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Description:

Ever been told, "I love you, mind, body, and soul?" Us neither. Thanks for all the false hope, John Donne.

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English Language

Transcript

00:01

Body and Soul, a la Shmoop. Way back in the seventeenth century, when

00:10

John Donne<<Done>> was writing poems about love, people were fascinated by the soul.

00:17

No, no, not that kind of soul… that hadn't been invented yet. We’re talking about the

00:22

concept of the human soul.

00:25

Everyone agreed that people had souls, kind of like how everyone today agrees that Nutella

00:29

is all kinds of awesome.

00:31

The only question was, where was the soul located? Was it part of the body? Was it the

00:38

same thing as the mind? How did it all work together?

00:40

Okay, that's four questions. You got us. As expressed in his poem “The Ecstasy”,

00:47

Donne thought that the soul and the body were distinct from each other, yet still connected

00:51

in important ways.

00:52

For one thing, Donne thought the soul was able to separate from the body and chat up

00:56

other souls it found interesting. Yeah, not creepy at all.

01:03

Donne also believed the soul could be purely philosophical about love without getting…

01:08

touchy-feely. But let's take a look at how souls and bodies

01:15

interacted on a day-to-day basis… you know, while out grocery shopping or doing the laundry

01:20

or stuck in traffic.

01:22

According to Donne, the secret to how a soul lived inside its body was… blood, because

01:28

sure, why not?

01:30

While this theory sounds completely cray-cray to modern ears, things were different back

01:36

in Donne's day. In the seventeenth century, scientists believed

01:40

that blood produced “spirits”, kind of like spiritual red blood cells, that were

01:45

half-soul and half-body.

01:46

These “spirits” set up communication between the soul and its body, allowing the body to

01:51

bring the soul both the 411 about the outside world via the senses...

01:56

...as well as to help the body feel emotional and spiritual urges.

02:02

Donne thought this was all just absolutely fabulous, and he wrote “The Ecstasy” as

02:07

a kind of celebration of everything the body and soul can do together.

02:11

And what was the coolest body-and-soul experience? Well… love, of course.

02:19

See, the body would walk the soul around, allowing it to meet up with potential love

02:25

interests.

02:26

Then, the soul would take over, filling the body with feelings of joy and companionship.

02:31

Remember those lovers on the bank in “The Ecstasy”? Kind of like that.

02:37

The poem's take-home message is that, while the body and the soul have distinct roles…

02:42

…they work together in the service of love, with the same goal.

02:45

Ultimately, then, there's not a big difference in what the body and the soul are doing, and

02:50

spiritual love equates with physical love.

02:52

Or, as Donne puts it in the final lines, “He shall see/ Small change, when we are to bodies

02:58

gone.”

02:59

And there you have it. Donne and dusted.

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