“Ecstasy” – By John Donne

Ecstasy: Greek, Ek stasis – Stand (stasis) outside (ek)

-       A state in which the soul leaves the body and has communion with a divine being.

 This is Donne’s philosophy of love. It is a union between both the body and the soul. The body brings the two people together and in turn the two become one.

Theme of the poem is unconventional ideas of love and this poem criticizes the platonic lover that excludes the body. Donne believes that the body is what brings the souls together and this is a very metaphysical poem. The poem is an expression of Donne’s philosophy of love. Donne agrees with Plato that true love is spiritual. It is a union of the souls.

An ecstasy is a trance like state in which a person transcends consciousness.  A recurring image throughout the poem is the image of the violet. The redoubling of planted violets represents the souls mixing and becoming better than their singular souls. The violet is said to represent the “trials and tribulations of love” and was said to have once been used as aphrodisiac and a love potion. In the Christian religion, the Virgin Mary and modesty.

Donne throughout this poem, exemplifies the binding of souls the truest form of love, while also stressing the necessity of physical love so that the souls can experience love. Donne shows the turmoil of the lovers battling their want to stay together in their outer body state or returning to their bodies. By the end of the poem this conflict is resolved showing that although as one blended soul they are bettered, they cannot experience love without the device of their bodies.