Sonnet XCIV: They that have Power to Hurt and will do None

Shakespeare, William (1564 - 1616)

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.

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. Back to Line

14] ies ... weeds. This also occurs in the anonymous play (probably by Shakespeare), Edward III, II, i, 451. Back to Line

Publication Start Year

1609

RPO poem Editors

F. D. Hoeniger

RPO Edition

3RP 1.142.

Rhyme

ababcdcdefefgg

Form

sonnet