Graduation Year
2021
Document Type
Campus Only Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
English
Reader 1
Tessie Prakas
Reader 2
Colleen Rosenfeld
Terms of Use & License Information
Abstract
Motifs of visuality saturate John Donne’s Songs and Sonnets as the primary action of many poems consists of the speaker looking at his lover or the lovers looking at each other. Often times this act of looking results in ecstasy: the speaker and his lover being removed from their physical bodies. By examining three poems: “The Ecstasy,” “The Good-Morrow,” and “A Valediction: Of My Name in the Window,” this thesis uses the lens of ecstasy to explore themes such as individual vs. collective selfhood, mutuality, and perpetuity. Ultimately this thesis will argue how successful ecstasy is dependent upon mutuality between the lovers, and how Donne uses ecstasy to grant his speakers romantic endurance.
Recommended Citation
Halabe, Sarah, "Visions of Ecstasy in John Donne's Songs and Sonnets" (2021). Scripps Senior Theses. 1644.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1644
This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.
