Loves philosophy

• Love's Philosophy


  A poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley that takes the form of a speaker putting forward an argument to a prospective lover, trying to persuade them to kiss him. He personifies the natural world and compares himself to it passionately.
• Poem


  • Brief summary
  • Synopsis
  • Context
• Love's Philosophy is written in the first person as Shelley is able to speak from his own experience. This narrative perspective also adds to the intimacy of the sentiment expressed by the speaker.
• Structure


  1. Philosophical argument

  2. Repetition

  3. Form and meter
• Philosophical argument


  In each stanza, Shelley builds up evidence as if he is constructing a philosophical argument and ends with a rhetorical question
• Repetition


  Shelley repeatedly uses the anaphora of "And the" which could be used to constantly imply the importance of nature in a romantic and sexual relationship. He also employs lexis from the semantic field of embrace like "mingle", "mix", "kiss", "clasp" which emphasises the speaker's desire for physical intimacy.
• Form and meter


  Trochaic meter - four beats in the first three lines and three beats in the fourth, repeated throughout the stanzas. Rhyming couplets are also used to represent the ideas of couples expressed in the poem.
• Language


  • Natural imagery
  • Physical intimacy
  • Philosophy
• Natural imagery


  Shelley compares his life to things he observes in the natural world, personifying nature to imply that their relationship is inevitable as a law of nature.
• Physical intimacy


  Shelley emphasises his use of natural imagery in relation to physical intimacy, showing how the speaker has moved from thinking about the idea of being in a relationship to fixating on being physically close with their lover.
• Philosophy


  Shelley's choice to entitle the poem "Love's philosophy" is indicative of the poem's content, as he includes lexis from the semantic field of philosophy to show how he is seriously questioning the nature of love.