"The Ecstacy" by John Donne

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Assignment on "The Ecstacy" by John Donne

Name: Dharaba Rayjada
Semester: 1
Roll No.: 8
Paper No.: 1 The renaissance literature
Enrolment No.: 2069108420180045
Email id: dharabarayjada021@gmail.com
Year: 2017-18
Submitted to: Department of English Maharaja Krishnkumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

The Ecstacy by 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  
By a fast balm, which thence did spring ;
Our eye-beams twisted, and did thread    
Our eyes upon one double string.

So to engraft 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 refined,    
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    
Interanimates 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 composed, and made,
For th' atomies of which we grow    
Are souls, whom no change can invade.

But, O alas ! so long, so far,    
Our bodies why do we forbear?
They are ours, though not we ; we are    
Th' 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 ;
For soul into the soul may flow,    
Though it to body first repair.

As our blood labours 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    
To 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're to bodies gone.

Analysis of poem

Lets first look at the definition of ecstasy according to Grierson “ Ecstasy in neo-platonic philosophy was the state of mind in which the soul, escaping from the body attuned to the vision of God, the one the absolute.” “The ecstacy” is written by john donne an english poet and considered the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets. This poem is metaphysical poem in which poet shows the far-fetched images to express their usual feelings. In these types of poems at first reading its look like about god or religion but after deep understanding we come to know that the poem also has the theme of love.

The poem which is presented here talk about the love, the eternal love. First its talking about love of two souls where body has no need then they come to conclusion that as soul body is also has same importance because the body is the medium of meeting two people they also question religion that why they denies body and only think soul as pure while body is equally important. So lets see what john donne wants to say here.

In the very first stanza poet describe the scenery where they are at river bank and sitting on a hill and lie there and there is violet’s also, and in the very first stanza poet use the sexual elements like bed, pillow and pregnant which he use for hill. While in second stanza they both are looking In to each other’s eyes and the beams are coming out of their eyes which are threaded their eyes and make their bond their hands are cemented. In short here both are sink in each other’s love.

The third stanza Donne states that the lovers 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 lovers 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 mixed each 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 indivuals 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. Heavens influence does not work on man like other things. It imprints the air so that people 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 lovers 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 loves true mysteries are grown in the soul. The body is just the souls "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.

To sum up

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 lovers souls are formed into one and uses metaphors of alloys, celestial spheres and even a violet to to make his point. Furthermore, Donne describes the process at work in the body by relating the mechanisms of blood and air.

Reference

Study materials

http://www.poetsforum.com/papers/221_5.html