To --. 'One word is too often profaned'
One word is too often profanedFor me to profane it,One feeling too falsely disdainedFor thee to disdain it;One hope is too like despairFor prudence to smother,And pity from thee more dearThan that from another.
I can give not what men call love,But wilt thou accept notThe worship the heart lifts aboveAnd the Heavens reject not,--The desire of the moth for the star,Of the night for the morrow,The devotion to something afarFrom the sphere of our sorrow?
Words in this poem
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To --. 'One word is too often profaned' is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #4798; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Percy Bysshe Shelley, To --. 'One word is too often profaned', in Ode to the West Wind, and Other Poems (1816–1819), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4798, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shelley-later-poems/to-one-word-is-too-often-profaned.html, id L25654.
Form and metre
To --. 'One word is too often profaned' is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCDCD. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABCDCD profanedA · itB · disdainedA · itB · despairC · smotherD · dearC · anotherD
- 2 ABABCDCD loveA · notB · aboveA · notB · starC · morrowD · afarC · sorrowD
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| One word is too often profaned | 8 | ····/˘˘/ |
| For me to profane it, | 6 | ···˘/· |
| One feeling too falsely disdained | 8 | ·/˘·/˘˘/ |
| For thee to disdain it; | 6 | ···˘/· |
| One hope is too like despair | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| For prudence to smother, | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| And pity from thee more dear | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Than that from another. | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| I can give not what men call love, | 8 | ········ |
| But wilt thou accept not | 6 | ···˘/· |
| The worship the heart lifts above | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And the Heavens reject not,-- | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| The desire of the moth for the star, | 10 | ·˘/˘······ |
| Of the night for the morrow, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The devotion to something afar | 9 | ·˘/˘·/˘˘/ |
| From the sphere of our sorrow? | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.