Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
William Shakespeare. 15641616155. Sonnets xi
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, | |
Unmovèd, cold, and to temptation slow— | |
They rightly do inherit heaven’s graces, | 5 |
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; | 10 |
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. |