The estasie by john donne

The poem, The Extasie, is a clear and coherent expression of Donne’s philosophy of love.
Donne agrees with Plato that true love is spiritual. It is a union of the souls. But unlike Plato,
Donne does not ignore the claims of the body. It is the body which brings the lovers
together. Love begins in sensuous apprehension and spiritual love follows upon the
sensuous. So the claims of the body must not be ignored. Union of bodies is as essential as
the union of souls. Thus, Donne goes against the teachings both of Plato and the Christian
Divines in his stresses on sensuous and physical basis even of spiritual love.

In this respect, he comes close to the Renaissance and Modern point of view. Indeed, for
the first time, in this poem, the word ‘sex’ has been used in modern sense. Donne’s
emphasis on the physical basis of love is a measure of his realism. Indeed, despite all his
metaphysical flights, the poet strikes an “earthly note”, when he ends the poem with the
souls returning to their respective bodies and finding no change in them. The poem is, in
fact, one of the most “metaphysical” poems of Donne.

The passion and certainty of The Extasie make it one of Donne’s greatest poems. At the
same time, the realistic earthing of the poem’s metaphysic which takes place at the end,
makes it one of the most metaphysical, in terms of literary features, t of all his poems.

The essence of a metaphysical poem is the bringing together or juxtaposition of opposites,

and in this poem the poet, John Donne has brought together and reconciled such opposites
as the medieval and the modern, the spiritual and the physical, the metaphysical and the
scientific, the religious and the secular, mystical beliefs and rational exposition, the abstract
and the concrete, the remote and the familiar, the indoor, the human and the non-human.
This is largely done through imagery and conceit in which widely opposite concept are
brought together and the shift from the one to the other, is both swift and natural.
The Extasie Analysis
Where, like a pillow on a bed
A pregnant bank swell’d up to rest
The violet’s reclining head,
Sat we two, one another’s best.

Our hands were firmly cemented

With a fast balm, which thence did spring;
Our eye-beams twisted, and did thread
Our eyes upon one double string;

Two lovers, each the best man and woman in the eyes of the other, sat near the bank of a
river, which was raised high, like a pillow on a bed, as if to provide place for rest to the
reclining heads of violets. Their (lovers) hands were firmly clasped from which emitted a
fragrant balm. Their eyes met and reflected the image of each other. Thus they were one by
holding their hands; but their images reflected in their eyes were all the propagation they
did.

So to’intergraft our hands, as yet

Was all the means to make us one,
And pictures in our eyes to get
Was all our propagation.

As ‘twixt two equal armies fate

Suspends uncertain victory,
Our souls (which to advance their state
Were gone out) hung ‘twixt her and me.

As between two equally matched armies, Fate might hold victory in the balance, so their
souls which had escaped from their bodies to rise a state of bliss and quietude, hung
between her and him. And while their souls held converse out of their bodies, they lay still
and motionless like lifeless statues, all day they neither moved nor spoke.

And whilst our souls negotiate there,

We like sepulchral statues lay;
All day, the same our postures were,
And we said nothing, all the day.

If any, so by love refin’d

That he soul’s language understood,
And by good love were grown all mind,
Within convenient distance stood,

If any, so purified by his sincere and exalted love that he understood the language of souls,
stood nearby (though he knew not which soul spoke because both meant and spoke the
same thing), he might have had a re-blending or re-mixture of the different elements that
make up his soul, and depart far purer than he came. It was ecstasy to which their souls
ascended; and it made clear to them the mystery of love. As the result of this, they realised
that love is no sex experience – they saw what they did not see before, i.e., what love reality
is that it is a thing of the soul, not of the body.

He (though he knew not which soul spake,

Because both meant, both spake the same)
Might thence a new concoction take
And part far purer than he came.
This ecstasy doth unperplex,
We said, and tell us what we love;
We see by this it was not sex,
We see we saw not what did move;
But as all several souls contain
Mixture of things, they know not what,
Love these mix’d souls doth mix again
And makes both one, each this and that.
A single violet transplant,
The strength, the colour, and the size,
(All which before was poor and scant)
Redoubles still, and multiplies.
When love with one another so
Interinanimates two souls,
That abler soul, which thence doth flow,
Defects of loneliness controls.
Souls contain various things of which we are not fully aware; love mingles two souls and
makes them one – each of them becomes a part and parcel of the other. A violet, if it is
transplaed, develops in strength, colour and size. Similarly, when love joins two souls they
mingle with each other and give birth to a new and finer soul which removes the pangs of
loneliness or, in other words, “supplies whatever is lacking in either single soul.”

We then, who are this new soul, know

Of what we are compos’d and made,
For th’ atomies of which we grow
Are souls, whom no change can invade.
But oh alas, so long, so far,
Our bodies why do we forbear?
They’are ours, though they’are not we; we are
The intelligences, they the spheres.
We owe them thanks, because they thus
Did us, to us, at first convey,
Yielded their senses’ force to us,
Nor are dross to us, but allay.

