John Donne had established the dis nc ve features of a mode of 17th century poetry that had been With

With a fast balm, which thence did spring;

(assigned the epithet of metaphysical) by Dr.Samuel Johnson. Some of those metaphysical features
that are also the core’s of Donne’s poetry are an argumenta ve development of a poe c theme, a Our eye-beams twisted, and did thread
general intellectual and analy cal approach to the subject ma er, the use of ‘metaphysical conceit’ Our eyes upon one double string;
and a colloquial style. Donne has achieved in his poetry a unique blend of intellect and passion,
seriousness and equity and profundity. These metaphysical elements are manifested in his percep on So to'intergraft our hands, as yet
of the essence of true love in ‘Extasie’ in which he considers but also ( disputes ) the renaissance Neo- Was all the means to make us one,
platonic defini on of love. Following the dialec cal approach of metaphysical poetry the poem Their holding of hands compared to the integra ng of planets, to create a hybrid is an interes ng
debates over the compara ve importance of the body and the soul, the physical and the spiritual in ‘conceit’. It is pastoral se ngs were lovers are si ng together, holding each others hand and looking
the experience of love. intently into each other's eyes. Their eyes meet and reflect the images of each other, and their sights
are woven together. They get a kind of sensa on within their hearts and blood, resul ng in perspira on
The Ecstasy is one of the most famous metaphysical poems of John Donne which expresses his unique and blushing. The relevance of the opening lines in the pastoral mode in which nature symbolises
and unconven onal ideas about love. It expounds the theme that pure, spiritual or real love can exist sexual union and pregnancy, is quite explicit.
only in the bond of souls established by the bodies. For Donne, true love only exists when both bodies
and souls are inextricably united. Donne cri cizes the platonic lover who excludes the body and Our souls (which to advance their state
emphasizes the soul. The fusion of body and soul strengthens spiritual love. Donne compares bodies Were gone out) hung 'twixt her and me.
to planets and souls to the angels that body and souls are inseparable but they are independent.
According to the medieval mys cal concep on, 'ecstasy' means a trance-like state in which the soul And whilst our souls negotiate there,
leaves the body, comes out, and holds communion with the Divine, the Supreme or the Over-soul of We like sepulchral statues lay;
the Universe. In Chris anity also, it denotes the state of mys c/religious communion with God. Donne They become ecsta c because their souls have escaped from their bodies to rise to a state of bliss.
uses the religious and philosophical term with religious and philosophical connota ons to build his When love joins two souls, they mingle with each other and give birth to a new and finer soul, which
own theory of love. removes the defects and supplies whatever is lacking in either single soul. The new re-animated soul
made up of their two separate souls gives them the ecstasy. But they cannot forget the body, which is
‘Extasie’ is essen ally a religious experience in which the individual soul, ignoring the body, holds the vehicle, and container, cover and house of the soul.The lovers' souls leave their bodies, which
converse with Divinity. It is a feeling of trance, of spiritual exalta on, and of Samadhi where the become mere lifeless figures. Finally, they are united into a single soul. Donne tries to convey the
individual has a vision of the divine. Donne applies the feeling to the experience of the lovers and finds readers that the founda on of spiritual love is the physical a achment; the eyes serve as a gateway to
that the essence of love is not sex but an overpowering feeling of unity in diversity. In fact, true love is the soul. Moreover, the physical union has produced an even stronger spiritual bond that is far more
an ac vity of the soul. A new soul emanates from the two individual souls and makes the lover realise powerful than each individual's soul.
that love is, in its pure essence, spiritual. Donne has also interpreted love in a philosophic way. Love is
an idea or a concept concre zed through the physical enjoyment of sex. He has also interpreted it Donne refers the violet to tell us that the fusion of the lover's soul produces a new "abler soul" like
according to the Platonic concept—the desire of the moth for the star, longing of one soul to seek the violet, which doubles its vigor when it is gra ed together with another. Then the lovers are now
communica on with another, Another idea introduced in the poem has been borrowed from able to seek the spiritual pleasure rather than purely physical pleasure. In this union the two souls find
astronomy. Just as heavenly bodies are moved by “intelligences” i.e., angelic spirits, in the same way strength like a violet when it is transplanted. As such, the single united soul is able to grow with new
souls are the mo va ng forces in human love, though they have no existence of their own. They are energy. The united soul is perfect, unchanging and also with new energy. The united soul is perfect,
linked with the body, which is the overt and apparent machinery for love-making. The soul expresses unchanging and also transcends the "defects of loneliness", or the single soul. The two lovers now
itself through the body. In other words, the body is a medium used by the soul to achieve the understand that true love is the result of their physical a achment provoking spiritual union. Souls are
consumma on of love. spiritual beings. They move with the help of the bodies. Body is the medium of contact of the two
souls. Therefore, the lovers turn to their bodies and try to understand the mystery of love. Body is the
As a metaphysical poem this poem brings together (or juxtaposes) opposites; the poet has also medium to experience love. So spirits must act through bodies. If love is to be free, it requires physical
reconciled such opposites as the medieval and the modern the spiritual and physical, the scien fic or as well as spiritual outlets. The persona asks why our religious ins tu ons have imposed blind thoughts
secular and the religious, the abstract and the concrete, the remote and the familiar, the ordinary and diving the body and soul. The poem is also a cri cism of the conven onal idea of love that supports
the metaphysical. This is largely done through imagery and conceit in which widely opposite concepts the separa on of the bodies, and hence the souls. He makes an appeal to his readers to nourish their
are brought together.The poem is an expression of Donne's philosophy of love. Donne agrees with souls through their bodies and reach towards the point of extreme joy, or 'ecstasy'.
Plato that true love is spiritual. It is a union of the souls. But unlike Plato, Donne doesn't ignore the
claims of the body. It is the body that brings the lovers together. Love begins in sensuous apprehension, In the (characetris c ) metaphysical mode synchronising of the thesis and an -thesis of argument into
and spiritual love follows the sensuous. So the claim of the body must not be ignored. Union of bodies a synthesis, Donne celebrates the harmonising of the sexual and the spiritual at the end of the poem.
is essen al to make possible the union of souls. The poem is an unbroken series of narra on, argument He asserts that even when they are, “bodies gone” the spirituality of their soul will not be
and even contempla on. diminished.Thus the poem uses a religious and mys cal experience to interpret the complexity and
depth of secular love.
The poet begins the narra on of the event with a typically passionate scene as the backdrop for the
lovers to embrace and experience the 'ecstasy'.
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;

The se ng is natural, very calm and quiet. The scenery is described in ero c terms: the riverbank is
"like a pillow on a bed"; it also is "pregnant". The reference to pillow, bed and pregnancy suggest
sexuality, though the poet says that their love is 'asexual'. Indeed, the image of asexual reproduc on
of the violent plant is used to compare the lovers' only 'propaga on'. It is spring me, and violets are
in bloom. To a Renaissance reader, the image of violets symbolizes faithful love and truth.
The most dis nc ve stylis c feature of metaphysical poetry is the use of the ‘conceit’. A memorable
conceit in the Extasie occurs in the line :-