Prithee the addressee, as in "if it please you," "prithee" accompanies a request which addresses itself to the threat of being answered in the negative, as though the request were against the addressee's wishes. Stated otherwise, the word "please" suggests that the person being addressed is willing to comply with the request, whereas the word "prithee" suggests that he or she is not willing. This switch from stating the speaker's contrary desire to stating the speaker's wish not to impose signaled a cultural shift in the English-speaking world in which politeness became stated negatively rather than positively. Wider repercussions are observable
One Word is Too Often Profaned One Word is Too Often Profaned <poem>ONE word is too often profaned One feeling too falsely disdain'd One hope is too like despair And pity from thee more dear I can give not what men call love; The worship the heart lifts above The desire of the moth for the star, The devotion to something afar </poem> "One Word Is Too Often Profaned" is a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, written in 1822 and published in 1824 (see 1822 in poetry). The poem was intended for Jane Williams. It expresses Shelley's deep and genuine devotion for her. Shelley met Jane