SparkNotes Preferences  |  Shopping Cart  |     |  Checkout  |  Help

No Fear Shakespeare
brought to you by Barnes & Noble
Read the Study Guide: Sonnets
Get the book: Buy it online at Barnes & Noble
Tell a friend: Email this page
Sonnets
No Fear Shakespeare
NAVIGATE  

 Previous Page Next Page 
Original Text Modern Text
 Sonnet 94
  They that have pow'r to hurt, and will do none,
  That do not do the thing they most do show,
  Who moving others are themselves as stone,
  Unmovèd, cold, and to temptation slow,
  They rightly do inherit heaven's graces,
  And husband nature's riches from expense.
  They are the lords and owners of their faces;
  Others but stewards of their excellence.
  The summer's flow'r is to the summer sweet,
  Though to itself it only live and die.
  But if that flow'r with base infection meet,
  The basest weed outbraves his dignity.
                  For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
                  Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.
Sonnet 94
Those whose beauty gives them the power to hurt others, but who refuse to; those who look very sexy but won't have sex; who attract other people but are themselves like stones—cold, unemotional, and difficult to tempt—those are the ones who will rightly inherit heaven's blessings and keep nature's treasures from being wasted. Those who have self-control truly own their beauty; the rest are only administering their beauty for others' use. The summer flower seems sweet to us in summer, though the flower itself may feel that it's only living and dying. But if that flower lets itself be infected by a parasite, the lowest weed will be better, for the sweetest things have the capacity to turn the sourest by acting wrongly. Lilies that rot smell a lot worse than weeds.

 Previous Page Next Page 
IPOD SPARKNOTES
Read SparkNotes on your iPod.
More...
Message Boards
Ask a question on the SparkNotes community boards.
Shakespeare
Staging Shakespeare's Plays

SparkCharts
Printable, portable charts on this subject.
Shakespeare

 
 
101 Literature includes everything you need to know about the 150 most-studied works of literature.
More...
 
No Fear English Grammar is a step-by-step guide to English grammar presented in a fresh, lively tutorial.
More...
 
 
No Fear Shakespeare
NAVIGATE