| Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900. |
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| John Donne. 1573–1631 |
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| 198. The Ecstasy |
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| WHERE, like a pillow on a bed, | |
| A pregnant bank swell'd up, to rest | |
| The violet's reclining head, | |
| Sat we two, one another's best. | |
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| Our hands were firmly cèmented | 5 |
| By a fast balm which thence did spring; | |
| Our eye-beams twisted, and did thread | |
| Our eyes upon one double string. | |
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| So to engraft our hands, as yet | |
| Was all the means to make us one; | 10 |
| And pictures in our eyes to get | |
| Was all our propagation. | |
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| As 'twixt two equal armies Fate | |
| Suspends uncertain victory, | |
| Our souls—which to advance their state | 15 |
| Were gone out—hung 'twixt her and me. | |
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| And whilst our souls negotiate there, | |
| We like sepulchral statues lay; | |
| All day the same our postures were, | |
| And we said nothing, all the day. | 20 |
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