Speaker
Typically, the speaker of this poem has been referred to as a male through gender-specific pronouns when in fact there is nothing in the text to suggest or evidence any of sex. It could be a woman every bit as much as it might be a man. Nothing is forwarded to provide any framework for age, sexual preference or time period in which the poem is set. It is by no means a work of narrative verse. All that can be known for sure about the speaker is that it is a person who recognizes in the surroundings of the natural world that things come in pairs. Separate rivers eventually become one in the form of the body of water into which they empty and just as the rays of the sun beat down upon mankind, so do the beams of the moon. This is a world of pairing, but if that is so, then the speaker is frustrated romantically because he/she is not part of a pair. The first stanza ends with the speaker asking a lover (perhaps rhetorically posed to the speaker alone) why they remain single have not become a pair. The second stanza ends—after observing the beautiful pairings of the natural world—with the speaker suggesting that all this beautiful integration in the world means nothing without the lover’s kiss. The kiss in this instance being a metonymic metaphor for a relationship.
The Lover
Even less is known about the lover than the speaker. Sex, age, sexual preference etc. are all as mystifying as with the speaker. In fact, only one thing is known for sure about the lover: he or she is doing a fantastic job of frustrating the romantic and sexual desires of the speaker.
The Natural World
Considering that almost every word in the poem is directed toward imagery revealing the nature of nature to co-exist within the framework of some sort of dyadic relationship, the leading character of the poem might well be argued to be Mother Nature. Rivers mingling into oceans, mountains and waves and flowers, the sun and the moon; all oppositional forces ultimately being viewed as a single co-existing entity plant the thematic conceit which is then literally frustrated by the lover and the speaker not doing so as well.
