Love’s Philosophy - Percy Bysshe Shelley
English Lit: AQA GCSE Poetry - Love & Relationships, topic 17.1.2
Key Quotations: Love's Philosophy
Here's some key quotes to remember for your exam:
"The winds of Heaven mix..."
- "The winds of Heaven mix forever / With a sweet emotion".
- Shelley uses religious imagery to try to elevate the status of his love and to present his intentions as pure.
"And sunlight clasps the earth..."
- "And sunlight clasps the earth / And the moonbeams kiss the sea-".
- Here, Shelley personifies the "sunlight", "moonbeams", "earth" and the "sea" as lovers as an attempt to present physical union with his lover as the next logical and natural step
"What is all this sweet..."
- "What is all this sweet work worth / If thou kiss not me?"
- N.B. in some versions of the poem, the line is: "What are all these kissings worth...".
- There is a clearly manipulative voice in this poem.
- The narrator is trying to get what he wants out of his lover, by any means of persuasion necessary.
Test yourself on Love’s Philosophy - Percy Bysshe Shelley
Which of these techniques is found in the following quote:
"And sunlight clasps the earth / And the moonbeams kiss the sea-"