Loves 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 though kiss not me?

Music when Soft Voices Die (To --)

BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory
Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
Live within the sense they quicken.
Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,
Are heaped for the belovd's bed;
And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on.

To ---BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

One word is too often profaned
For me to profane it,
One feeling too falsely disdained
For thee to disdain it;
One hope is too like despair
For prudence to smother,
And pity from thee more dear
Than that from another.
I can give not what men call love,
But wilt thou accept not
The worship the heart lifts above
And the Heavens reject not,
The desire of the moth for the star,
Of the night for the morrow,
The devotion to something afar
From the sphere of our sorrow?

Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Author Profile

Born into a wealthy landed English family of conservative beliefs, Shelley developed
such independence of thought that he earned the nickname mad Shelley. By the time he
entered Oxford University in 1810, he had already published juvenile verse and two
Gothic romances. At Oxford he turned to more controversial subjects. His short
theological polemic The Necessity of Atheism (1811), examined and refuted proofs
traditionally offered for the existence of God, and then asked readers either to supply any
deficiency in its reasoning or to embrace the truth that it contained, arguing that truth can
never be detrimental to society.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (Library of Congress)

Shelleys pamphletwhich he contentiously sent to bishops and heads of the colleges at

Oxfordcoupled with his political writings and conspicuous efforts to support an
imprisoned Irish journalist, brought him to the attention of the masters and fellows of
University College. They summoned him to a meeting in March, 1811. There, instead of
acknowledging authorship and reiterating his stance as a pursuer of truth, he refused to
acknowledge the pamphlet and argued that because it had been printed anonymously, his
questioners had no legal right to interrogate him concerning its authorship. The university
then expelled him, not for his published religious or political beliefs, but for his
stubbornness in answering questions, a matter of college discipline.

Soon after his expulsion, Shelley eloped with Harriet Westbrook. The young married
couples itinerant lifestyle took them through England, Ireland, and Wales in pursuit of
various political causes. In 1813 their first child was born and Shelleys first long poem,
Queen Mab, saw publication. This poem attacked established religion, especially
Christianity; political tyranny; and the destructive forces of war and commerce. It also
attacked the institution of marriage, which, Shelley argued, polluted human love and gave
rise to prostitution; however, the poem also gave an optimistic look at the future when
these forces would be overthrown and subjugated by love. Even while his poem was
being printed, Shelley recognized that it was too radical to be left unchallenged. Instead
of offering its two hundred printed copies for general sale, he privately distributed
seventy copies to friends and acquaintances he thought would appreciate the poems
worth.
The other copies of Queen Mab remained unsold until 1821, when a radical bookseller
named Clark bought them and put them up for sale. Clark was immediately prosecuted by
the Society for the Suppression of Vice. However, Richard Carlile, another printer
brought out a new edition in late 1821 and a second edition in 1822. Ironically, twentyfive years after its first printing, Queen Mab had become the most popular and influential
of Shelleys writing, hailed almost as a Bible by middle- and working-class reformers.