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William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Shakespeare's Sonnets: They that have pow'r to hurt and will do none
Sonnet 94


              1They that have pow'r to hurt and will do none,
              2That do not do the thing they most do show,
              3Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,
              4Unmovèd, cold, and to temptation slow,
              5They rightly do inherit heav'n's graces
              6And husband nature's riches from expense,
              7They are the lords and own'rs of their faces,
              8Others but stewards of their excellence.
              9The summer's flow'r is to the summer sweet,
            10Though to it self it only live and die,
            11But if that flow'r with base infection meet,
            12The basest weed out-braves his dignity,
            13    For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds:
            14    Lillies that fester smell far worse than weeds.

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Shakespeare's Sonnets: How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame

Notes

2] show] express in their faces (cf. 7).

4] cold] could Q. heav'n's] heauens Q.

6] husband ... from expense] save from being expended.

7] They are] perhaps "They're". own'rs] ownrs Q.

12] his] the flower's.

14] This line was spoken by the Countess of Salisbury about the king in Edward III 2.1.451, an anonymous play now accepted to have been written, in part, by Shakespeare.

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: SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS (London: G. Eld for T. T. and sold by William Aspley, 1609): f4v.
First publication date: 1609
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: 2008
Recent editing: 1:2008/8/30

Form: sonnet
Rhyme: ababcdcdefefgg

Other poems by William Shakespeare

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