Love’s Philosophy (AQA GCSE English Literature)

Revision Note

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Each poetry anthology at GCSE contains 15 poems, and in your exam question you will be given one poem - printed in full - and asked to compare this printed poem to another. As this is a closed-book exam, you will not have access to the second poem, so you will have to know it from memory. Fifteen poems is a lot to revise. However, understanding four things will enable you to produce a top-grade response:

The meaning of the poem
The ideas and messages of the poet
How the poet conveys these ideas through their methods
How these ideas compare and contrast with the ideas of other poets in the anthology

Below is a guide to Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem Love’s Philosophy, from the Love and Relationships anthology. It includes:

Overview: a breakdown of the poem, including its possible meanings and interpretations
Writer’s Methods: an exploration of the poet’s techniques and methods
Context: an exploration of the context of the poem, relevant to its themes
What to Compare it to: ideas about which poems to compare it to in the exam

Exam Tip

Love’s Philosophy is part of the Love and Relationships anthology of poems, and the exam question asks you to compare the ideas presented in two of these anthology poems, specifically related to the ideas of love and relationships.

It is therefore as important that you learn how Love’s Philosophy compares and contrasts with other poems in the anthology as understanding the poem in isolation. See the section below on ‘What to Compare it to’ for detailed comparisons of Love’s Philosophy and other poems in the anthology.

Overview

In order to answer an essay question on any poem it is vital that you understand what it is about. This section includes:

The poem in a nutshell
A ‘translation’ of the poem, section-by-section
A commentary of each of these sections, outlining Shelley’s intention and message

Love’s Philosophy in a Nutshell

Love’s Philosophy, written by the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1820, conveys typical Romantic themes relating to the power of the natural world and intense emotion, in this case, unrequited love. In the poem, Shelley’s speaker shows the complex nature of relationships as he tries to seduce a potential lover.

Love’s Philosophy overview

Lines 1-2

“The fountains mingle with the river

And the rivers with the Ocean,”

Translation

The poem begins with an image relating to water: rivers and oceans and fountains mixing together

Shelley’s intention

Shelley’s poem begins with typical Romantic imagery relating to the natural world
- Shelley shows nature as harmonious

Lines 3-4

“The winds of Heaven mix for ever

With a sweet emotion;”

Translation

Shelley now describes the wind mixing with the skies (“Heaven”)
He describes this as pleasant, emotional and endless

Shelley’s intention

Here, Shelley links nature and emotion, creating a sensual mood
The lines introduce religious imagery to strengthen his philosophical debate

Lines 5-7

“Nothing in the world is single;

All things by a law divine

In one spirit meet and mingle.”

Translation

The speaker explains that everything occurs as part of something else
He asserts it is a holy rule of nature that things come together and become one

Shelley’s intention

These lines link to the title of the poem, Love’s Philosophy, as Shelley’s speaker asserts a simple message that love is governed by a sacred law of nature
Shelley alludes to Romantic ideas of the spiritual nature of love

Line 8

“Why not I with thine?—”

Translation

Here, the speaker directly addresses a silent listener in a persuasive appeal
He asks a question to his potential lover: if nature naturally “mingles” then why not the two of them?

Shelley’s intention

The change in rhythm stresses Shelley’s question and suggests the desperation of unrequited love

Lines 9-10

“See the mountains kiss high heaven

And the waves clasp one another;”

Translation

The speaker instructs the listener to look at how the mountains and the sky touch, and how the waves seem to be embracing

Shelley’s intention

Here, Shelley’s speaker directs the listener to see nature linked to intimate, physical love

Lines 11-12

“No sister-flower would be forgiven

If it disdained its brother;”

Translation

The speaker seems to be suggesting that the sister-flower is the listener and he is the brother
He suggests strongly that it would be sinful to turn him away

Shelley’s intention

The speaker again argues that love is natural and innocent using natural imagery and allusion to siblings
Shelley again refers to morality to strengthen his persuasive argument

Lines 13-14

“And the sunlight clasps the earth

And the moonbeams kiss the sea:”

Translation

The speaker presents another reason for the listener to kiss him

He explains the sun and the earth are connected in the same way as the moonlight shines on the ocean

Shelley’s intention

The speaker describes powerful contrasting imagery to show the natural connection between day and night

Shelley connects the sensual imagery of nature with love to show love’s simple and natural nature

Lines 15-16

“What is all this sweet work worth

If thou kiss not me?”

