The Ecstasy Summary
John Donne

The Ecstasy Overview

“The Ecstasy” is a 76-line metaphysical poem in iambic tetrameter by English Renaissance poet John Donne. Likely composed around the 1590s, the poem was originally published in 1633, two years after Donne’s death, in Poems, the first printed collection of his work. One of Donne’s best-known love poems and a subject of intense debate among critics, “The Ecstasy” continues to entrance readers through its depiction of an out-of-body romantic experience and the resulting questions it raises about the nature of love and the relative importance of body and soul.