Quote#Sadness
The desire of the moth for the star
Quote byPercy Bysshe Shelley · 1792–1822
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: One Word is Too Often Profaned (1821), st. 2.
English (original)
The desire of the moth for the star, Of the night for the morrow, The devotion to something afar From the sphere of our sorrow.
— Percy Bysshe Shelley
More from Percy Bysshe Shelley
Not the swart Pariah in some Indian grove, Lone, lean, and hunted by his brother's hate, Hath drunk so deep the cup of bitter fate As that poor wretch who cannot, cannot love: He bears a load which nothing can remove, A killing, withering …
Sweet the rose which lives in Heaven, Although on earth ’tis planted, Where its honours blow, While by earth’s slaves the leaves are riven Which die the while they glow.
Cease, cease, wayward Mortal! I dare not unveil The shadows that float o'er Eternity's vale; Nought waits for the good but a spirit of Love, That will hail their blest advent to regions above. For Love, Mortal, gleams through the gloom of …
Dar'st thou amid the varied multitude To live alone, an isolated thing?
You would not easily guess All the modes of distress Which torture the tenants of earth; And the various evils, Which like so many devils, Attend the poor souls from their birth.
Age cannot Love destroy, But perfidy can blast the flower, Even when in most unwary hour It blooms in Fancy's bower. Age cannot Love destroy, But perfidy can rend the shrine