Love's Philosophy – Percy Bysshe Shelley:

Question 1

Context:

Answer 1

He was a Romantic poet – an artistic movement in the 18th and 19th with emphasis on emotion and nature.

Question 2

Summary:

Answer 2

Persuading a woman to be with him romantically.

Question 3

Form:

Answer 3

The poem short and simple – he is saying the simple truth. It has a regular ABAB rhyme scheme but two lines don’t fully rhyme - all of nature is in harmony but him and her.

Question 4

Structure:

Answer 4

Tightly structured - to be persuasive. In each stanza he builds up evidence to support his argument and the short line at the end asks a rhetorical question. It stands out from the rest of the stanza – shows the contrast between nature and the narrator’s situation. It’s monosyllabic increasing the impact of it.

Question 5

Language about nature:

Answer 5

How everything is intimate and loving – and this is God’s law which should be obeyed.

Question 6

Repetition:

Answer 6

How nature repeatedly connects with everything else – emphasises the physical relationship he wants.

Question 7

Religious language:

Answer 7

Suggests love isn’t just natural but is also godly.

Question 8

Themes:

Answer 8

Longing - For love – and is frustrated his love isn’t returned when he sees all the bonds that exist in nature.

Playfulness – Oversimplifies the idea that things in nature come together like him.

Question 9

Compare to:

Answer 9

Winter Swans, Porphyria’s lover, Farmer’s Bride and Letters from Yorkshire.