On My First Son Themes

"On My First Born Son" is an elegy (a poem that laments and celebrates a person who has recently died), so, yeah, death is one of its major themes. The poem attempts to offer an explanation for dea...

The poem is called "On My First Son," so naturally family plays an important role here. The poem reflects on what it is like to lose a child, but also about how one's ideas of fatherhood are altere...

"On My First Son" isn't just about the speaker's son, it's also about the powerful feelings of love and affection he feels toward his child. These strong feelings make the child's death, especially...

Even though "On My First Son" is mostly about death and sadness, it still manages to find a way to talk about art. (And no, we don't mean that the speaker's son is called Art.) The speaker likens h...