at being incapable of executing an act of salvation for his offspring. Eventually he seeks to be justified, nevertheless, upon rationalizing “For why / Will Man lament the state he should envy?” and this makes a smooth transition from the stage where he could have fully relished all guilt and put the burden on himself. To him, he would rather see a dead son than witness a child struggle with harsh realities of living when there is nothing he could do, remaining helpless for the loved one. It would be felt that no matter how difficult it is for the man to make the decision of letting go, allowing his son’s demise may be alternatively understood in the light of an outstanding love that would never afford to have someone subject to prolonged exposure to misery. On the other hand, Tichborne employs a similar tone of loss and regret for the character in the elegy “My Prime of Youth is But a Frost of Cares”, this time however, the man speaks of himself and of his wasted youth. Unlike the son in Jonson’s poem, this young man has had the opportunity to continue living, not necessarily in the name of suffering or lack of freedom, yet conspicuously in vain as indicated by the mood and the author’s way with words which appear to exude an abstract picture of his emotional response toward what occurs as a dull life or trifle well-being. By “frost of cares”, the poet could have referred to a stress on the huge deterrent to the young man’s quest for meaning. This is quite evident in the 4th and 5th lines of the first stanza: “And all my good is but vain hope of gain. / The day is gone and I yet I saw no sun” and also in the 4th and 5th lines of the second stanza: “I saw the world, and yet I was not seen, / My thread is cut, and yet it was not spun.” These passages signify how the man of youth lives a life in which most of his time is spent on addressing worldly concerns that are typically not directly proportional to his own needs of growth and happiness. The narrator likely evokes the feeling that it makes no sense to go on with living if the purpose is not found or if one is often unable to figure out the sensible meaning of his existence due to several worries and cares within society for which a large portion of individual thought and energy is applied to no avail. Jonson’s work may be further distinguished from that of Tichborne’s in terms of its structure that is composed basically of couplets which enable rhyming of end-words of the two consecutive lines such as joy/boy, pay/day, rage/age, and such/much. Since the poet lived during the Renaissance period, Jonson’s style of writing may be recognized to project a solemn image and sound with old English usage that is attributive of the themes and influences of the era which also manifested in contemporary writings of Shakespeare as well as other poets and playwrights at the time. Tichborne’s creation, on the contrary, is structured so as to render each poetic line end-stopped with occasional measures of caesura. Having divided the poem in three sections each ending with the signature line: “And now I live, and now my life is done”, it occurs as if Tichborne desires to inculcate into the reader’s core attention the depths of heavy solitude. It may be claimed that the strength in bringing across the heart or flesh of the subject is enhanced by the sharp contrasts of alternating paradoxical lines demonstrating the manner in which all odds seem against the exhausted man whose youthful qualities have all faded before his time. I suppose that Ben Jonson’s “On My First Son” consists of a more refined literary scheme over Tichborne’s composition. Apparently, the poem is compact and sounds straight to the point and even if Jonson prefers a much lighter treatment with figurative language for the piece, the manner of its poetic construction still preserves its sense of unity or wholeness as it meets the demand for an exquisite craft of poetry. The poet need not elaborate on the crucial details of the text since the essence of the dramatic theme may be readily obtained through Jonson’s lyrical attitude in conveying the sincere message of the main character. Moreover, the verses in “On My First Son” are somewhat flexible apart from the typical order of word or phrase by rigid metric patterns. To me, it gives an overflowing impact of nature that calls forth the fundamental instincts of human feelings and understanding especially when it comes to the realization of truth about the senses in relation to the achievement of human goals and longings. I think I like the poem’s morale or notion that the father is in full awareness of their condition and he knows exactly how to deal with it so he takes a life-turning step on the inevitable path of life toward resolution of conflict as opposed to the major figure in Tichborne’s “My Prime of Youth is But a Frost of Cares” who lets himself be consumed by unworthy cares instead to the extent that keeping them in his life has, in the process, ruined the bulk prime of his youth. Read More