The Computation by John Donne - Comparative Critic

S: A man
O: Death/Afterlife
A: The one he lost and loved
P: To explain how long their love will last
S: Love and their relationship
Tone: reminiscent, longing, sad

This is my first journal, attempting to compare two different poems, so I will try to connect them as best as possible. As a critic, I will be comparing “The Computation” by John Donne and “Song – To Celia” by Ben Johnson. I felt that both poets and some great similarities. Both poets wrote about love, and wrote about how his or her love might have felt or did feel. In “The Computation,” Donne writes, “For forty more I fed on favours past, / And forty on hopes that thou wouldst they might last” (2-3). Even though his love is gone he hopes that she lived happy with him and that she felt they’re relationship was good and how it lasted. In “To Celia” Johnson writes, “But though thereon didst only breathe, / And sent’st back to me” (13-14). Even though, its not fully explicated how Celia felt for him, I can interpret that her love for him was less of his love for her because she had sent the rose wreath back to him. Therefore, I can come to the conclusion that there was some sort of problem with their relationship whether they were together or not. In a lot of Ben Johnson’s poems, I tend to see some sort of problem, yet he always seems to walk around that problem and turn it into a solution. Therefore, Johnson finishes of the poem with, “Since when it grows, and smells, I swear, / Not of itself, but thee” (15-16). Even though he got rejected from her, he was glad to be able to smell her aroma and its clear that he still loves her. However, in “The Computation,” there was never really a relationship problem, but I would explain it more as a longing or reminiscing moment because the speaker is sad, unlike the speaker in “To Celia.” Lastly, I felt that Donne also came up with a solution in his poem by stating, “Yet call this not long life; but think that I / Am, by being dead, immortal, can ghost die?” (9-10). His solution is that even though she’s dead and he knows that they’re going to die he’s alluding to the after life and possibly the Holy ghost, because he knows that faith will never die and that they’ll be together in Heaven one day.