Student Question
What is the tone contrast between Ben Jonson's "On My First Son" and "Song to Celia"?
Quick answer:
The tone of Ben Jonson's "On My First Son" is deeply sorrowful and sincere, reflecting grief over the loss of his child. In contrast, "Song to Celia" has a tone of desperate longing and hope, characterized by the speaker's unrequited love and exaggerated expressions of devotion. While "On My First Son" conveys genuine lamentation, "Song to Celia" adopts a more stylized, conventional love poem tone, focusing on courtly love rather than profound personal sorrow.
The tone of a poem is the mood or emotion it conveys. The tone of "On My
first Son," is one of deep and sincere grief for the loss of a beloved child,
as the opening lines reveal:
Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;
My sin was too much hope of thee, lov'd boy.
In this poem, Jonson is lamenting the loss of his young son. He tries to
comfort himself that his son is in a better place and has escaped the horrors
of aging, but his heart is nevertheless full of pain at the loss.
"Song to Celia" is about the speaker's unrequited love for Celia. He loves
her but she shows she does not love him when he returns the wreath he has sent
her. The tone of this poem is one of desperation for the beloved and the wish
to keep hope alive. The speaker expresses his desire for Celia through
exaggeration, saying that the wreath he sent would not have withered if it had
stayed in her presence and that now, although returned, it comes back carrying
her scent. Its tone is far more stylized—more a conventionalized love
poem tone—than the sincerely grieved tone of "On My first Son." In Celia, the
speaker plays a courtly love game; in Son, the lament is deep and real.
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