Shelley flirted (aged 26) with the young and attractive Sophia Stacey, a family friend, in Florence. Whilst Mary Shelley stayed at home looking after their child, Shelley would take Sophia with her chaperone out to the galleries. He wrote her several love lyrics including this one.

Ann

Love’s Philosophy

By Percy Bysshe Shelly

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?