Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds

Dr. Weeks’ Comment:  I am grateful for my tendency to love memorizing great poetry,  including Shakespeare’s (aka  Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford)  sonnets.  This one in particular is great!

 

They that have power to hurt and will do none

BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

SONNET  94
They that have power to hurt and will do none,
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,
Unmoved, 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 flower is to the summer sweet
Though to itself it only live and die,
But if that flower 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

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