"On Something, That Walks Somewhere"

“On Something That Walks Somewhere” by Ben Jonson, is a member of his collection of epigrams written for certain people, about certain people, and in honor of other people. In this poem Jonson portrays a scene of a man walking and nearing another man. He says the man was wearing brave clothes, or nice clothes, depicting the man as possibly someone of high honor. He says the man looked important enough to be that of a statesman. So the man is getting closer and naturally he asks the man for his name and he replies,”A lord”. This obviously did not sit well for the man looked upon himself to be better than the person he was walking past. Jonson ends the poem with the line, Good lord, walk dead still. Jonson does not care for this man or the way he acts as a person. He ends the poem by saying walk around lifeless and quiet instead of flaunty and annoying. I do not blame Jonson I have encountered the same type of people and I feel the same annoyance he felt. I think he is trying to send a message in writing this poem saying it is not right to display your importance to other people just to make yourself feel better. This is a short poem but it can send a large message.