This week’s choice is “Love’s Philosophy” by Percy Shelley which I have chosen because, to quote from a favourite song, “When you kiss me, heaven sighs”.
What is all this sweet work worth
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792—1822)
If thou kiss not me?
Poem 321. Love’s Philosophy
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?
In this short poem, Shelley observes that every natural thing in the world mixes and mingles and suggests that this also applies to his beloved and himself so she should share his embraces and kisses.
The first stanza argues that since the world’s waters and winds constantly and eternally intermingle and nothing exists by itself although everything is part of the whole under the law of God, why shouldn’t he and his beloved become one, like the waters of the fountains and the rivers?
The second stanza focuses on the close relationship between natural features: the nearness of mountains to the sky, the incestuous proximity of waves and flowers in their respective habitats, the warmth of the Sun on the bosom of the Earth and the mysterious connection between moonbeams and the sea, and he says that since kissing is the most natural and common thing in the world, it follows that he and his beloved should kiss each other.
Shelley wrote this poem in 1819 when he was living in Rome with his wife Mary (who had written the novel Frankenstein the previous year). A number of personal tragedies drove both of them into depression and emotional estrangement and it is tempting to think that this poem arose out of a desire for intimate contact that neither of them was able to express to the other. Alternatively, it might be an appeal to a mistress who Shelley was courting, although it would have been a bold and scandalous move to publish it so openly.
I like it because of the vocabulary Shelley uses to convey his ideas: the mingling of the fountains, rivers and seas, the mountains kissing high heaven and the waves embracing one another in a flurry of metaphors. A kiss is the most natural way in the world of showing affection for another person, and this poem celebrates that simple gesture of love.