Translation

Shelley’s poem ends with a rhetorical question to close the speaker’s argument
The speaker argues that all the work nature does (and that he has done persuading them) would be wasted if they do not kiss him

Shelley’s intention

The rhetorical question is ambiguous to end his persuasion with a playful, yet desperate tone
Although the speaker’s argument describes love as simple and natural, the poem ends unresolved, suggesting the complex nature of his love

Exam Tip

Your exam question will ask you to compare how poets present ideas about love and/or relationships in the poem given to you on the exam paper and one other from the Love and Relationships anthology. It is therefore a good idea to begin your answer using the wording of the question and summarising what the poem tells us about the nature of love or relationships. This demonstrates that you have understood the poem and the poet’s intention. For example, “Shelley presents ideas about complex relationships by presenting a love that is unrequited. Similar themes can be found in…”

Writer’s Methods

Although this section is organised into three separate sections - form, structure and language - it is always best to move from what the poet is presenting (the techniques they use; the overall form of the poem; what comes at the beginning, middle and end of a poem) to how and why they have made the choices they have.

Focusing on the poet’s overarching ideas, rather than individual poetic techniques, will gain you far more marks. Crucially, in the below sections, all analysis is arranged by theme, and includes Shelley’s intentions behind his choices in terms of:

Form
Structure
Language

Exam Tip

The last thing examiners want to see is what they call “technique spotting”. This is when students use overly sophisticated terminology unnecessarily (“polysyndeton”; “epanalepsis”), without explaining their analysis.

Knowing the names of sophisticated techniques will not gain you any more marks, especially if these techniques are only “spotted” and the poet’s intentions for this language is not explained. Instead of technique spotting, focus your analysis on the reasons why the poet is presenting their ideas in the way that they do: what is their message? What ideas are they presenting, or challenging?

Form

The speaker’s seduction of his prospective lover by showing everything as connected and paired is reflected in the harmonious two stanza structure. The regular rhyme indicates a controlled and considered tone as the speaker makes his desperate plea.

Theme	Evidence	Poet’s intention
Unrequited love	The ballad form is often used to convey intense emotion	Shelley’s ballad form conveys an emotional tone which reflects themes regarding unrequited love
	The poem consists of two simple and regular stanzas, which mirror each other	The form reflects the poem’s Romantic themes relating to physical love being natural, and Shelley’s comment on pairings in nature
	Love's Philosophy is written in a trochaic meter: a pattern of stressed then unstressed syllables with each stanza containing a pair of alternately-rhymed quatrains	The rhythm and the rhyme gives the poem a hypnotic, lyrical quality, suggestive of the seductive nature of the poem

Structure

The poem follows a complex argument which shows the speaker’s manipulative control as he persuades his listener to give in to desire.

Theme	Evidence	Poet’s intention
Complex relationships	The poem’s form, a persuasive argument, explores the complex nature of unrequited love The enjambment brings a fluid and calm tone to the speaker’s argument This shows the speaker is in control of his emotions	The poem shows the nature of consent in relationships as the speaker’s controlled and logical argument attempts to persuade someone to kiss him
	The first person speaker directly addresses the silent listener using rhetorical questions at the end of stanzas for impact Shelley’s poem takes on the form of two long sentences with pauses for dramatic effect	The speaker’s persistence is shown through the repeated rhetorical questions which challenge the listener’s sense of reason and morality Shelley’s dramatic persuasion shows the nature of seduction as unrelenting for the listener

Language

Shelley’s poem, Love’s Philosophy, symbolises nature as loving and harmonious in a bid to persuade a potential partner to see love as a law of nature. His philosophical language mixes with natural imagery and physical imagery to present these ideas as connected.

Theme	Evidence	Poet’s intention
Longing	The poem’s semantic field of physical imagery attempts to compare the way nature behaves with the way humans behave: The mountains “kiss” heaven, the waves “clasp one another” and the moonbeams and sunlight kiss and embrace too	Typical of Romantic poetry, Shelley personifies nature to show its power
		The affectionate relationship between the natural elements is repeated throughout the poem to persuade the listener that physical love is natural and beautiful
		Shelley’s imagery suggests physical intimacy creates harmony
	The narrator uses philosophical language related to morality: He asserts that everything is governed by a divine law that forbids isolation and encourages intimacy	Shelley’s narrator asks a silent listener to kiss him, using elevated language connoting to religion
	The archaic language, “thine” and “thou” elevates what is a simple request to present complexity in love	His sophisticated argument suggests if his listener refuses, it would be unnatural and sinful: the hyperbolic argument highlights the narrator’s desperate desire and longing
	Shelley makes an elaborate and dramatic argument which alludes to spirituality and intimacy in a bid to persuade his listener to submit to him, highlighting themes of longing and desire in relationships

Exam Tip

Try not to separate “language”, “form” and “structure” into three separate elements you need to include in your answer. To achieve top marks, you need to include an integrated comparison of the themes and ideas in this and the other poems in the anthology, and focus on the relevance of the method used by the poet to the ideas in the poem(s).

