Identities and relationships

Comparison of ‘You’re’ and ‘On My First Sonne’

The poems ‘You’re’ by Sylvia Plath and ‘On My First Sonne’ by Ben Jonson are both
inspirational pieces of writing which express their love and appreciation towards their
children. These two poems both share the theme of ‘parent-child relationships’, however,
they differ in their emotions; 'you're' expresses happiness, unlike the other poem which
signifies remorse. The linguistic devices are also different, such as the consistent use of
figurative language in 'you're' and the lack thereof in 'on my first Sonne'.

Firstly, ‘You’re’ was written by Sylvia Plath to address her unborn child whom she was fairly
excited for, insinuated by the positive and joyous impression this poem gives. The poet
demonstrates a sense of elation, excitement, and adventure when describing the upcoming
arrival of her baby through the language and tone she uses. For example, Plath uses the
phrase “Jumpy as a Mexican bean " which gives the reader a sense of joy. This is to insinuate
the fact that the word "jumpy" suggests the baby is healthy and having fun, justifying this
poem’s cheerful theme. The overall tone this poem has is also playful and uplifting due to
the way she portrays her baby in certain words. Some examples of these are “clownlike”,
“happiest”, “snug”, and “high-riser”. These words are all associated with happiness, thus
creating a happy, cheery tone.

Contrarily, the poem ‘On my first Sonne’ displays sorrow, misery, and regret. In relation to
the previous poem, this poet discusses his child and describes his endless amount of love
for him however the message of this poem opposes to the other greatly. Whereas Plath’s
‘You’re’ was written for the poet to express her feelings about her child who was yet to be
born, Jonson’s poem was written as a way for him to express his heartbreaking feelings for
his child who was no longer alive. This poem is about a father (the poet) who is grieving the
unfortunate loss of his son. He reiterates the feeling of endless love he has for his son and
longs to be able to detach himself from these emotions as they are too strong and cause
him too much woe. He emphasizes how he wishes he could find a way to leave behind his
affection for his son, and how it would save him the despair and heartache to sever the
tightly-bonded relationship they formed. An example of this is when the poet writes,
“Farewell, thou child of my right hand”. This indicates how close he was with his child as
“right hand” could suggest his son was a part of him and it would be very hard to survive
without him. By initiating this poem with the word “farewell”, the poet hints the depressing
tone this poem will have. In addition to that, ‘On my first Sonne’ frequently utilizes
unpleasant, cacophonous sounds, which also add to the negative tone of this poem. For
instance, “scap’d worlds and flesh’s rage” is a phrase Jonson uses, consisting of repetitive,
monosyllabic words which sound disturbing and violent.

Plath’s poem connotes high anticipation when talking about her child as we can tell from
certain forms of expression that she uses. She uses the phrase ‘looked for like mail’ which
supports her theme of excitement. By using the object ‘mail’, she is indicating the baby’s
delivery and arrival and compares the baby to something that is expected to arrive,
therefore expressing the emotion of anticipation and longingness. Looking for mail is also
something that builds up excitement as it is something you are waiting and searching for
and that also displays the emotion of anticipation. From within the anticipation, the reader
is able to understand the poet’s feeling of excitement and how she would like the birthdate
of her baby to arrive sooner. It is evident that she is longing for the time spacing between
the moment she wrote the poem and the delivery of her baby, to go by faster.

The underlying message Jonson is trying to convey is the opposite of anticipation. He writes
how sad he is that he does not have his son anymore and is remorseful of the fact that he
can not spend as much time now with the person he loves so much. The poet uses the
phrases, “seven years tho’ wert lent to me” and “and if no other misery, yet age?”. He
addresses that his son left too soon and he would do anything to be able to spend more
time with him, therefore this poem suggests that the poet would do anything to make time
go back and have more time rather than less. Another way that to distinguish the
unanticipated tone this poem has is through the structure, language, and style of the text.
This poem is structured in a way that each line is relatively long and consists of many
words and syllables. This produces a dreary atmosphere as it sounds tediously long. The
language he uses in this poem is old fashioned for instance when he writes, “Seven years
tho' wert lent to me, and I thee pay”. This shows that he is writing in an obscure way. The
style of this text is short but expressive which is very effective as he manages to get his
feelings and thoughts across well.

Despite the major contrast between these poems, they also have a similar elementary
emotion: pride. Throughout both poems, there is a distinct sense of pride from the parents
towards their child. Although the difference in attitude between the poems is significant,
pride is blatantly present. In ‘you’re’, Plath uses the phrase “trawling your dark as owls do”
which signifies the wisdom she is claiming her child to have. She also uses other words
such as “right”, “gilled”, and “moon-skulled” which all show that she thinks highly of her
baby. In ‘on my first Sonne’ Johnson displays the pride he has for his son through the grief
he expresses. Jonson refers to the poem dedicated to his son as “his best piece of poetry”
which amplifies the love and pride he has for his son. It shows that he used the pride he
had in his son to use as much effort as possible into writing this poem, and it results to be
one of his best pieces yet. The pride he has in his son expanded to become the pride he has
in his poem on as well as that. This justifies the similarity these two poems share.

In conclusion, ‘you’re’ and ‘on my first Sonne’ are poems with the intrinsic themes of
parent-child relationships. However, they differ from one another largely, due to the
relationship they had with their children at the point in time in which they were written,
with one parent expecting to give birth to their child, and the latter grieving the death of
theirs. These juxtaposing viewpoints bring forth complementary emotions, with sorrow
and happiness, allowing there to be a dramatic contrast between the pieces of writing.
Happily, pride is prevalent in the two poems, demonstrating that parenthood is a rewarding
experience, from the birth of their child, all the way to the parent’s end.