Death in Jonson and Nashe: A Comparative Poetry Analysis
This paper examines the theme of death in three early modern English poems: Ben Jonson's "On My First Son" and "On My First Daughter," and Thomas Nashe's "A Litany in Time of Plague." Through comparative analysis, the paper explores how each poet approaches mortality from a distinct vantage point — Jonson as a grieving father processing sorrow, relief, and acceptance after the loss of his children, and Nashe through the voice of a plague-stricken man reflecting on the futility of earthly wealth, strength, and health in the face of inevitable death. Despite their different perspectives, both poets ultimately arrive at acceptance of death's inescapable nature.
- Introduction: Death as a Literary Theme: Death as theme in Jonson and Nashe
- Ben Jonson's 'On My First Son': Sorrow, Relief, and Acceptance: Jonson's paternal grief and eventual acceptance
- Ben Jonson's 'On My First Daughter': Reverence and Detachment: Jonson's reverence and emotional distance for daughter
- Thomas Nashe's 'A Litany in Time of Plague': A Dying Man's Reflections: Nashe's plague speaker reflects on mortality
- Conclusion: Shared Themes, Different Perspectives: Both poets arrive at acceptance of death
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper maintains a clear comparative structure throughout, keeping both authors in view and returning to shared themes — particularly the acceptance of death — to unify the analysis.
- It tracks emotional progression within Jonson's poems stanza by stanza, giving readers a sense of how the poems develop as arguments, not just expressions of grief.
- The paper identifies meaningful contrasts within the comparison: Jonson's personal, paternal voice versus Nashe's universalized, communal speaker broadens the thematic scope without losing focus.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates close reading integrated with comparative framing. The writer selects specific quoted lines from each poem and uses them as evidence to support claims about tone, emotion, and theme — for example, tracing Jonson's shift from sorrow to acceptance across the stanzas of "On My First Son." This evidence-based approach grounds the literary interpretation in the actual language of the texts.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a broad thematic introduction situating death in human culture and literature, then narrows to the specific poems and a guiding thesis. The body is organized by author and poem, analyzing Jonson's two elegies before moving to Nashe's plague poem. A brief conclusion draws the threads together by identifying the common endpoint — acceptance — that unifies all three poems despite their differing perspectives.
Introduction: Death as a Literary Theme
The history of humanity has consistently shown how death is defined and described as a direct contrast to life — how, in the joy of giving birth to life, humans also grieve and express sorrow in death. Indeed, death has been painted symbolically in art and literature as darkness, a mystery that cannot be understood or fully discerned. The enigma that is death continues to haunt humanity, and the dread people feel when death is impending reflects humanity's pursuit for enlightenment and understanding of mortality.
It is not surprising, then, that the theme of death became common ground for Ben Jonson and Thomas Nashe's poetry. In "On My First Son" and "On My First Daughter" by Ben Jonson, and "A Litany in Time of Plague" by Thomas Nashe, both authors explore the theme of death, though each approaches it from a different point of view. Jonson's poems address death from the perspective of a parent bearing the sorrow of his children's untimely deaths. Nashe, similarly, takes up the theme of death in his Litany, but does so through the voice of a man nearing death because of the plague. This comparative analysis posits that Jonson and Nashe's poems both illuminate the mystery of — and surprising revelations about — death: Jonson from the perspective of a father bemoaning the loss of a son and daughter, and Nashe from that of a dying man reflecting on his life and inevitable end.
Ben Jonson's 'On My First Son': Sorrow, Relief, and Acceptance
Jonson highlights the theme of death in both "On My First Son" and "On My First Daughter." In "On My First Son," the father expressed sorrow, relief, and ultimately acceptance in bemoaning the death of his son. These emotions are reflected progressively in the poem, with a shift in the father's mood occurring roughly every two stanzas.
The first mood shown is sorrow, as the father bids farewell to his son, who died exactly on his seventh birthday. Sorrow becomes apparent when the father laments, "My sin was too much hope of thee, lov'd boy," in effect confessing that he is also to blame for his son's death — that hoping too much for the boy's recovery only deepened his grief when hope failed to save him.
One painful truth revealed in the poem is the inevitability of death, which the father regards with both sorrow and a measure of gratitude. This idea is reinforced in the third and fourth stanzas, where the father expresses relief that his son did not live long enough to experience the suffering that would have awaited him: "To have so soon 'scaped world's and flesh's rage / And, if no other misery, yet age?" These lines highlight the father's attempt to console himself by arguing that all people must eventually die, and that a life of suffering would have been equally futile. His son, therefore, did not die in vain.
Toward the end of the poem, the father comes to accept both his own plight and his son's fate. It is at this point that Jonson acknowledges himself directly in the poem. His acceptance ends beautifully — and sorrowfully — with the following epitaph for both the living and the dead: "…say here doth lie / Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry / For whose sake…all his vows be such / As what he loves may never like too much." This closing couplet, with its warning against excessive attachment, encapsulates the emotional journey the poem traces from elegiac grief to hard-won wisdom.
Ben Jonson's 'On My First Daughter': Reverence and Detachment
Similar to his poem about his son, Jonson depicts profound sorrow in "On My First Daughter" — yet the emotional register differs noticeably. While "On My First Son" is deeply personal and introspective, "On My First Daughter" speaks more broadly, in some sense voicing the experience of all women, young and old. Jonson's greater affinity for his son is apparent when comparing the two poems: his treatment of his daughter's death carries a venerable quality but also, to some degree, a sense of emotional detachment.
This relative detachment may be attributed partly to the conventions of gender in his era — as a man, Jonson would naturally have felt a stronger personal identification with his son. It may also be explained by the brief span of his daughter's life: she barely lived six months, which may account for the somewhat more measured tone of the poem ("At six months' end, she parted hence…"). The reverence Jonson grants his daughter extends outward to all women and the roles they occupy in society: "Here lies, to each her parents' ruth / Mary, the daughter of their youth…Whose soul heaven's queen, whose name she bears / In comfort of her mother's tears…"
The author further honors his daughter by noting that she died in a state of purity ("Hath placed amongst her virgin-train…"), in the same way that he consoled himself in "On My First Son" by suggesting his son had "escaped" the suffering of a longer life. In both poems, then, purity and the avoidance of suffering serve as sources of comfort in the face of devastating loss.
Conclusion: Shared Themes, Different Perspectives
Despite their differing perspectives and poetic strategies, both Jonson and Nashe arrive at the same fundamental recognition: death is inevitable, and acceptance — however painful — is the only honest response. Jonson approaches this truth as a grieving father, moving through stages of sorrow, qualified relief, and reluctant acceptance. Nashe approaches it as a man already in death's grip, cataloguing the vanity of earthly possessions and powers as they fall away one by one. Together, these three poems offer a rich and multifaceted meditation on human mortality, demonstrating how early modern English poets used verse not merely to lament death, but to interrogate its meaning and, ultimately, to make peace with it.
Works Cited
Jonson, B. (1999). "Works of Ben Jonson: On my first son." Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature website. Retrieved 19 November 2009. http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/jonson/son.htm
Jonson, B. (1999). "Works of Ben Jonson: On my first daughter." Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature website. Retrieved 19 November 2009. http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/jonson/daughter.htm
Nashe, T. (2009). "A litany in time of plague." PoemHunter website. Retrieved 19 November 2009. http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-litany-in-time-of-plague/
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