Although many writers choose the concept of love to be the subject of their poetry, they do not all approach it in the same way. Some may use a pessimistic or cynical tone while others may view love with "rosy glasses." Ben Jonson and Anne Bradstreet are two such poets who chose love as one of their many topics. Though they both write about love and to a person who at least the speaker appears to love, they do so in a decidedly different fashion. In this essay, we will look at Jonson's "Song To Celia" and Bradstreet's "To My Dear and Loving Husband" and compare them on the bases of tone, sexual reference, and attitude.
             Jonson's "Song To Celia" is written with a very pleasing tone to it. The speaker's main purpose is not to declare his love for Celia, but rather to use his love as a manipulative device. He asks her several questions in the poem that plead for an answer. "Why should we defer our joys?" he asks Celia. Jonson's speaker wants something from Celia and, throughout the poem, endeavors to get his wish. Though his love for Celia is inferred, it is never blatantly stated. It is easy to read this poem in two ways: the speaker truly loves Celia and is pleading for her to grant his request, or the speaker is simply using Celia's inferred love for him to gain acquiescence from Celia. Either way, the tone of the poem reads pleadingly and shows how desperate the speaker is. Like Jonson's poem, Anne Bradstreet's "To My Dear and Loving Husband" also incorporates love into her poetry. However, Bradstreet's poem has an entirely different tone than does Jonson's. "To My Dear and Loving Husband" has none of the pleading qualities that "Song To Celia" was full of, but rather, the tone of this poem is assuring and convincing. Instead of requesting some sort of symbol of her intended's love for her she writes, "Thy love is such I can no way repay/ The heavens reward thee manifold I pray." Bradstreet's speaker is not asking fo...