This new, re-animated soul, made up of their two separate souls, made them know that we
are made and compounded of substances which grow and improve, which make us what we
are not affected by change. But alas, they had so long and so far ignored their bodies. Their
bodies are ours, though we are distinct from the bodies. We are spiritual being, and the
bodies are the spheres within which we move. We are indebted to our bodies, for they first
brought us together and yielded the sense to us. The bodies are not impure matter, but an
alloy. They are like the metal which, when mixed with gold, makes it work all the more
better.

On man heaven’s influence works not so,

But that it first imprints the air;
So soul into the soul may flow,
Though it to body first repair.
As our blood labors to beget
Spirits, as like souls as it can,
Because such fingers need to knit
That subtle knot which makes us man,
So must pure lovers’ souls descend

T’ affections, and to faculties,

Which sense may reach and apprehend,
Else a great prince in prison lies.

When the influence of the heavenly bodies works on man, it first permeates the air, so a
soul can penetrate another soul, but it is only through the medium of the body that one soul
can contact another. As from our blood issue forth spirits which act as the instruments of
the soul, and which bind together elements that go to the making of man, so the body and
sense-organs and all that comes to us through the sense are in the service of the lovers’
souls, otherwise the soul (compared to the great prince in prison) cannot reveal itself.

To’our bodies turn we then, that so

Weak men on love reveal’d may look;
Love’s mysteries in souls do grow,
But yet the body is his book.
And if some lover, such as we,
Have heard this dialogue of one,
Let him still mark us, he shall see
Small change, when we’are to bodies gone.

Therefore, the lovers turn to their bodies, so that they may understand the mystery of love.
Love ripens in the soul, but it is through the medium of the body that love is to be
experienced. If some lover, such as they are, has heard this discourse, let him still observe
them, and he will notice no change when they go back to their bodies.
Critical Analysis
The poem, The Extasie, is a remarkable subtle work and perhaps he most famous of Donne’s
love-poem. Its title is apt and suggestive. The word Extasie is derived from the Greek word
Ekstasis which means to stand out (EK=out and Sta=to stand). In the poem, the souls of the
poet and his beloved stand out their respective bodies and hold converse. If we subscribe to
the views of medieval and mystical era, Extasic is trance-like state in which the soul leaves
the body, comes out, and holds communion with the Divine, the Supreme, or the Over-Mind
of the Universe. In the poem also the souls of the lover and the beloved come out of the
body, but they hold converse not with God, but with each other, the purpose being to bring
out the essentially sensuous and physical basis of spiritual love. Thus in his usual
characteristic manner Donne has used religious and philosophical belief to illustrate the
physical and the material.

Critical analysis

On The Ecstasy, by John Donne

In the opening, Donne is describing the scenery of a river or lakeside bank. He describes
himself and another as pillows on a bed as they lie there.

The second stanza describes how their hands were held together and "cemented" with
perspiration. He then describes beams coming out of their eyes and twisting like thread
which holds their eyes together as with a single, double thread.

The third stanza Donne states that the loversí hands were all they had to make themselves
into one, further, he says that the reflections in their eyes were their only way to propagate.

Stanza four uses a metaphor of armies to describe their souls. The two are equal armies,
and Fate keeps victory uncertain, which is like the way the loversí souls are suspended.

Furthering the army metaphor, stanza five has the souls negotiating as their bodies lie like
memorial statues. They remained that way the whole day and said nothing to each other.
The next stanza postulates whether any man can be so refined in love that he can
understand the language of the soul, and furthermore, if that "good" love of the mind stood
at a convenient distance.

Stanza seven relates that the two souls now speak as one; they may take a concoction and
leave that place better off than when they arrived.

The eighth stanza states that their state of ecstasy "unperplexes" or simplifies things, and
they can see that it was not sex that motivated them.

The ninth stanza furthers the idea that two lovers are one soul which is mixedóeach a part
of the other.

The next uses a metaphor of a transplanted violet to show how two souls can be
interanimated and how this "new" soul can repair the defects of each of the indivualsí souls.

The eleventh stanza again furthers the idea of two souls as one. It says that the lovers know
what they are made of, and that no change can invade them.

The next stanza asks why the bodies are left out, and it says that although the soul is the
intelligence, the bodies are the sphere which controls them, like the celestial spheres.

Stanza thirteen thanks the bodies for their service of bringing the soul to be and for yielding
their senses. The bodies are not impurities that weaken, but rather alloys that strengthen
us.

The next stanza relates the method of how the body and soul are related. Heavenís
influence does not work on man like other things. It imprints the air so that peopleís souls
may flow out from the body.

Stanza fifteen tells how our blood works to make "Spirits" that can help the body and soul
together make us man.

Stanza sixteen postulates that loversí souls must give in to affections and wits that our
bodies provide. If not, we are likened to a great prince in prison.

