The Ecstasy (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: John Donne
- First Published: 1633
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: Love or romance, Sex or sexuality, England or English people, Seventeenth century, Bible, biblical imagery, or biblical symbolism, Light, Angels, Mirrors or lenses, Soul
The Poem
Although “The Ecstasy” was initially printed without stanza breaks, a number of manuscripts suggest that John Donne conceived of this poem as containing nineteen separate quatrains of iambic tetrameter that trace the movement of lovers’ souls from their bodies and the souls’ union in that incorporeal state. “The Ecstasy” opens with the lovers sitting in an erotic pastoral landscape. The violets suggest springtime, the season of love. Though the lover and his lass are “one another’s best,” they have not yet consummated their relationship. Their only...
[The entire page is 1412 words long]
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