Comparing The Lost Baby Poem And Ben Johnson's On My First Son

When the child is born, parents are also born. An individual becomes a parent when their first child is born, giving them the responsibility of the child. It gives the new emotion of being a parent and create the special relationship with the child. A mother carries the child for nine months, which bonds them together. Also the relationship of father and a son is no less significant where they share all the joys and sorrow together. Losing the first child takes away the proud and right to be a parent. The silent grief is widely presented in the Lucille Clinton’s “The Lost Baby Poem” and Ben Johnson’s “On My First Son” sharing a common theme of guilt over losing their baby; however, the poems differ in terms of how the child was lost, imagery, style, point of view and tone.

Clifton in his poem “The Lost Baby Poem”, discusses the loss of her child and blames herself for the sin. Throughout the poem she cries for the loss of an unborn child and promises to not do the same with her children’s in the future. Similarly, “On My First Son”, expresses the theme of grief on the death of his son. Although both author’s lost their child, the way they lost their child are quite different. Clifton lost her unborn child and Jonson lost his first son. Clifton in her poetry does not directly express how she lost the child, but in the line “the time i dropped your almost body down” (1), the word “dropped” can be indicated as abortion. Whereas Jonson does not indicate anything about how he lost his first son, however the line “Exacted by the fate, on the just day.” (4) shows that he considers fate as the reason of his son’s