The Ecstasy

John Donne

Read Poem Poetry+ Guide

Share Cite

John Donne
Nationality: English

John Donne is one of the most important English poets of his time.

He was the best of the metaphysical poets and is remembered for his skill with
conceits.

The poem, ‘The Ecstasy’, 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 souls. But unlike Plato, Donne does not ignore the claims of the
body. It is the body that 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. The union of bodies is as essential as the
union of souls. Thus, Donne goes against the teachings of both 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
the 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 Ecstasy’ is, in
fact, one of the most “metaphysical” poems of Donne.

The passion and certainty of ‘The Ecstasy’ 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 ‘The
Ecstasy’, in which widely opposite concepts are brought together and the
shift from the one to the other, is both swift and natural.

The Ecstasy
John Donne
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;
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.
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,
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Ecstasy 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 a 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 the 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 a result of this, they
realized 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 transplanted, develops in strength, color, 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.”

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 the 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 a 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 better.

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.

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 Ecstasy’, is a remarkably subtle work, and perhaps the most
famous of Donne’s love-poem. Its title is apt and suggestive. The word
Ecstasy is derived from the Greek word Ekstasis which means to stand out
(EK=out and Sta=to stand). In ‘The Ecstasy’, the souls of the poet and his
beloved stand out their respective bodies and hold converse. If we subscribe
to the views of the medieval and mystical era, Ecstasy is a 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. As well as this, in ‘The
Ecstasy’ 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 beliefs to illustrate the physical and the material.

Comment Cite

Poetry+ Guide

Home » John Donne » The Ecstasy

About Dharmender Kumar