ONE WORD IS TOO OFTEN PROFANED

ONE WORD IS TOO OFTEN PROFANED
PERCY BUSSHE SHELLY

One word is too often profaned
For me to profane it,
One feeling to falsely disdain’d
For thee to disdain it;
One hope is too like despair
For prudence to smother,
And pity from thee more dear
Than that from another.

I can give not what men call love;
But wilt thou accept not
The worship the heart lifts above
And the Heavens reject not,-
The desire of the moth for the star,
Of the night for the narrow?
The devotion to something a far
From the sphere of our sorrow.