John Donne(1572–1631)
The Ecstasy
W h e r e , like a p i l l o w on a b e d ,
A p r e g n a n t b a n k s w e l l e d u p t o r e s t
T h e v i o l e t ' s 6 r e c l i n i n g h e a d ,
S a t w e t w o , o n e a n o t h e r ' s b e s t .
O u r h a n d s w e r e f i r m l y c e m e n t e d
W i t h a f a s t b a l m , 7 w h i c h t h e n c e d i d s p r i n g .
O u r e y e - b e a m s t w i s t e d , a n d d i d t h r e a d
O u r e y e s u p o n o n e d o u b l e string;
S o t o ' i n t e r g r a f t o u r h a n d s , a s y e t
Was all the means to make us one, 8
A n d p i c t u r e s 0 in o u r e y e s to g e t 0reflections / beget
W a s all o u r p r o p a g a t i o n . 9
A s 'twixt t w o e q u a l a r m i e s , F a t e
S u s p e n d s u n c e r t a i n v i c t o r y ,
Our souls (which to advance their state,
Were gone out) hung 'twixt her and me.
A n d w h i l s t o u r s o u l s n e g o t i a t e t h e r e ,
W e like s e p u l c h r a l s t a t u e s lay;
All d a y t h e s a m e o u r p o s t u r e s w e r e ,
And we said nothing all the day.
I f a n y , s o b y l o v e r e f i n e d
T h a t h e s o u l ' s l a n g u a g e u n d e r s t o o d ,
A n d b y g o o d l o v e w e r e g r o w n all m i n d ,
W i t h i n c o n v e n i e n t d i s t a n c e s t o o d ,
He (though he knew not which soul spake,
Because both meant, both spake the same)
Might thence a new concoction 1 take,
A n d part far p u r e r t h a n h e c a m e .
T h i s e c s t a s y d o t h u n p e r p l e x ,
We said, and tell us what we love;
We see by this it was not sex;
We see we saw not what did move;2
But as all several 0 souls containseparate
Mixture of things, they know not what,
Love these mixed souls doth mix again,
And makes both one, each this and that.
A single violet transplant,
The strength, the color, and the size
(All which before was poor, and scant)
Redoubles still, and multiplies.
When love, with one another so
Interinanimates two souls,
That abler soul, which thence doth flow,3
Defects of loneliness controls.
We then, who are this new soul, know,
Of what we are composed, and made,
For, th' atomies 0 of which we grow,atoms, components
Are souls, whom no change can invade.
But O alas, so long, so far
Our bodies why do we forbear
They're ours, though they're not we; we are
Th' intelligences, they the spheres.4
We owe them thanks because they thus
Did us to us at first convey,
Yielded their forces, sense, to us,
Nor are dross to us, but allay.5
On man heaven's influence works not so,
But that it first imprints the air,6
So soul into the soul may flow,
Though it to body first repair.go
As our blood labors to beget
Spirits7 like souls as it can,
Because such fingers need 0 to knitare needed
That subtle knot which makes us man:
So must pure lovers' souls descend
To'affections, and to faculties,8feelings
Which sense may reach and apprehend;
Else a great Prince in prison lies.
To'our bodies turn we then, that so
Weak men on love revealed may look;
Love's mysteries in souls do grow,
But yet the body is his book.
And if some lover, such as we,
Have heard this dialogue of one,
Let him still mark us; he shall see
Small change when we're to bodies gone.