This means it is better to structure your answer around an exploration of the ideas and themes in the poems, commenting on elements of language, form or structure that contribute to the presentation of these themes, rather than simply listing all of the key methods you think should be covered when writing about poetry (with no analysis or exploration of their relevance to the themes and ideas). Stay focused on the task, and then choose your comments based on the focus of the question.

Context

Examiners repeatedly state that context should not be considered as additional factual information: in this case, it is not random biographical information about Percy Bysshe Shelley or the Romantic movement which is unrelated to the ideas in Love’s Philosophy. The best way to understand context is as the ideas and perspectives explored by Shelley in Love’s Philosophy that relate to love and relationships. This section has therefore been divided into two relevant themes that Shelley explores:

Unrequited Love

Love’s Philosophy, by Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, was written in 1820

Romantic poets wrote about the power of nature at a time when science and industry were advancing rapidly: this was seen as rebellious
In this poem, Shelley’s Romantic philosophies about nature are used to seduce a reluctant listener into a physical relationship which mimics nature

Romantic poets believe in the importance of emotion, freedom and self-fulfilment

This poem encourages the listener to abandon themselves to physical pleasure
It argues that the physical nature of intimacy is a natural law in order to convince a listener to surrender to his kiss, very typical of Romantic philosophies

Complex relationships

Shelley was considered revolutionary for his ideas about the world, including atheism

His poem shows the complex nature of relationships by using traditional, archaic language (which suggests a sense of conformity) to elevate his argument, and philosophise about love

His reference to religion and law adds weight to his sophisticated plea
This is more typical of traditional love poetry which was melodramatic and often presented love as complex and painful

Shelley’s poem mixes the form of a traditional ballad with a persuasive argument to show the complexity of relationships

By using the rhythm of a ballad Shelley’s tone becomes emotional
However, the poem’s form takes on a logical argument in a bid to influence the listener with rationale, in opposition to Romantic ideals

Exam Tip

Remember, AO3 is only worth up to 6 marks in this question. You will be expected to demonstrate your understanding of the relationship between the poem and the context in which it was written in an integrated way, throughout your answer. It is therefore important to focus on the key themes, and have a thorough knowledge of the cluster of poems.

Context comes from the key word in the task, so your answer should emphasise the key themes of the effects of desire and love. Writing a whole paragraph about Romantic poets is not an integrated approach, and will not achieve high marks.

What to Compare it to

The essay you are required to write in your exam is a comparison of the ideas and themes explored in two of your anthology poems. It is therefore essential that you revise the poems together, in pairs, to understand how each poet presents ideas about love or relationships, in comparison to other poets in the anthology. Given that Love’s Philosophy explores the ideas of complex relationships, romantic love and desire, the following comparisons are the most appropriate:

For each pair of poems, you will find:

The comparison in a nutshell
Similarities between the ideas presented in each poem
Differences between the ideas presented in each poem
Evidence and analysis of these similarities and differences

Exam Tip

You will be expected to not only explore this poem in depth, but make perceptive comparisons to themes, language, form and structure used in other poems in the anthology that also comment on complex relationships, romantic love and desire. It is therefore important that you have a thorough knowledge of all of the poems, rather than just memorising a series of quotations. It is also essential that you not only write about the named poem, but compare it to one other in the anthology. Only writing about the poem given on the paper will severely limit your marks.

Love’s Philosophy and Porphyria’s Lover

Comparison in a nutshell:

Both Shelley’s Love’s Philosophy and Browning’s Porphyria’s Lover convey the speaker’s intense feelings, as well as a sense of intention and power, in their response to desire. However, Shelley’s speaker explores natural abandonment and the power of unity, while Browning’s obsessive narrator depicts possessive and destructive love.

Similarities:

