Monday, October 5, 2015

Monday's Poetry: "Love's Philosophy"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

I am currently watching a couple of old television series on my Roku streaming device, and, oddly enough, each have recently referenced the same classic poem, "Love's Philosophy" by Percy Bysshe Shelley.   The first program, Inspector Lewis, a British detective show that aired on the BBC in Britain and PBS here in America, had an episode titled "And the Moonbeams Kiss the Sea," a line from the poem.   That particular episode had several references to Shelley and this poem.    The other program, Twin Peaks, used the entire poem as a clue of sorts that stretched across several episodes.

Shelley, one of the British "romantic" poets, was at his best with the following verse.


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?

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