Percy Bysshe Shelley

Aug. 4, 1792 - July 8, 1822

 

To Harriet (Thy look of love ...)

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Thy look of love has power to calm
The stormiest passion of my soul;
Thy gentle words are drops of balm
In life's too bitter bowl;
No grief is mine, but that alone
These choicest blessings I have known.

Harriet! if all who long to live
In the warm sunshine of thine eye,
That price beyond all pain must give, --
Beneath thy scorn to die;
Then hear thy chosen own too late
His heart most worthy of thy hate.

Be thou, then, one among mankind
Whose heart is harder not for state,
Thou only virtuous, gentle, kind
Amid a world of hate;
And by a slight endurance seal
A fellow-being's lasting weal.

For pale with anguish is his cheek,
His breath comes fast, his eyes are dim,
Thy name is struggling ere he speak,
Weak is each trembling limb;
In mercy let him not endure
The misery of a fatal cure.

Oh, trust for once no erring guide!
Bid the remorseless feeling flee;
'Tis malice, 'tis revenge, 'tis pride,
'Tis anything but thee;
Oh, deign a nobler pride to prove,
And pity if thou canst not love.

Written May,1814
Published 1886.

Source:

The Lyrics and Shorter Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley
Copyright 1907, reprinted 1913
London: J.M. Dent and Sons, Ltd.
New York: E.P. Dutton and Co.
 

Recommended Works

Love's Philosophy - Percy Bysshe ShelleySurrender - Ella Wheeler WilcoxMy Secret - Henry Wadsworth LongfellowLove Much - Ella Wheeler WilcoxWhat Love Is - Ella Wheeler WilcoxOh, No - Not E'en When First We Loved. - Thomas MooreDid Not - Thomas MooreMutual Passion - Samuel Taylor ColeridgeUpon the Sand - Ella Wheeler WilcoxThe Siren's Song - Thomas MooreTo The Queen Of My Heart - Percy Bysshe ShelleyImpatience - Ella Wheeler WilcoxLove - Percy Bysshe ShelleyRow Gently Here - Thomas MooreThe White Flag - John HayEndymion - Henry Wadsworth LongfellowTo Ladies' Eyes - Thomas MooreWhen Love Is Kind - Thomas MooreImpromptu - Thomas MooreOdes To Nea: You read it in my languid eyes... - Thomas MooreIndividuality - Ella Wheeler WilcoxNay, Do Not Weep - Thomas MooreWedded Souls - Percy Bysshe ShelleyCommunism - Ella Wheeler WilcoxThe Day Of Love - Thomas MooreAnnie Of Tharaw - Henry Wadsworth LongfellowHe That Looketh - Ella Wheeler WilcoxThe Sea Hath Its Pearls - Henry Wadsworth LongfellowHow Shall I Woo? - Thomas MooreOld and New - Ella Wheeler WilcoxOdes Of Anacreon: Cupid, whose lamp has lent the ray... - Thomas MooreDelilah - Ella Wheeler WilcoxThe Indian Serenade - Percy Bysshe ShelleyLesbia Hath A Beaming Eye - Thomas MooreConversion - Ella Wheeler WilcoxThe Passionate Shepherd To His Love - Christopher MarloweAnswered - Ella Wheeler WilcoxSilent Love - Henry Wadsworth LongfellowThe Fortune-Teller - Thomas MooreLove's Language - Ella Wheeler WilcoxTell Me Where The Maid Is Found - Thomas MooreTo Harriet (Thy look of love ...) - Percy Bysshe ShelleyOdes To Nea: There's not a look, a word of thine... - Thomas MooreSmiles And Tears - Thomas MooreWhat The Bee Is To The Floweret - Thomas MooreA Red, Red Rose - Robert BurnsAd Vilmum Axiologum - Samuel Taylor ColeridgeLove Analysed - Thomas MooreLove's Rose - Percy Bysshe ShelleyThe Time I've Lost In Wooing - Thomas MooreWhen On The Lip The Sigh Delays - Thomas MooreOh! Doubt Me Not - Thomas MooreLove And Time - Thomas MooreTo [Harriet]. (Yet look on me...) - Percy Bysshe ShelleySong To Celia - Ben JonsonFollow to the deep wood's weeds,... - Percy Bysshe ShelleyHer Eyes - Madison Julius CaweinIf Thou'lt Be Mine - Thomas MooreDear Fanny - Thomas MooreEcho - Thomas MooreThe Castilian Maid - Thomas Moore