'Love's Philosophy'

July 22 - July 30, 1998

'Love's Philosophy' didn't look exactly attractive to me at first, but then, as I was skimming through my files, I noticed the poem and I was somehow captivated by the words... Yet another proof that everything changes with time?

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?

Percy Bysshe Shelley

(August 4th 1792 - July 8th 1822)

Shelley flirted with the young and attractive Sophia Stacey, a ward of one of his uncles, who came with her chaperone to visit Mary Shelley and him in Florence in December 1819. Mary commented that "the younger one was entousiasmée to see him - the elder said he was a very shocking man". Whilst Mary stayed at home looking after their child, Shelley would take Sophia and her chaperone out to galleries. Sophia, Mary admitted, "sings well for an english dilletante" and Shelley wrote her several love lyrics, including this one. (Collected from "Poem for a day".)

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