Love's Philosophy / Percy Bysshe Shelley

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?

~~
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), 1819
from Posthumous Poems, 1824

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

Percy Bysshe Shelley biography

"Love's Philosophy" read by Iain Batchelor. Courtesy Live Canon Poetry.