William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Sonnet XCIV: They that have Power to Hurt and will do None
1They that have power to hurt and will do none,
2That do not do the thing they most do show,
3Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,
4Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow:
5They rightly do inherit heaven's graces
6And husband nature's riches from expense;
7They are the lords and owners of their faces,
8Others but stewards of their excellence.
9The summer's flower is to the summer sweet
10Though to itself it only live and die,
11But if that flower with base infection meet,
12The basest weed outbraves his dignity:
13For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
14Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.
Notes
6] expense: waste.
14] ies ... weeds. This also occurs in the anonymous play (probably by Shakespeare), Edward III, II, i, 451.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: William Shakespeare, Shake-speares sonnets (London: G. Eld for T. T., 1609). STC 22353. Facs. edn.: London: J. Cape, 1925. PR 2750 B48 1609b ROBA.
First publication date:
1609
RPO poem editor: F. D. Hoeniger
RP edition: 3RP 1.142.
Recent editing: 2:2002/3/28
Form: sonnet
Rhyme: ababcdcdefefgg
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