Love's Philosophy By Percy Bysshe Shelley

Question 1

Compare poem to…

Answer 1

Sonnet 29 ‘I think of thee’

Question 2

Themes of poem…

Answer 2

Unrequited love,nature,seduction,desperation

Question 3

Rhyme structure of the poem

Answer 3

ABAB rhyme scheme
Except two lines in each stanza don’t fully rhyme- this reflects the way that all of nature is in harmony except the narrator and his loved one

Question 4

“The fountains mingle with the river”

Answer 4

Personification- parallel to the relationship he wants with his lover
Imagery of flowing water shows that everything is connected to everything else

Question 5

“River”
“Ever”
Two lines apart 
“Heaven”
“Forgiven”

Answer 5

Half rhyme reflects how the couples AREN’T united

Question 6

“Fountains”➡️“River”➡️”ocean”➡️
Effect of increasing scale of imagery
Effect of enjambment in the first two lines
Effect if the metaphor

Answer 6

Shows water joining larger and larger bodies hints the loving someone makes you part of something bigger than yourself

Implies everything flows together, it’s a natural occurrence

Emphasises the flow of love going from small and unnatural to vats and powerful and natural occurrences.

Question 7

Connotations of “sweet emotion”

Answer 7

Personification suggests that nature enjoys and benefits from this union
Comforting,natural,soft, innocent, powerful

Question 8

“Nothing in the world is single;”

Answer 8

Microcosm- the poem summed up in a line

Semi colon emphasises the statement- he IS alone

Question 9

“Law divine”

Answer 9

The narrator thinks it’s god’s law that everything in nature mingles together
Use of godly language suggests that the relationship is holy and perfect

Question 10

“Mingle-“

Answer 10

Repetition from beginning of stanza emphasises how everything in nature is united
Dash creates a pause which emphasises the question at the end of the stanza

Question 11

STANZA 1“Why not I with thine?”
STANZA 2“If thou kiss not me?”
Effect of structure

Answer 11

In both stanzas the first 6/7 lines are confident assertions, which contrast with the rhetorical question in the last lines

Question 12

“Kiss”

“Clasp”

Answer 12

Use of physical language hints at his frustration that he can’t do these things to his lover

Question 13

“Heaven”

Answer 13

Angelic language

Question 14

“No sister- flower would be forgiven”

Answer 14

Narrator claims that his loved one’s lack of love towards him goes against God’s law and is unforgivable

Question 15

“And the sunlight clasps the earth

And the moonbeams kiss the sea-“

Answer 15

Mirrored repetition shows that their relationship should mirror Mayte which is considered perfect
Personification of the “sunlight” and “moonbeams” creates an atmosphere that the earth and nature what this couple to exist.
Comforting language contrast with how the narrator currently feels
Use of repeating “and” emphasises the number of couples he knows

Question 16

The effect of the final line in each stanza being monosyllabic on 5 syllables

Answer 16

This increases the impact of the question

They’re separated from the rest of the poem,just as the narrator is separated from his lover

Question 17

Effect of religious language

Answer 17

Suggests that love isn’t just natural It is a godly experience

Question 18

Effect of repeating “kiss”

Answer 18

Sibilance in the word emphasises the beauty of the word

Question 19

“See”

Answer 19

Imperative verb

Emphasises his powerful and forceful nature

Question 20

“What is all this sweet work worth

If thou kiss not me?”

Answer 20

The narrator questions the point of the world if his lover doesn’t love him- this suggests that love gives meaning to life
Can also be seen as a hyperbole - deliberately going over the top to persuade her

Question 21

Effect of repetition in the poem as a whole

Answer 21

Shows how everything in nature repeatedly connects with everything else

Question 22

Structure of the poem

Answer 22

Structured to be persuasive
Narrator uses majority of each stanza to build up evidence to support his argument that everything in nature is supposed to come together
Uses a short line at the end of each stanza to ask a rhetorical question- contrasts between nature and the narrators situation

Question 23

Form of the poem

Answer 23

Short and simple-narrator believes he is saying a simple truth
ABAB rhyme apart from two lines

Question 24

Feeling and attitudes off he poem

Answer 24

LONGING

PLAYFULNESS

Question 25

Summary of poem

Answer 25

The speaker addresses a potential lover about the nature of love in an attempt to
persuade the lover to kiss him
-He suggests that in nature, everything comes in pairs and that a rejection of this duality is
unforgiveable