“To have so soon scap’d worlds, and fleshes rage”
Jonson goes on trying to convince himself that he has gone to a better place by saying what his son will now miss out on, wars and disruption in the world. He also says he has missed out on being old and so will miss all the pain that he connects with age mainly being loneliness.
We see some of Jonson’s emotion through it when he says,
“…say here doth lye
BEN. JONSON his best piece of poetrie.”
This extract is very touching to the reader as it is showing how Jonson actually feels. It is the only part in the poem that he really shows his emotion in, for the rest of the poem he keeps it tightly enclosed. We see how hurt Jonson is by the loss of his son but we also see how proud he was of his son. In this short phrase he says how none of his many talented poems can compare to his son as he was the most perfect thing in his life, which has now gone.
“For whose sake, hence-forth, all his vowes be such,
As what he loves may never like too much.”
In the final two lines of his poem Jonson expresses how he should change in the future so that he is prevented from being hurt again. In this part of the poem we see that Jonson never wants to love again as he sees the hurt that it brings.
In Jonson’s poem we see a very sad, sincere and sombre mood. Jonson’s use of iambic pentameter provides the steady solemn beat needed for the poem’s serious content. Through his use of sombre words and this rhythm the poem’s tone is very affectionate and also resigned.
Wordsworth bases his poem on infant mortality but he also shows that he feels that there is a lack of imagination in adults. In it he uses the narrator to show how he sees society and all of the things he hates. Wordsworth wanted to try and show how a child thought was almost better than the way an adult thought, as the adults had limiting views.
In the opening stanza of ‘We are Seven’ the narrator expresses his views on how a child should not know much about death. He feels death should be kept from children since they are furthest from it, being so young, but, this little girl knows about it well because two of her brothers and sisters have died. In this stanza we see that the narrator is very rational and when he asks,”What should it know of death?” He expects his answer to be the same as his thoughts but we get the feeling that he is going to be challenged over his views.
As we go through the poem we see a simple girl who explains to the narrator that among the seven children of her family she includes the two that "in the churchyard lie." The narrator tries to persuade her that if they are dead then surely there are only five of them.
“You run about, my little maid,
Your limbs they are alive;
If two are in the churchyard laid,
Then ye are only five.”
Here the narrator tries to put his point of view forward saying that they are dead not alive. The narrator comes across as very demanding and brutal, insisting that his ideas must be accepted by the young girl. This is what Wordsworth hopes to achieve as Wordsworth thought that children still had the spirit and imagination that is lost through education. But in response to the narrator the young girl says why there are seven. The description of the two children being “side by side” and “twelve steps or more from my mother’s door” creates the image of the children still being together as a family even though they are dead. This feeling is emphasised in the next stanzas where the girl shows how her brother and sister are still with her and part of her life.
“My stockings there I often knit,
My kerchief there I hem;
And there upon the ground I sit,
And sing a song to them.
And often after sunset, sir,
When it is light and fair,
I take my little porringer,
And eat my supper there.”
By saying this, the girl is trying to prove how important they are and how they are a vital part of her life. All of the things she does are daily things to accentuate that she doesn’t just visit them once a year. The girl includes her siblings in her life by eating with them and keeping them real in her heart.
In the next three stanzas we learn of the siblings’ deaths. We see how Jane died and how it was hard but they overcame it. At first we get a sense of Jane being lost, “And then she went away”. This gives an impression of finality but then the girl continues to say how, “Together round her grave we played”, showing that they include her as the girl does “When John was forced to go,”. The word “forced” creates the image that he did not want to go but had to, but even now with both her siblings dead she is not alone.
“’How many are you, then,’ said I,
‘If they two are in heaven?’”
The narrator still doesn’t understand he is very scientific about it saying that if two are dead then only five remain. He feels that the girl has proved his point by saying that they are dead but it seems as though he doesn’t have the ability to accept that the dead children as still involved in her life and so are not dead. The girl remains polite and still says that they are seven.
In the final stanza he tries desperately to get her to admit that they are seven but the girl refuses saying, “Nay, we are seven!” The girl has it clear in her head that they are still with her and we as the reader can see this but the narrator remains ignorant saying that they can either be alive or dead, he is incapable of believing they are dead but still alive in her heart, with her.
Throughout the poem there are various images that we are aware of. We see how Wordsworth uses the seasons to show the continuity of their lives after they have died, from “their graves are green”, through summer “when the grass was dry” to winter “when the ground was white with snow”. The seasons also show how the girl copes with death by continuing through and still involving the siblings no matter when.
The rhythm and rhyme throughout the poem is quite simple when compared to Jonson’s. Wordsworth uses this to create a contrast between the subject being very serious and complicated and the structure of his poem being very simple and clear. Wordsworth’s poem is much more ‘upbeat’ and has a very basic structure; this is enforced by Wordsworth’s use of a prominent rhyme scheme.
Jonson’s poem takes a very different approach to infant mortality when compared to Wordsworth’s. In Wordsworth’s the children’s lives are kept going and savoured but in Jonson’s although the memory of his son is treasured it causes a lot of pain due to the ’sin’ he has committed of loving his son too much. These differences could be seen as the differences between an adult’s view and a child’s view; this was Wordsworth’s aim in his poem.
Both poems have a different feel to them. In Jonson’s we see a very sad, sincere and sombre mood but in Wordsworth’s poem we get an almost happy mood, as we see that the children’s lives are celebrated not just mourned over. It is not only the content that makes Wordsworth’s poem have a happy mood but it is the way he has made the poem very simple without complicated language.
The two poems are both exploring the subject of infant mortality but for different purposes. Wordsworth’s poem is to try and inform people, not only about infant mortality but of everyday judgements that are made. Jonson’s poem is one that was probably written for himself, as a way of coping with grieve he was faced with. Although the poets have very different opinions we can see in both how infant mortality was a major fact in live before 1900. We can also see how it affected the people who were involved. This was in very different ways, as people react to different situations differently.
