A Poet Reflects

The fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix forever,
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one another’s being mingle;—
Why not I with thine?

—Percy Bysshe Shelley, opening stanza to “Love’s Philosophy” from Selected Poetry and Prose of Shelley (Wordsworth Editions LTD., 1998)