What is John Donne's poem The Ecstasy about?

The Metaphysical poets, of which John Donne was the most famous, often combined religious and erotic imagery in their poems. Donne's 'The Extasie' is a good example of the genre.

The poem starts off with two lovers sitting side by side on a river bank, holding hands and looking into each other's eyes. This indicates their physical togetherness.

From line 15, their souls exit their bodies to unify in another sphere. This greater communal soul is more powerful and varied. However as human beings, the lovers are not satisfied by only spiritual communion; so the spirits descend or return to their worldly spheres which are the bodies as Donne considers the body to be a vessel for the soul.

The ascending and descending movement of the poem suggests that the moment of ecstasy happens when the souls connect. However for Donne, physical contact cements spiritual unity and vice versa.