Ecstasy is known as an out of body experience and in this poem Donne strives to incorporate many different scenarios so that the reader can apprehend the out of body experience love gives. Discuss.

Gemma Rhead

Ecstasy

Ecstasy is known as an out of body experience and in this poem Donne strives to incorporate many different scenarios so that the reader can apprehend the out of body experience love gives:

“Our eye-beams twisted, and did thread our eyes, upon one double string;”

This metaphor presents the concept that the gaze of the lovers is so unwavering that their eyes were united and their gazes became intertwined together like string. Donne uses metaphors and imagery frequently in this poem to help re-enforce the out of body experience, yet he uses concepts and notions such as “eye beams” being coiled mutually like string; the linkage of string is to assist the reader in comprehending an impossible reality. Donne also uses extended similes:

“Our souls, (which advance their state were gone out), hung ‘twixt her, and me.”

Here this is describing how when two people are truly in love the love becomes platonic and that physical love is only a trivial part of the relationship. Donne also presents the theory of when in love the souls of the two lovers “interinanimate” and leave the body, once again enhancing the notion of an out of body experience, and speak “souls language” forming a stronger and more resolute love.

Donne uses powerful language and imagery to express his strong views on love and expresses how “when ...

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“Our souls, (which advance their state were gone out), hung ‘twixt her, and me.”

Donne uses powerful language and imagery to express his strong views on love and expresses how “when love with one another so” the strength of love for one another is so strong it brings a new life between the two souls. He also expresses how love is unifies two lovers in body and soul and that in order to be united in body, one must first have mixed souls to “make but one”. Donne always uses the strong ideas to help the reader comprehend the joining of souls for instance identifying the souls as army negotiators who leave the army, the army being the body in Ecstasy, to reach an agreement.

Donne’s language throughout the poem is flowing. He uses the idea of plants growing or souls flowing from one to the other to express how the love he is experiencing is an out of body experience. Yet the love for one another has formed from a natural attraction for one another which will grow and flourish through time.

In this poem there are many underlying themes, one of them being religion and how the love of a woman is comparable to the love of a woman. Although there is no direct reference to religion in the poem Donne suggests the theme in many different ways. Firstly the title of

the poem “Ecstasy” is not only known as an out of body experience, but is also a state of religious bliss.

Donne also finds “love’s mysteries in soul do grow but yet the body is his book.” I feel this is implying that the words that Jesus once preached of his father are a mystery and may

have been altered and stretched to suit each individual, yet to find the truth of God it would be found in the Bible. Once again this is no direct reference to God, yet I feel that this is what Donne is implying.

I feel that the way Donne speaks so greatly of love he is almost saying that love is on a parallel with religion and that fulfilment in both can create an out of body experience whether it be a strong love for another human or a personal experience with God.

One other poem of Donne’s that mentions sexual love is “The Good Morrow”. The poem is a song to welcome and embrace the dawn after a night of love. He talks of how love is everything and how once one has love you cherish it and view life with a whole new perspective.