The analysis of Poetry"Love's Philosophy"

1. Poetry "Love's Philosophy"

"Love's Philosophy"

by Percy Bysshe Shelley
(1803-1822)

The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean
The winds of heaven mix forever
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 disdained it's brother
And the sunlight clasps the earth
And the moonbeams kiss the sea
What are all these kissings worth
If thou kiss not me?

2. Translation “Love’s Philosophy”

“Philosofi Cinta”
oleh Percy Shelley Bysshe
(1803-1822)

Air mancur menyatu dengan sungai
Dan sungai dengan laut
Angin surga bersatu padu selamanya
Dengan emosi yang manis
Tidak ada di dunia ini yang tunggal
Semuanya sudah menjadi  ketentuan Ilahi
Dalam satu sama lain menjadi berbaur
Mengapa tidak aku dengan-mu?
Lihat! pegunungan mencium surga tinggi
Dan gelombang bertepuk satu sama lain
Tidak saudara, bunga akan diberi pengampunan
Jika meremehkan itu saudara
Dan sinar matahari menggenggam bumi
Dan sinar bulan mencium laut
Apa semua ciuman ini layak
Jika engkau mencium bukan aku?

*Whole poem is translated word by word

 3. The analysis of “Love's Philosophy”

3.1 Poetic / Literary devices

1.      Personification

·            Fountains mingle with the river

·            Winds of heaven mix forever with a sweet emotion

·            The mountains kiss high heaven

·            The waves clasps one another

·            Moonbeams kiss the sea

2.      Metaphors

·            No sister flower could be forgiven if it disdained its brother- it describes that no man.  

·            should go against one another for a brother will look on to another brother.

3.      Rhetorical question

·            If thou kiss not me?- simply says that what is the use of all the relationships in the.

·            nature worth if you’re not with me (a man and woman’s relationship).

4.      Symbolism

when an object is meant to be representative of something or an idea greater than the object itself.

·            Kiss, expressed the high mountain reaches heaven.

·            Clasp, states clashing each other.

·            Forgiven, exception

3.2. Stanza by stanza analysis

1. The first stanza

P. B. Shelly expresses that everything in the nature are in union. “The fountains mingle with the river and the rivers with the ocean”. He wants to have an intimate relationship with the girl. He claims that the world is held by a “law divine” so nothing in the world is single. He’s advocating his intention on having a relationship with her.

2. The second stanza

The mountains are touching high heaven and the waves clasps one another. He means that every nature is embracing each other. No man can be forgiven if he hates another man. He’s proposing that all men should be in a good term with each other. He said that what is the use of nature embracing each other if you(lover) don’t reciprocate my love?.

3.3. Reading Material

This is a simple little love poem in two 8-line stanzas with an ABABCDCD rhyme scheme. It is, at heart, a plea for his girlfriend to kiss him, but his persuasion takes the form of pointing to a range of natural and cosmic conjunctions that involve, on a "macro" scale, what he wishes to do on a "micro" one. The first stanza begins:

The fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the ocean;
The logic points, in his view, to the inevitability of mingling and mixing "by a law divine" which applies to what his girlfriend should do as well, because "Nothing in the world is single".

The second stanza is, in effect, a repetition of the first, although here "mingle" and "mix" are replaced by "kiss" and "clasp" as the keywords. It should also be noted that the examples move up a gear from rivers and winds to sunlight and moonlight in the lines:

And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea;-

Shelley does not mince his words when he relates mountains kissing the sky and moonbeams kissing the sea directly to his personal circumstances in the final lines:

What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me? 

 CONCLUSION

What the author is trying to imply is that love is in vain if it’s a ‘one-sided’ love. Love is interdependent. There is also a message that the natural world is on the side of love. The thing that Shelly was stressing on was that love and everything about and in it is sweet. But if it’s only a one-sided love or affection, then it would be all worthless. Shelly uses nature mingling with each other (divine thing) to press on that a man and woman should be together, that nature and man are destined to have a pair.

As a "philosophy", Shelley's poem might lack something in terms of its rigour, especially as his argument from the universal to the specific is logically questionable, but that does not matter when the poem is considered for what it is, namely a cleverly constructed love poem that is typical of its kind in that the lover's regard of the universe is entirely coloured by his emotions. He can see nothing around him that does not back up his argument and ignores everything that does not, of which there would be plenty of examples if he chose to look for them.

There is also the message that the natural world is on the side of love, which is true in a sense but not quite the one that Shelley is stressing here. For him, the mingling, clasping and kissing is "sweet work" that would be worthless if his girlfriend does not succumb to him. This is, of course, an absurd position to take but it is again typical of someone who is deeply in love and single-minded in their quest.

This short poem throws so many examples at the reader that he or she might almost be taken in by its faulty logic. If the reader is in the throes of love themselves, they might indeed accept the argument. This is, after all, "Love's Philosophy", which does not have to follow the rules that apply in all other circumstances.

IMPRESSION

Sad and feel sorry for the poet who wrote a poem about it, so in a sense that he aspires to convey in the poem, he was convinced that all that exists in this universe in pairs, so that he felt lonely and expect that the woman he loved was at his side.

when we review the background of the real life of the poet, the poem can be understood if it really implies anxiety heart of the poet.

the background of his life he would have with his first wife, he was not happy, because he does not love her and had to marry her because of the situation. He expects perfection of love as he wants and hope he gets it from his second wife.