Vocabulary in Love's Philosophy

A reasoned argument or set of ideas used to justify a belief or course of action, here the speaker's logical case drawn from nature to persuade his beloved to kiss him.

Natural springs or streams of water that bubble up from the ground and flow outward, used here as an image of things that naturally seek to join with something larger.

Coming from or belonging to God or a higher spiritual power, suggesting the law of union in nature is sacred and not merely accidental.

To blend or mix together so thoroughly that separate identities merge into one, used here to describe how all things in nature combine rather than remain apart.

Alone, isolated, or existing entirely apart from everything else; the speaker insists nothing in the world truly exists in this state.

A tender, pleasurable feeling — here the gentle, loving quality that the winds of heaven are said to carry as they blend together.

To hold tightly or embrace firmly, as if gripping with the hands; used here to give the waves a human, affectionate quality as they press against each other.

The sky above, or the realm associated with the divine; used here as the high place that mountains reach up to touch, continuing the poem's theme of natural union.

Rays or streams of light cast by the moon; the poem presents them as living things capable of touching and uniting with the sea below.

The light and warmth given off by the sun; depicted here as something that actively wraps around or mingles with the earth, reinforcing the poem's argument that all natural things seek union.

Value or meaning; the speaker questions what value all the natural unions he has described can have if his beloved will not complete the argument by kissing him.

An older English word for 'you,' used when speaking directly and intimately to a single person; here the speaker addresses his beloved with this familiar form.