Topic sentence	Both poems suggest complex responses to feelings of desire
Evidence and analysis	Love’s Philosophy	Porphyria’s Lover
	Shelley’s first-person speaker adopts a composed tone as he persuades a silent listener to engage in a physical relationship and surrender to desire: He employs a controlled and structured argument with repeated rhetorical questions and a strict rhyme scheme	Similarly, Browning’s first person dramatic monologue speaks of surrender to desire with a silent lover His controlled tone and strict rhyme presents the speaker as calm as he narrates the deadly tale
	Shelley’s speaker uses religious imagery to add weight to the argument that desire is natural He convinces his silent listener that the heavens mix in “sweet emotion” forever and that desire and physical love is a “law divine”	Similarly, Browning’s speaker employs religious imagery to justify desire He suggests his lover, Porphyria, worships him and that after his night of passion and murder “God has not said a word!”
	However, at times Shelley’s speaker presents a loss of control, indicating intense and overwhelming emotion	The speaker in Porphyria’s Lover also presents overpowering emotion leading to a loss of control the repetition of “And” as he narrates the events of the night work alongside the enjambment and caesurae to present an unstable voice: “And I untightened next the tress/About her neck; her cheek once more/Blushed bright beneath my burning kiss”
	The repetition of “And” to introduce each reason for the physical relationship brings a desperation to his voice
	The complex emotions of desire are presented in both poems with speakers who are, at times, composed and manipulative, and at other times, emotional and out of control
	Both poets comment on ideas related to consent and power related to desire in relationships

Topic sentence	Both poets convey intense emotions in romantic relationships
Evidence and analysis	Love’s Philosophy	Porphyria’s Lover
	Shelley’s poem evokes powerful natural imagery relating to nature and its physical relationship: “No sister-flower would be forgiven”	Browning’s poem, similarly, uses natural imagery which he connects with his emotions for his lover: “As a shut bud that holds a bee”
	Shelley presents nature as powerfully connected to his feelings of love and desire: He describes how the winds mix with “sweet emotion” and how the natural elements “kiss” and “clasp” each other	Browning, too, evokes nature’s power to represent his own intense emotions by personifying nature, like Shelley does: “The sullen wind” tears down tree-tops and did its worst to vex the lake”
	Both poets convey their strong feelings related to romantic love and desire by showing their connections with nature as powerful and emotional

Differences:

Topic sentence	While Shelley’s poem connects love with freedom and harmony, Browning’s poem illustrates destructive disharmony in relationships
Evidence and analysis	Love’s Philosophy	Porphyria’s Lover
	In Love’s Philosophy, the speaker depicts harmony within nature in a bid to convince his lover that humans should, equally, engage in physical and natural love	In Porphyria’s Lover, however, the speaker describes disharmony within nature as he shows his own destructive response to physical love
	Shelley conveys Romantic themes of love as a unifying force, and presents physical desire as liberating: “All things by a law divine/In one spirit meet and mingle.”	Here, however, love and physical desire is presented as controlling and possessive: “That moment she was mine, mine, fair”
	Shelley’s speaker is concerned about the freedom of physical love and suggests desire is a natural law, whereas Browning’s speaker illustrates an immoral and possessive attitude to love

Exam Tip

It is a good idea to outline your choice of second poem in your introduction to your response, with a clear overview of the overarching themes within both poems. You can then use the theme to move between both poems to provide the substance to illustrate your arguments. However, this does not mean that you cannot focus on one poem first, and then the other, linking ideas back to the main poem. You should choose whichever structure suits you best, as long as comparison is embedded and ideas for both texts are well-developed.

Love’s Philosophy and Sonnet 29 – ‘I think of thee!’

Comparison in a nutshell:

This is an effective comparative choice to explore desire and longing within complex romantic relationships. Both Shelley’s Love Philosophy and Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 29 - ‘I think of thee!’ consider physical unity as a natural part of love, and present strong emotions when this is denied them.

Similarities:

Topic sentence	Both poems show longing as a result of denied physical love in romantic relationships
Evidence and analysis	Love’s Philosophy	Sonnet 29 - ‘I think of thee!’
	A first-person speaker presents an emotional argument to convince a silent lover to engage in a kiss	Similarly, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s first-person speaker conveys strong intense emotions in a romantic sonnet which forms a single monologue and is dedicated to a silent listener
	Shelley’s speaker conveys frustrated and intense emotion through a passionate and desperate tone: “Why not I with thine?”	The speaker here conveys similar frustration with broken lines: “I think of thee”
	The poem evokes natural imagery in an extended metaphor comparing the way nature harmonises and unites in love	Elizabeth Barrett Browning, too, uses natural imagery in an extended metaphor which connects the power of love with the power of nature
	The poets comment on the overwhelming power of physical love within romantic relationships, and how the lack of it leads to unstable emotions and longing

Topic sentence	Both poems comment on the desire for physical unity in romantic relationships
Evidence and analysis	Love’s Philosophy	Sonnet 29 - ‘I think of thee!’
	Shelley alludes to physical love as the natural order of things: He refers to natural pairings in nature His poem consists of two equal stanzas which mirror each other	Similarly, Elizabeth Barrett Browning comments on the nature of physical unity within romantic relationships as natural: her sonnet consists of a pair of quatrains placed together rather than separated
	The poem suggests physical intimacy as a law of nature: The natural elements “clasp” one another and “kiss” in a spiritual embrace	Elizabeth Barrett Browning also considers physical intimacy as natural: “as wild vines, about a tree”
		She calls for the physical presence of her lover: “Rustle thy boughs”
	The poets suggest physical intimacy within romantic relationships is natural and inevitable
	Shelley’s poem could be considered a traditional love poem, however, despite Barrett Browning’s traditional form, it would not be typical for the speaker to be a woman frustrated with desire, and thus, her poem challenges typical gender roles in relationships

