| John Donne's Songs and Sonnets do not
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| | focus on the soul leads Donne to express
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| describe a single unchanging view of
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| | a condescending attitude towards physical
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| love; they express a wide variety of
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| | love in this poem which is in marked
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| emotions and attitudes, as if Donne
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| | contrast to the attitude he expressed in
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| himself were trying to define his
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| | To his Mistris Going to Bed.But O alas,
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| experience of love through his poetry.
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| | so long, so farre
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| Love can be an experience of the body,
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| | Our bodies why doe wee forbeare?
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| the soul, or both; it can be a religious
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| | They'are ours, the though they'are not
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| experience, or merely a sexual one, and
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| | wee. Wee are
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| it can give rise to emotions ranging from
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| | Th'intelligences, they the spheare.But
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| ecstasy to despair. Taking any one poem
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| | in reading Donne one soon learns that an
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| in isolation will give us a limited view
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| | attitude expressed in one poem is not to
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| of Donne's attitude to love, but treating
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| | be taken as absolute and exclusive. One
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| each poem as a fragment of a totality of
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| | of Donne's characteristics is that he
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| experience, represented by all the Songs
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| | freely contradicts himself from one poem
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| and Sonnets, it gives us an insight into
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| | to another. The title of this poem, The
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| the complex range of experiences that can
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| | Extasie, implies that love is a religious
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| be grouped under the single heading
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| | experience, just as the diction of To his
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| 'Love'.In To his Mistris Going to Bed we
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| | Mistris Going to Bed conveyed sex as a
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| see how highly Donne can praise physical
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| | religious experience. The religious
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| pleasure. He addresses the woman as:Oh my
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| | metaphors give a hyperbolic intensity to
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| America, my new found lande,
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| | his imagery, but the ideas expressed in
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| My kingdome, safeliest when with one man
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| | The Extasie are firmly rooted in the
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| man'd,
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| | scientific theories of his day.Donne's
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| My myne of precious stones, my
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| | view that spiritual love can be attained
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| Empiree,The images are of physical,
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| | through physical love ties in with the
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| material wealth, and anyone reading this
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| | contemporary theory of the 'chain of
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| poem alone would think Donne's interest
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| | being'. Angels, presumably, could
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| in women was limited to the sexual level.
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| | experience a totally spiritual love,
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| He describes sex in terms of a religious
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| | unadulterated by the physical. But man,
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| experience; the woman is an 'Angel', she
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| | being part divine and part animal, can
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| provides 'A heaven like Mahomet's
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| | only reach the spiritual level through
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| Paradise', and the bed is 'loves hallow'd
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| | the sensual.So must pure lovers soules
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| temple'. But this is not a love poem;
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| | descend
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| nowhere does he say that he loves the
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| | T'affections, and to faculties,
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| woman, or that sex is part of a deeper
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| | That sense may reach and apprehend,
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| relationship.In The Extasie Donne conveys
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| | Else a great Prince in prison lies.The
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| a very different and more complex
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| | inherent superiority of the spiritual
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| attitude to physical pleasure, when it is
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| | level, and the part love can play in
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| just one part of the experience of
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| | refining man's nature towards the
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| love.This Extasie doth unperplex
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| | spiritual, is expressed in these lines:If
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| (We said) and tell us what we love,
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| | any, so by love refin'd,
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| Wee see by this, it was not sexe,
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| | That he soules language understood,
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| Wee see, we saw not what did move . .
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| | And by good love were grown all
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| .Love's mysteries in soules doe grow,
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| | mindeCopyright: Ian Mackean
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| But yet the body is his booke.The body
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| | Mackean runs the sites which features
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| and the soul are distinct, but related
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| | a substantial collection of Resources and
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| aspects of the totality of love. The
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| | Essays, (and where his site on Short
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| uniting of souls is the purest and
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| | Story Writing can also be found,) and
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| highest form of love, but this can only
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| | He is the editor of The Essentials of
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| be attained through the uniting of
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| | Literature in English post-1914, ISBN
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| bodies.Soe soule into the soule may flow,
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| | 0340882689, which was published by Hodder
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| Though it to body first repaire.This
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| | Arnold in 2005.
|
