Love's Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley

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 disdained its brother;

And the sunlight clasps the earth

            And the moonbeams kiss the sea:

What is all this sweet work worth

            If thou kiss not me?

Some thoughts…

On the Poet: Rebel, Outcast, Visionary, Radical…the labels trooped after Percy Bysshe Shelley in life and death. Shelley (1792-1822), in the brief space of 29 years, managed to ignite controversies and scandals that would have bedeviled men of lesser impetuosity. Born to a titled family; bullied relentlessly at boarding school; he was expelled from Oxford for blasphemy – for not only publishing ‘The Necessity of Atheism’, but his refusal to recant. Social ostracism did not seem to daunt the poet to any great extent; he was in no way discouraged from his politically radical views, his concepts on non-violence, his vegetarianism, his tendency to leave a string of distraught female hearts in his wake.

Even his death by drowning remains somewhat a mystery. One thing is certain – Shelley continues to fascinate; perhaps his greatest sin was to have been born in an era that wasn't ready for him.

On this Poem: Recognition eluded Shelley during his life, but today, he is considered among the greatest of English lyric poets.

Consider this particular poem’s invoking of the natural world – fountain, river, ocean, winds, heaven, mountains, waves, flowers, sunlight, earth, moonbeam, sea…

This simple invocation is coupled with the sweet entreaty:

Nothing in the world is single;

            All things by a law divine

In one spirit meet and mingle.

            Why not I with thine?

Love is more than the restless yearning of the heart – it is the law of nature; life’s very affirmation.

On that note, Happy Valentine’s Day – cherish the love in your life.