Anthology - Love's Philosophy

The fountains mingle with the river

   And the rivers with the Ocean,

The winds of Heaven mix for ever

   With a sweet emotion;

Nothing in the world is single;

   All things by a law divine

In one spirit meet and mingle.

   Why not I with thine?

See the mountains kiss high heaven

   And the waves clasp one another;

No sister-flower would be forgiven

   If it disdain’d its brother:

And the sunlight clasps the earth,

   And the moonbeams kiss the sea -

what are all these kissings worth,

   If thou kiss not me?

THEMES:

  • religion

  • sexual relationships

  • nature

FORM:

  • Trochaic metre (four beats in first three lines, three beats in fourth)

    • ballad-like poem suggesting a love story

    • consistency suggests normalcy of love

STRUCTURE:

  • strict ABAB rhyme scheme

    • represents intermingling but lack of full integration

    • consistency represents normalcy of love

  • two stanzas

    • represents two disconnected lovers

LANGUAGE:

  • semantic field of philosophy

    • declarative, assonance - “the fountains mingle with the river“

    • rhetorical question, assonance - “why not I with thine?“

    • rhetorical question, personal pronouns - “if thou kiss not me?“

  • natural imagery

    • personification, religious imagery, pathetic fallacy - “the winds of Heaven mix […] // with a sweet emotion“

    • anaphora, polysyndeton, sibilance, celestial imagery, personification, enjambment - “and the sunlight clasps the Earth // and the moonbeams kiss the sea”

  • religious imagery

    • declarative - “all things by a law divine“

    • metaphor, plosive alliteration - “no sister-flower would be forgiven // if it disdain’d its brother

    • natural imagery, ‘h’ alliteration, personification - “the mountains kiss high heaven“

    • nasal alliteration, marital imagery - “in one spirit meet and mingle”

CONTEXT:

  • written by Percy Blysshe Shelley

  • romantic poet - concerned with youthful passion and nature

  • history of illicit passions:

    • eloped to Scotland with first wife

    • eloped again with another wife while married and first wife pregnant

    • first wife committed suicide