Compare the presentation of love in ‘On my first Sonne’ with that in ‘November’ English anthology - page 1
Keywords: Compare the presentation of love in ‘On my first Sonne’ with that in ‘November’ poems english literature anthology
By George1660 on 27/05/2009
Level: GCSE Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11)
Page Number: 1 of 2 pages: 1 2
Compare the presentation of love in ‘On my first Sonne’ with that in ‘November’
The presentation of love in ‘On my first Sonne’ is similar to that of the presentation in ‘November’. The subject of OMFS is about a man whose son has died and he is speaking about how much he loved him. It’s a poem about the relationship between a parent and child. The tone of the poem is of depressing love, sorrow, despair, letting go, pain and regret. ‘Farewell, thou child of my right hand’, this is implying that the father and son were close; ‘Farewell’ refers to the tone of letting go and saying goodbye. He is paying in pain and grief for the years his son was alive, ‘Seven yeeres tho’wert lent to me, and thee pay’. This is showing the tone of sorrow and despair for the loss of his son.
Similarly in ‘November’ the tone is of letting go, sadness, depression, pain and weakness. The tones of the two poems are very alike. Both aren’t joyful poems but ones of death and darkness. The subject of ‘November’ I think although it isn’t clear in the poem is of a man and his wife taking his wife to a hospice where she will die. The poem describes the grandma in a way making her seem on her last legs. ‘Four short steps to our two’, she can no longer keep up with the pace of life and so is ready to die. The poem creates ugly scenes of old age tying in with the theme of weakness, ‘she sinks down into her incontinence’, and she is unable to control her bladder. There is also a feeling of guilt and pain from the couple linking with the tone of pain, to numb ourselves with alcohol// we let it happen’. They are trying to mask the pain with alcohol and are revealing their guilt and responsibility, ‘we’ referring to it being both of them.
Neither poem has much in the way of similes or metaphors but OMFS has one metaphor which creates an image in the reader’s mind of the relationship between the father and son. ‘Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry’. This means that his son is the best thing he has created; this shows how much love he had for his son. November uses more in the way of adjectives to describe its imagery. ‘Badly// short//
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