“Love’s Philosophy” Introduction

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“Love’s Philosophy” Summary

“Love’s Philosophy” Themes

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  Nature, Connectedness, Love, and Sex

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Love’s Philosophy”

• Lines 1-2

  The fountains mingle with the river 
     And the rivers with the ocean,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 3-4

  The winds of heaven mix for ever 
     With a sweet emotion; 

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  Nothing in the world is single; 
     All things by a law divine 
  In one spirit meet and mingle. 
     Why not I with thine?

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  See the mountains kiss high heaven 
     And the waves clasp one another; 
  No sister-flower would be forgiven 
     If it disdained its brother; 

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-16

  And the sunlight clasps the earth 
     And the moonbeams kiss the sea: 
  What is all this sweet work worth 
     If thou kiss not me?

  

  

  

  

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“Love’s Philosophy” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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• Anadiplosis

  

  

  

  

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• Conceit

  

  

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• Personification

  

  

  

  

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• Rhetorical Question

  

  

  

  

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• Sibilance

  

  

  

  

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“Love’s Philosophy” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Mingle
• Law divine
• Thine
• Clasp
• Sister-flower
• Disdained
• Thou

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Love’s Philosophy”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Love’s Philosophy” Speaker

“Love’s Philosophy” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Love’s Philosophy”

More “Love’s Philosophy” Resources

• External Resources

  • Other Poems and Info — A number of Shelley's most popular poems, plus more background information.  

  • A Reading of the Poem — Iain Batchelor performs the poem in a way that makes its argument-based structure easy to comprehend. 

  • Get to Know the Romantics — A BBC documentary about the Romantic poets. 

  • Shelley's Death — An interesting article that looks at the myths surrounding Shelley's death.  

  • John Donne's "The Flea" — A wonderful poem written almost two hundred years before Shelley's which uses a similar technique of seduction through argument and conceit.  

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley

  • England in 1819

  • Music, When Soft Voices Die

  • Mutability

  • Ode to the West Wind

  • Ozymandias

  • Song to the Men of England

  • Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples

  • The Question

  • To a Skylark