Friday, October 10, 2014

What is the form of the poem "Love’s Philosophy" by Percy Bysshe Shelly? For example is it an ode, sonnet, etc.?

It is somewhat difficult to identify the form of Shelley's
"Love's Philosophy."


It certainly is not a sonnet, because
a sonnet has--by definition--14 lines, and Shelley's poem has
16.


Is it an ode?  An ode is a poem that is written in
praise of, or dedicated to someone or something that has inspired the poet.  Does
Shelley's poem fit this definition?  The poem is addressed to someone with whom the poet
would like to "meet and mingle" in romantic fashion.  Yet there is no praise for this
person in the poem.  Rather, the poet repeats, through various examples, that it is "a
law divine" that various beautiful phenomena of nature should meet and mix: "fountains
mingle with the river," "the mountains kiss high Heaven," "the waves clasp one another,"
the "sunlight clasps the earth," etc.


Perhaps it is safest
to say about the form of "Love's Philosophy" is that is a beautiful poem consisting of
two 8-line stanzas.  The rhyme scheme in each stanza is ABABCDCD.  The poet achieves
formal unity by ending each stanza with a question addressed to his
beloved.


It is also interesting to note that subject of
Stanza 1--fountains-- rhymes with the subject of Stanza
2--mountains.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Calculate tan(x-y), if sin x=1/2 and sin y=1/3. 0

We'll write the formula of the tangent of difference of 2 angles. tan (x-y) = (tan x - tan y)/(1 + tan x*tan y) ...