Percy Bysshe Shelley, by Alfred Clint (died 1883)
Percy Bysshe Shelley ( 4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets, and is regarded by some as among the finest lyric, as well as epic, poets in the English language.(Wikipedia)
Percy Bysshe Shelley – One of the Romantics
Love withers under constraints: it’s very essence is liberty: it is compatible neither with obedience, jealousy, nor fear: it is there most pure, perfect, and unlimited where its votaries live in confidence, equality and unreserve.
~Percy Bysshe Shelley
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Love’s Philosophy
BY PERCY BYSSHE 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 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.
This is so romantic, so typical of the lyrical Shelley. I love the poem. Shelley is saying that everything from the rivers, ocean, wind, mountains, flowers and sunlight have their other half. No one is alone and yet the narrator of the poem remains loveless; still waiting for THE ONE! Ahhhhhhh