Love's Philosophy

• who wrote Love's Philosophy ?

  Percy Bysshe Shelley
• context

  • Shelley was born into a wealthy family
  • expelled from oxford as he contributed to a pamphlet about atheism
  • Shelley and Byron died early- romantic poetry is associated with youthful passion.
• structure

  • Rhetorical question - contrasts what has been said in each stanza and highlights the difference in what has been said
  • repetition of anaphora ''And the'' - used to imply the importance of nature in a romantic relationship
  • semantic field of embrace - implies that speaker wishes for an intensely intimate and physical relationship
• Form and meter

  • Trochaic meter - employed lots of romantic poets
  • couples - only 2 stanzas - expresses the idea of couples
• Language

  • Natural imagery - Shelley blurs the boundary between humanity and nature throughout the poem to show that their love is inevitable like the laws of nature
  • religious allusion - give Shelley's argument gravitas adn alludes to questioning the nature of religion at the time
  • personification of nature - suggests his intentions are romantic not sexual
• poems to compare

  • when we two parted
  • sonnet 29
  • farmer's bride
• "fountains mingle with the river" - evokes passive images that imply that it is natural for them to be together
• "with sweet emotion"- speaker experiences tender affection
• 'nothing in the world is single"
• "All things by law divine" - philosophical argument - natural
• "Why not I with thine?" - speaker experiences unrequited love- monosyllabic
• "mountains kiss high heavens" - pathetic fallacy - suggests that it is natural for them to be together
• "waves clasp one another" - sensual sibilance denotes loving asnd intimate connection
• "No sister flower would be forgiven" - implies young nature of the relationship
• 'the sunlight clasps..." - anthesis - overwhelming nature of relationship of speaker's desire
• "the moonbeams kiss..." - anthesis - overwhelming nature of relationship of speaker's desire
• "If thou kiss not me?" - listener is provided no catharsis and reinforces speakers argument and emphasises speaker's desire
• themes

  • unrequited love
  • complex elationships
  • longing