Differences:

Topic sentence	While Shelley leaves his speaker’s physical desire unresolved, Elizabeth Barrett Browning presents a solution to her longing for physical intimacy
Evidence and analysis	Love’s Philosophy	Sonnet 29 - ‘I think of thee!’
	The poem ends on a desperate, unanswered rhetorical question, suggesting the speaker is left frustrated	However, the sonnet ends with a sense of resolution: “I do not think of thee - I am too near thee.”
	Shelley’s poem is a continuous and relentless argument, often breathless in its delivery	Here, however, the structure of the sonnet breaks with a volta: The first quatrain expresses the speaker’s thoughts of longing The second quatrain, however, has a sense of physical nearness and presence
	Both poems speak to a silent lover, however Shelley’s poem suggests a vague listener who may never satisfy his desire, while Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s speaker ends her poem with direct address, certain of physical closeness
	Shelley’s poem is written to a vague listener, and suggests a superficial relationship, whereas Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet is written to an individual in an emotional monologue about romantic love

Love’s Philosophy and The Farmer’s Bride

Comparison in a nutshell:

Both Shelley’s Love’s Philosophy and Mew’s The Farmer’s Bride convey powerful feelings of longing and desire in frustrated romantic relationships. They both suggest a power imbalance which leads to a lack of resolution.

Similarities:

Topic sentence	Both poems highlight longing and desire in romantic relationships as frustrating
Evidence and analysis	Love’s Philosophy	The Farmer’s Bride
	The first-person speaker in Shelley’s poem conveys a frustrated tone of voice at a lack of physical intimacy: “What is all this sweet work worth/If thou kiss not me?”	Similarly, Mew’s first-person speaker conveys frustration at the distance between he and his bride: “Sweet as the first wild violets, she,/To her wild self. But what to me?”
	Shelley’s poem draws upon comparisons with nature to represent physical love as natural: The natural elements “kiss” and “clasp” in “sweet emotion”	Here, too, natural imagery is used to present the speaker’s attitude that love and physical closeness are a natural part of life: “The berries redden up to Christmas-time/What’s Christmas-time without there be/Some other in the house than we!”
	Shelley’s speaker uses repetition and sibilance to express a sense of persistence and frustration: “And the sunlight clasps the earth/And the moonbeams kiss the sea:”	Mew’s speaker’s frustration is similarly expressed: “’Tis but a stair/Betwixt us” and “her hair, her hair!”
	The poets both comment on power imbalances within romantic relationships by showing frustrated speakers who attempt to persuade a lover to be intimate with them
	The poems end without resolution as both speakers are left longing for their partner’s physical love

Differences:

Topic sentence	While both poets explore romantic love as natural, Shelley’s poem evokes the beauty and harmony of nature and love, while Mew’s natural imagery suggests the distance between the lovers
Evidence and analysis	Love’s Philosophy	The Farmer’s Bride
	Shelley’s natural imagery and personification alludes to the natural elements being in harmony, involved in a spiritual and endless embrace that is similar to physical love in romantic relationships: The sunlight “clasps” the earth and the moonbeams “kiss” the sea	However, Mew uses natural imagery to represent the fear and distance within the romantic relationship between the farmer and his bride: The bride is compared to a “mouse”, a “leveret” and a “larch tree” who is happy “So long as men-folk keep away.”
	Shelley’s Romantic poem presents nature as a unifying power within love, whereas Mew’s poem presents the wild spirit of the bride in opposition to a romantic relationship
	Shelley’s poem shows romantic love as unifying and natural, whereas Mew’s poem shows love as complicated and fractious

Exam Tip

You can choose whichever poem you feel you are able to make the most in-depth comparisons to in the exam. For example, you could choose to compare the presentation of longing and desire in Love’s Philosophy and The Farmer’s Bride. Or you might wish to explore the idea of physical love as a natural force in Love’s Philosophy and Sonnet 29 - ‘I think of thee!’ What is important is that you view the poems thematically, with a clear emphasis on love and relationships. This will give you a better framework in which to write your response in the exam.

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Love’s Philosophy (AQA GCSE English Literature)

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Author: Sam Evans