This is one of the most important of the lyrics as a statement
of Donne's metaphysic of love, of the interconnexion and mutual
dependence of body and soul. It is printed in _1633_ from _D_, _H49_,
_Lec_ or a MS. resembling it, and from this and the other MSS. I
have introduced some alterations in the text: and two rather vital
emendations, ll. 55 and 59. _The Extasie_ is probably the source of
Lord Herbert of Cherbury's best known poem, _An Ode Upon a Question
Moved Whether Love Should Continue For Ever_. Compare with the opening
lines of Donne's poem:
They stay'd at last and on the grass
Reposed so, as o're his breast
She bowed her gracious head to rest,
Such a weight as no burden was.
While over eithers compass'd waist
Their folded arms were so compos'd
As if in straightest bonds inclos'd
They suffer'd for joys they did taste
Long their fixt eyes to Heaven bent,
Unchanged they did never move,
As if so great and pure a love
No glass but it could represent.
In a letter to Sir Thomas Lucy, Donne writes: 'Sir I make account that
this writing of letters, when it is with any seriousness, is a kind of
extasie, and a departing, and secession, and suspension of the soul,
which doth then communicate itself to two bodies.' Ecstasy in
Neo-Platonic philosophy was the state of mind in which the soul,
escaping from the body, attained to the vision of God, the One, the
Absolute. Plotinus thus describes it: 'Even the word vision ([Greek:
theama]) does not seem appropriate here. It is rather an ecstasy
([Greek: ekstasis]), a simplification, an abandonment of self, a
perfect quietude ([Greek: stasis]), a desire of contact, in short a
wish to merge oneself in that which one contemplates in the
Sanctuary.' _Sixth Ennead_, ix. 11 (from the French translation of
Bouillet, 1857-8). Readers will observe how closely Donne's poem
agrees with this--the exodus of the souls (ll. 15-16), the perfect
quiet (ll. 18-20), the new insight (ll. 29-33), the contact and union
of the souls (l. 35). Donne had probably read Ficino's translation of
Plotinus (1492), but the doctrine of ecstasy passed into Christian
thought, connecting itself especially with the experience of St. Paul
(2 Cor. xii. 2). St. Paul's word is [Greek: harpagenta], and Aquinas
distinguishes between 'raptus' and 'ecstasis': 'Extasis importat
simpliciter excessum a seipso ... raptus super hoc addit violentiam
quandam.' Another word for 'ecstasy' was 'enthusiasm'.
l. 9. _So to entergraft our hands._ All the later editions read
'engraft', which makes the line smoother. But to me it seems more
probable that Donne wrote 'entergraft' and later editors changed this
to 'engraft', than that the opposite should have happened. Moreover,
'entergraft' gives the reciprocal force correctly, which 'engraft'
does not. Donne's precision is as marked as his subtlety. 'Entergraft'
has the support of all the best MSS.
PAGE =52=, l. 20. _And wee said nothing all the day._ 'En amour un
silence vaut mieux qu'un langage. Il est bon d'être interdit; il y
a une éloquence de silence qui pénètre plus que la langue ne saurait
faire. Qu'un amant persuade bien sa maîtresse quand il est interdit,
et que d'ailleurs il a de l'esprit! Quelque vivacité que l'on ait,
il est bon dans certaines rencontres qu'elle s'éteigne. Tout cela se
passe sans règle et sans réflexion; et quand l'esprit le fait, il n'y
pensait pas auparavant. C'est par nécessité que cela arrive.' Pascal,
_Discours sur les passions de l'amour_.
l. 32. _Wee see, wee saw not what did move._ Chambers inserts a comma
after 'we saw not', perhaps rightly; but the punctuation of the old
editions gives a distinct enough sense, viz., 'We see now, that we did
not see before the true source of our love. What we thought was due
to bodily beauty, we perceive now to have its source in the soul.'
Compare, 'But when I wakt, I saw, that I saw not.' _The Storme_, l.
37.
l. 42. _Interinanimates two soules._ The MSS. give the word which
the metre requires and which I have no doubt Donne used. The verb
_inanimates_ occurs more than once in the sermons. 'One that quickens
and inanimates all, and is the soul of the whole world.' _Sermons_ 80.
29. 289. 'That universall power which sustaines, and inanimates the
whole world.' Ibid. 80. 31. 305. 'In these bowels, in the womb of this
promise we lay foure thousand yeares; The blood with which we were fed
then, was the blood of the Sacrifices, and the quickening which we had
there, was an inanimation, by the often refreshing of this promise
of that Messias in the Prophets.' Ibid. 80. 38. 381. 'Hee shews them
Heaven, and God in Heaven, sanctifying all their Crosses in this
World, inanimating all their worldly blessings.' Ibid. 80. 44. 436.
PAGE =53=, l. 51. _They'are ours though they'are not wee, Wee are_
The line as given in all the MSS. is metrically, in the rhetorically
effective position of the stresses, superior to the shortened form of
the editions: