Alienation, ecstasy, death, rebirth: in the poetry of Michelangelo, Donne, and d' Aubigne these archetypal themes make possible the ultimate formulation of new poetic symbolizations of self and world. As their poetry evolves from a primarily rhetorical towards a fully symbolic mode, images of loss of self (in ecstasy or in alienation), of death and rebirth, recur with increasing frequency and intensity. Whether the context is love poetry or religious poetry, the basic problem remains the same; love is the link between the two kinds of poetry. And love is indeed a problem for these three...