Love's Philosophy By Percy Bysshe Shelley Flashcards
Compare poem to…
Sonnet 29 ‘I think of thee’
Themes of poem…
Unrequited love,nature,seduction,desperation
Rhyme structure of the poem
ABAB rhyme scheme
Except two lines in each stanza don’t fully rhyme- this reflects the way that all of nature is in harmony except the narrator and his loved one
“The fountains mingle with the river”
Personification- parallel to the relationship he wants with his lover
Imagery of flowing water shows that everything is connected to everything else
“River” “Ever” Two lines apart “Heaven” “Forgiven”
Half rhyme reflects how the couples AREN’T united
“Fountains”➡️“River”➡️”ocean”➡️
Effect of increasing scale of imagery
Effect of enjambment in the first two lines
Effect if the metaphor
Shows water joining larger and larger bodies hints the loving someone makes you part of something bigger than yourself
Implies everything flows together, it’s a natural occurrence
Emphasises the flow of love going from small and unnatural to vats and powerful and natural occurrences.
Connotations of “sweet emotion”
Personification suggests that nature enjoys and benefits from this union
Comforting,natural,soft, innocent, powerful
“Nothing in the world is single;”
Microcosm- the poem summed up in a line
Semi colon emphasises the statement- he IS alone
“Law divine”
The narrator thinks it’s god’s law that everything in nature mingles together
Use of godly language suggests that the relationship is holy and perfect
“Mingle-“
Repetition from beginning of stanza emphasises how everything in nature is united
Dash creates a pause which emphasises the question at the end of the stanza
STANZA 1“Why not I with thine?”
STANZA 2“If thou kiss not me?”
Effect of structure
In both stanzas the first 6/7 lines are confident assertions, which contrast with the rhetorical question in the last lines
“Kiss”
“Clasp”
Use of physical language hints at his frustration that he can’t do these things to his lover
“Heaven”
Angelic language
“No sister- flower would be forgiven”
Narrator claims that his loved one’s lack of love towards him goes against God’s law and is unforgivable
“And the sunlight clasps the earth
And the moonbeams kiss the sea-“
Mirrored repetition shows that their relationship should mirror Mayte which is considered perfect
Personification of the “sunlight” and “moonbeams” creates an atmosphere that the earth and nature what this couple to exist.
Comforting language contrast with how the narrator currently feels
Use of repeating “and” emphasises the number of couples he knows
The effect of the final line in each stanza being monosyllabic on 5 syllables
This increases the impact of the question
They’re separated from the rest of the poem,just as the narrator is separated from his lover
Effect of religious language
Suggests that love isn’t just natural It is a godly experience
Effect of repeating “kiss”
Sibilance in the word emphasises the beauty of the word
“See”
Imperative verb
Emphasises his powerful and forceful nature
“What is all this sweet work worth
If thou kiss not me?”
The narrator questions the point of the world if his lover doesn’t love him- this suggests that love gives meaning to life
Can also be seen as a hyperbole - deliberately going over the top to persuade her
Effect of repetition in the poem as a whole
Shows how everything in nature repeatedly connects with everything else
Structure of the poem
Structured to be persuasive
Narrator uses majority of each stanza to build up evidence to support his argument that everything in nature is supposed to come together
Uses a short line at the end of each stanza to ask a rhetorical question- contrasts between nature and the narrators situation
Form of the poem
Short and simple-narrator believes he is saying a simple truth
ABAB rhyme apart from two lines
Feeling and attitudes off he poem
LONGING
PLAYFULNESS
Summary of poem
The speaker addresses a potential lover about the nature of love in an attempt to
persuade the lover to kiss him
-He suggests that in nature, everything comes in pairs and that a rejection of this duality is
unforgiveable
