LOVE’S PHILOSOPHY

Do now: what links the words from our poem below?

What emotions can be associated?
fountains moonbeams
river earth
Ocean sea
winds waves
mountains Heaven
sunlight sister-flower

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKFTSSKCzWA
 a theory or attitude that acts as a guide
for behaviour

LOVE’S PHILOSOPHY
1. How does Shelley use natural imagery to explore his feelings?
2. How is persuasive language used for effect?
3. To what extent does this poem reflect the literary context of
Romanticism?
OUR FIRST READING
1. What does the speaker in Tonal words:
the poem want? • Longing
• Playful
• Thoughtful
• Frustrated
• Lustful
2. How would you describe Even better: another word of
the tone of the speaker’s your choice – use the list to help
voice? you
ROW 1 – FORM
1. How many stanzas are there? What could this
suggest about the relationship?
2. Is this a simple or complex structure? What could
this suggest?
3. Do you notice a rhyming pattern? What is the effect?
4. Does the pattern break any where? Why might this
be?
ROW 2 – STRUCTURING AN
ARGUMENT
1. Which persuasive techniques do you notice in this
poem? Where in each stanza do they appear?
2. How does this help make the argument more
powerful?
3. This poem uses a lot of enjambment – what is the
effect of this?
4. Personal response – how effective do you feel the
speaker’s argument is and why? Can you use
evidence to justify …
ROW 3: LANGUAGE AND
NATURE
1. Shelley refers to lots of different natural images and often
uses personification to describe nature. What examples of this
can you find in the poem?
2. What do they suggest about the speaker’s feelings?
3. Shelley belonged to a group of poets called the Romantics.
This group of poets often used nature to explore powerful
emotions, particularly by talking about how nature was god-
like. To what extent do you feel this poem is a Romantic poem?
Can you use evidence to justify?
ROW 4: RELIGIOUS
LANGUAGE
1. What examples of religious language can you
find in this poem?
2. What do they suggest about how the speaker
feels about the relationship?
3. How might these references to God help make
his argument more convincing? Hint: When
was this poem written ?
LOVE’S PHILOSOPHY P.B
SHELLEY
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 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 disdain’d its brother:
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea –
What are all these kisses worth,
If thou kiss not me?
IN CONCLUSION …

1. Based on your
reading, is this
poem about love
or about lust?
Be prepared to
justify with
evidence …
 MAKING
COMPARISON
When We Two Parted S Love’s Philosophy