Thy look of love has power to calm <br />The stormiest passion of my soul; <br />Thy gentle words are drops of balm <br />In life's too bitter bowl; <br />No grief is mine, but that alone <br />These choicest blessings I have known. <br /> <br />Harriet! if all who long to live <br />In the warm sunshine of thine eye, <br />That price beyond all pain must give,- <br />Beneath thy scorn to die; <br />Then hear thy chosen own too late <br />His heart most worthy of thy hate. <br /> <br />Be thou, then, one among mankind <br />Whose heart is harder not for state, <br />Thou only virtuous, gentle, kind, <br />Amid a world of hate; <br />And by a slight endurance seal <br />A fellow-being's lasting weal. <br /> <br />For pale with anguish is his cheek, <br />His breath comes fast, his eyes are dim, <br />Thy name is struggling ere he speak, <br />Weak is each trembling limb; <br />In mercy let him not endure <br />The misery of a fatal cure. <br /> <br />Oh, trust for once no erring guide! <br />Bid the remorseless feeling flee; <br />'Tis malice, 'tis revenge, 'tis pride, <br />'Tis anything but thee; <br />Oh, deign a nobler pride to prove, <br />And pity if thou canst not love.<br /><br />Percy Bysshe Shelley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-harriet/
