Romanticism was at its height from1800 to 1850 and celebrated emotion, individualism and the wonders of nature. For Shelley love was a philosophy and a spiritual calling. The Romantics gave us some of the best love poems, and Shelley wrote this little gem when he was 28 and living in Florence, just after Mary gave birth to their son, Percy Florence. It has often been performed as a song, but here it is beautifully presented by Richard Armitage.
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?