The [fountains mingle]1 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 [another's being]2 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]3 the earth
  And the moonbeams kiss the sea:
What [are all these kissings]4 worth
  If thou kiss not me?

L. Lehrman sets lines 5-8, 1-4, 9-16

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Gounod: "fountain mingles"
² Delius: "spirit meet and"
³ Gounod: "sunbeams clasp"
⁴ Delius: "is all this sweet work"; Gounod: "are all these kisses"

Text Authorship:

• by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822), "Love's philosophy" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Emil Gustave Ahnell (b. 1925), "Love's philosophy" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Vivian Loretta Alvstad , "Love's philosophy", published 1951 [sung text not yet checked]
• by David Arditti (b. 1964), "Love's philosophy", 1985, first performed 1994, from Three Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by John Harold Ashe (b. 1938), "Love's philosophy", published 1947 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Agathe Ursula Backer-Grøndahl (1847 - 1907), "Love's philosophy", note: MS can be found in the BBC library [sung text not yet checked]
• by William Ernest Ball , "Love's entreaty", published 1919 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Edwin Masterman Barber , "Love's philosophy", published 1893 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Harold Bauer (1873 - 1951), "The fountains mingle", published c1902 [ high voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Hugh Poynter Bell (1872 - 1961), "Love's philosophy", published 1948 [sung text not yet checked]
• by George John Bennett (1863 - 1930), "Love's philosophy", published 1886 [ voice and piano ], from Twelve Songs Set to Poems of Shelley and Rossetti, no. 3, also set in German (Deutsch) [sung text not yet checked]
• by Ernest Blake , "Love's philosophy", published 1908 [ voice and piano ], from Ten Poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley for voice and piano, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Daisy Booth , "Love's philosophy", published 1928 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Alice Borton (flourished 1890), "Love's philosophy", 1887?, first performed 1887? [sung text not yet checked]
• by Charles Braun (1868 - ?), "Love's philosophy", published 1900, from Six Songs, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
• by A. (Alfred or Arthur?) Herbert Brewer (1865 - 1928), "Love's philosophy" [ ATBB chorus ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Frank Charles Butcher (1882 - ?), "Love's philosophy", op. 3 no. 1, published 1908 [ chorus for male voices ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Arturo Buzzi-Peccia (1856 - 1943), "Nothing in the world is single", published 1924 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Colin Macleod Campbell (1890 - 1953), "Love's philosophy", published 1934 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Colin Macleod Campbell (1890 - 1953), "Love's philosophy", op. 173 no. ?, published 1955 [ SSA chorus and piano ], from Three Shelley Songs [sung text not yet checked]
• by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895 - 1968), "The fountains mingle", op. 173, published 1955 [ SSA chorus and piano ], New York, Ricordi [sung text not yet checked]
• by Cyril Stanley Christopher (1897 - ?), "Love's philosophy", published 1937, from Five songs [sung text not yet checked]
• by Robert Coningsby Clarke (1879 - 1934), "Love's philosophy", published 1902 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Gwendolyn Avril Coleridge-Taylor (1903 - 1998), "Love's philosophy" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Frederick Delius (1862 - 1934), "Love's philosophy", 1891, published 1892, from Three Songs, the words by Shelley, no. 2, title in German: "Liebesphilosophie" [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Adolph Martin Foerster (1854 - 1927), "Love's philosophy", op. 55 (Six Songs) no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Arthur Foote (1853 - 1937), "Love's Philosophy", copyright © 1886 [ voice and piano ], Boston, Schmidt [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Charles Gounod (1818 - 1893), "The fountain mingles with the River", CG 449, published 1871 [ voice and piano ], also set in French (Français) [sung text not yet checked]
• by Paavo Heininen (b. 1938), "Love's philosophy", op. 19 no. 2 (1973), first performed 1979 [ voice and piano ], from Love's Philosophy, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Alan Hovhaness (1911 - 2000), "Love's Philosophy", op. 370 (1984) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Leonard J[ordan] Lehrman (b. 1949), "Love's philosophy", op. 32 no. 2 (1979), first performed 1980, lines 5-8,1-4,9-16 [ soprano or tenor (or soprano-tenor duet) and piano ], from Two Shelley songs, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Robert Manno (b. 1944), "Love's philosophy" [ satb chorus ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Thomas Pasatieri (b. 1945), "Love's philosophy", 2003 [ voice and piano ], from A rustling of angels, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Roger Quilter (1877 - 1953), "Love's philosophy", op. 3 (Three songs) no. 1 (1905), published 1905 [ voice and piano ], Boosey [sung text checked 1 time]
• by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "Love's Philosophy", op. 551 (1959) [sung text not yet checked]
• by Myron Silberstein (b. 1975), "Love's Philosophy", 2011 [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in Danish (Dansk), a translation by Caspara Preezmann (1792 - 1876) ; composed by Peter Arnold Heise.
  • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
    
• Also set in French (Français), a translation by (Paul) Jules Barbier (1825 - 1901) [an adaptation] ; composed by Charles Gounod.
  • Go to the text.
    
• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Ida Goldschmidt, née Livingston (1863 - 1933) ; composed by Roger Quilter.
  • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
    
• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by George John Bennett.
  • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
    
• Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Konstantin Dmitrevich Bal'mont (1867 - 1942) , "Философия любви" ; composed by Aleksandra Vasilyevna Zheleznova.
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Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický) , "Filosofie lásky"
• FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• GER German (Deutsch) (Adolf Strodtmann) , "Philosophie der Liebe", appears in Lieder- und Balladenbuch amerikanischer und englischer Dichter der Gegenwart, first published 1862
• POL Polish (Polski) (Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer) , "Filozofia miłości"

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 94

Les sources se mêlent avec la rivière
Et les rivières avec l'océan,
Les vents du ciel se mélangent pour toujours
Avec une douce émotion ;
Rien au monde n'est seul ;
Toutes les choses par une loi divine
Se mêlent l'une dans l'autre.
Pourquoi pas moi avec toi ?

Regarde les montagnes embrasser le ciel élevé
Et les vagues se serrer l'une l'autre ;
Aucune fleur jumelle ne serait pardonnée
Si elle dédaignait son frère ;
Et le soleil étreint la terre
Et les rayons de la lune embrassent la mer :
Que valent tous ces baisers
Si tu ne m'embrasses pas ?