LOVE’S PHILOSOPHY

 

          LOVE’S  PHILOSOPHY

The fountains mingle with the river,

And the rivers with the ocean;  

The winds of heaven mix forever.

With a sweet emotion;

Nothing in the world is single;

All things by a law divine

In one another’s being 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 are all these kissings worth,

If thou kiss not me?

 

            This is a love poem by the English romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). The poet wants to convince the lady whom he loves that “Nothing in the world is single”.  There is a divine law of pairing and combining. Fountains get mingled with rivers and rivers get mingled with the ocean. Waves clasp one another. A sister flower will not be forgiven if it disdains its brother flower. The sunlight of the sky clasps the earth.  Likewise the moonbeams kiss the sea. All these kissings in nature are according to love’s philosophy which governs all beings.  But the poet seems to be unhappy because her lady love is not paired with him. “What are all these kissings worth/If thou kiss not me? “ He asks: If “All things by a law divine/in one another’s being mingle/Why not I with thine?”

 

            What Shelley wants to convey is that the philosophy of love is a philosophy of marriage. It is a philosophy of coming together with a bond of mutual love, not of remaining aloof with an attitude of aloofness.

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G. R. Kanwal

30^th September 2023