The next stanza says that we turn to our bodies so that weak men may look at them, but
that loveís true mysteries are grown in the soul. The body is just the soulís "book."

The last stanza sums up the scene by speculating how they would be regarded by another
lover in their "dialogue" of the combined souls. Donne says that this lover will see a small
change when their bodies are gone.

The images in The Ecstasy focus on the relationship of the soul to the body. Donne begins
with visual images of water, hands, perspiration and things that are physical in nature. He
proposes that two loversí souls are formed into one and uses metaphors of alloys, celestial
spheres and even a violet to make his point. Furthermore, Donne describes the process at
work in the body by relating the mechanisms of blood and air. All of the images between
lines 13 and 75 relate to the union of two souls, which creates a third soul that transcends
the sum of the two.

Donne & Herbert ~ religious, ordained ministers.

They show a Puritan influence: plain English terms.
John Donne - went to prison b/c he married his boss's daughter who was a minor. Drifted
around afterwards. Supported writing through patronage. Greatest metaphysical poet.

The Ecstasy - comes from ek stasis - Greek for " Stand (stasis) outside (ek) ."
I put in a long definition of ecstasy, but there are 2 basic meanings present in the text.

Used by mystical writers as the technical name for the state of rapture in which the body
was supposed to become incapable of sensation, while the soul was engaged in the
contemplation of divine things. Now only Hist. or allusive. To be beside oneself - Donne
literalizes this by having the souls leave the body.
An exalted state of feeling which engrosses the mind to the exclusion of thought;

rapture, transport.
b. The state of trance supposed to be a concomitant of prophetic inspiration; hence,
Poetic frenzy or rapture. Now with some notion of 4.
You're transported outside of yourself

Every 4 lines = 1 stanza. 1st stanza

Where, like a pillow on a bed,
A Pregnant banke swel'd up, to rest
The violets reclining head,
Sat we two, one anothers best.
Lines 2-3 ~ enjambment (where a sentence carries over from one line to the next without
any punctuation.
"Pregnant banke swel'd up"= they're sitting on a small hill or on a bank by a stream. The
fact that its swelling makes him think of it as pregnant. We begin to see what's on his mind.

2nd ~

Our hands were firmly cimented

With a fast balme, which thence did spring,
Our eye-beams twisted, and did thred
Our eyes, upon one double string;
"cimented / With a fast balme = hands are sweaty
"eye-beams twisted" = staring @ each other, into each other's eyes.
So to'entergraft our hands, as yet
Was all the meanes to make us one,
And pictures in our eyes to get
Was all our propagation.
Lines 11-12 ~ "Pictures" has two meanings here
Seeing his picture or image in her eyes & vice versa.
Seeing their picture in their offspring, who would look like them.
no propagation = not having sex yet; just beginning relationship. There are no children yet,
just the images in each others eyes.
13-20 - souls are outside their bodies negotiating like 2 armies. Their bodies meanwhile are
motionless.

21-24 Only the person refined by love could understand the language they speak to each
other in those silent moments.

31-32 - sex involves motion, so what they have is something else, an unmoving emotion.
That which moves is generally inferior to that which doesn't. God is sometimes called "The
Unmoved Mover," making him superior to everything.

Trying to decide what to do ~ love or not ~ lasts all day.

49-52

But O alas, so long, so farre

Our bodies why doe wee forbeare?
They'are ours, though they'are not wee; Wee are
The intelligences, they the spheare.
We owe them thankes, because they thus,
Did us, to us, at first convay,
Yeelded their forces, sense, to us,
Nor are drosse to us, but allay.

On man heavens influence workes not so,

But that it first imprints the ayre,
Soe soule into the soule may flow,
Though it to body first repaire.

The poem shifts tone here. He's tired of "forbearing," of not having sex. He sees a dual
nature of man - body & soul. My soul is the real "me," but my body is how I interact with
the world.
If our souls are to get together, they must do so through our bodies. IT'S TIME TO
INTERACT!0

As our blood labours to beget

Spirits, as like soules as it can,
Because such fingers need to knit
That subtle knot, which makes us man:
So must pure lovers soules descend
T'affections, and to faculties,
Which sense may reach and apprehend,
Else a great Prince in prison lies.

Can only have new people through sex. A person's body & spirit are united at conception.
"Great Prince in prison" The soul without the body is unable to interact with the world &
therefore in prison.

To'our bodies turne wee then, that so

Weake men on love reveal'd may looke;
Loves mysteries in soules doe grow,
But yet the body is his booke.
And if some lover, such as wee,
Have heard this dialogue of one,
Let him still marke us, he shall see
Small change, when we'are to bodies gone.

"To'our bodies turne wee then" = time to interact!

Love grows in the soul, but is written on the book of the body.

The passerby who was able to understand their communion won't see much difference
when they "are to bodies gone." The image is of one watching while they make love.