Poetry Break | Love’s Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
One of the features around our house in the summer are poetry readings. Once a week (or so) we pick a book and read a poem or two or three. Today was one of my romantic faves, best known for being Mary’s husband, but a heck of a writer in his own right, Percy Bysshe Shelley. I read Love’s Philosophy, a short, stirring number that is sure to get your juices flowing!
Pick up some Shelley, dude only lived till he was 30. Read it aloud, give it your heart, then do it again and shout it to the wind!
Love’s Philosophy
by Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1819
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 it’s brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea;
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?
- The Complete Poetical Works of Percey Bysshe Shelley, Cambridge Edition, 1901