John Donne Essay on The Ecstasy PDF

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Emily Gorski ENG 320 John Donne Essay In John Donne’s poem “The Ecstasy,” Donne constructs the idea of love

through a fascinating lens, comparing the sensation and phenomenon of being in true love with someone to a religious experience, an ecstasy, in which the soul is separated from the body in a moment of transcendence. However, as Donne asserts repeatedly that the love his speaker experiences surpasses the physical sensations of the human body, he also seems very concerned with the role of physicality in their relationship, and also makes use of various metaphors regarding physical objects, giving the poem a somewhat ambiguous tone. Throughout the poem, Donne implies to his audience that the affinity that the two lovers share goes above all physical sensation. He writes, As 'twixt two equal armies fate suspends uncertain victory, our souls (which to advance their state were gone out) hung 'twixt her and me” (Donne 13-16). This stanza suggests that the nature of the two lovers’ affection is so strong, powerful, and otherworldly, that it exists between their very souls, which leap at the chance to be joined, disregarding their bodies. As this is not only a spiritual reference, but a specifically religious experience, which adds even more gravity to his words, as religion was taken quite seriously in Donne’s time. With this simile, Donne compares this love attraction to a sacred, holy experience, one that defies all humanity. As “The Ecstasy” continues, Donne proceeds to maintain his identification of the lovers’ love relationship as something not of this world, but something spiritual,

Emily Gorski ENG 320 John Donne Essay metaphysical, and divine. He makes use of various poetic elements, like alliteration,

during the execution of these claims, which emphasizes his points and draws the reader’s attention to the specific ideas that he is describing. Donne asserts, “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” (Donne 29-32). This statement suggests that this spiritual experience which the lovers undergo functions not only as a verification that their love is true and sacred, but also as a sort of agent for clarity. Donne claims here that the only way the lovers even know that what they have between them is love is through this transcendent, religious occurrence, as the sensation of having sex or the function of the human body in general were not capable of showing the true depth and nature of their relationship. In stark contrast to this concept, Donne’s use of diction and simile constructs vividly physical imagery. He compares a plethora of physical objects and phenomena to the love that his subjects share, such as the act of holding hands, the reproduction of violets, and the idea of the body in general. He even goes so far as to say, “Because such fingers need to knit that subtle knot which makes us man” (Donne 63-64). While effective similes, these examples are all blatantly of the physical and human world, much different than the transcendent and angelic love described in other stanzas. To take Donne’s use of physical imagery and emphasis a step further, perhaps the most blatant reference to humanity and the body occurs in the thirtreenth stanza of

Emily Gorski ENG 320 John Donne Essay “The Ecstasy.” However, these lines also play into the ambiguity of the poem as

Donne iterates, “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” (Donne 5152). Here, Donne not only implies that he is forlorn due to the lack of physicality in the relationship, but also takes a side on the argument of whether humans exist as souls and have bodies, or exist as bodies and have souls. This is a strange way to place this sentiment, as Donne is inquiring why they have not had sex yet, implying that this is an important element of their love, but then claims that their bodies are simply possessions rather than who they are, and claims that the two of them are defined by their souls. This raises the question of why he would even bring this up in the first place because if physicality does not matter to them, as if they truly exist as souls, then sex would be something that was not important. Donne furthers this ambiguity in the following stanzas, using a balanced combination of both physical allusions and spiritual ones. He advocates for the body in the poem’s fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth stanzas, iterating why the body is a crucial agent in love, and goes so far as to write, in the eighteenth stanza of the poem, “Love's mysteries in souls do grow, But yet the body is his book” (Donne 71-72). This quote suggests that the manifestation of love is a metaphysical phenomenon, all taking place within the conventions of the soul, but that humans only have access to love through physical means, and are only able to look into what is happening with

Emily Gorski ENG 320 John Donne Essay love through physical events and sensations. This wildly ambiguous claim places love

in a strange sort of limbo, and identifies it as being catalyzed and developed in the spiritual and metaphysical plane, but also dependent on the physical and worldly for its execution and verification. Throughout John Donne’s poem “The Ecstasy,” Donne dances around making a definitive claim about the nature of his lovers’ love relationship, and seems to constantly change his mind about what their relationship is centered around and defined by. He uses various allusions to the spiritual world, and makes direct references to religious concepts, asserting that the lovers’ affinity defies the physical world, and that it stands as a sacred, divine, and sanctified entity. However, he also frequently makes use of corporal imagery, and blatant references to sex, which suggests that Donne has not completely written off the function of physicality in the idea of the ideal love relationship. With this in mind, it is safe to say that while Donne’s stance may seem inconsistent and contradictory, as this is true in a sense, it also sheds a light on the true unpredictability and inability to be concretely defined that love entails. No love relationship exists without at least some aspects of physicality, paired with at least some metaphysical sensations. There is no true, bona fide definition that is universal for the sensation of love, and Donne shows this through his ambiguity, providing an argument that is more than true to the emotion

Emily Gorski ENG 320 John Donne Essay and the manifestation of love between two people who really do, truly love each

other....