The Computation
For the first twenty yeares, since yesterday,I scarce beleev'd, thou could'st be gone away,For forty more, I fed on favours past,And forty'on hopes, that thou would'st, they might last.Teares drown'd one hundred, and sighes blew out two,A thousand, I did neither thinke, nor doe,Or not divide, all being one thought of you;Or in a thousand more, forgot that too.Yet call not this long life; But thinke that IAm, by being dead, Immortall; Can ghosts die?
Words in this poem
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- immortall a.
- Not mortal; exempt from liability to die; undying; imperishable; lasting forever; having unlimited, or eternal, existance. [L. immortalis; pref. im- not + mortalis mortal: cf. F. immortel. See Mortal, and cf. Immortelle.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Computation is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of John Donne, Volume 1 (of 2) Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts, Project Gutenberg ebook #48688; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Donne, The Computation, in Poems (1633), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #48688, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/donne-poems/the-computation.html, id L04910.
Form and metre
The Computation is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 80% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 10% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABBC-CCDD yesterdayA · awayA · pastB · lastB · twoC · doe · youC · tooC · iD · dieD
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| For the first twenty yeares, since yesterday, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| I scarce beleev'd, thou could'st be gone away, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| For forty more, I fed on favours past, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And forty'on hopes, that thou would'st, they might last. | 10 | ·········· |
| Teares drown'd one hundred, and sighes blew out two, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| A thousand, I did neither thinke, nor doe, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Or not divide, all being one thought of you; | 10 | ··˘/·/···· |
| Or in a thousand more, forgot that too. | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Yet call not this long life; But thinke that I | 10 | ·········· |
| Am, by being dead, Immortall; Can ghosts die? | 10 | ··/·˘/˘··· |
Notes from the edition 4
Herbert Grierson's record of the readings of the early editions and manuscripts, from his Poems of John Donne (Oxford, 1912; Project Gutenberg #48688).
- Line 3 For] And 1669
- Line 5 One thousand I did think nothing nor doe, S, O'F (nothing think) doe, 1635-69: doe. 1633
- Line 7 divide, 1633, 1669: deem'd, 1635-54, O'F
- Line 8 a] one O'F, S: line dropped A18, N, TC
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