The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (ed. Hutchinson, 1914)/Love's Philosophy

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

For other versions of this work, see Love's Philosophy.

LOVE'S PHILOSOPHY

[Published by Leigh Hunt, The Indicator, December 22, 1819. Reprinted by Mrs. Shelley, Posthumous Poems, 1824. Included in the Harvard MS. book, where it is headed An Anacreontic, and dated 'January, 1820.' Written by Shelley in a copy of Hunt's Literary Pocket-Book, 1819, and presented to Sophia Stacey, December 29, 1820.]

I
The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the Ocean,
The winds of Heaven mix for ever^[1]
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single; 5
All things by a law divine
In one spirit meet and^[2] mingle.
Why not I with thine?—

II
See the mountains kiss high Heaven
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister^[3]-flower would be forgiven 11
If it disdained its^[4] brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth
And the moonbeams kiss the sea:
What is all this sweet work^[5] worth
If thou kiss not me? 16

1. Love's Philosophy.—3 mix for ever 1819, Stacey MS.; meet together, Harvard MS.
2. 7 In one spirit meet and Stacey MS.; In one another's being 1819, Harvard MS.
3. 11 No sister 1824, Harvard and Stacey MSS.; No leaf or 1819.
4. 12 disdained its 1824, Harvard and Stacey MSS.; disdained to kiss its 1819.
5. 15 is all this sweet work Stacey MS.; were these examples Harvard MS.; are all these kissings 1819, 1824.