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Pastorale

Song Cycle by James Henry Baseden Butt (b. 1929)

?. They that have power  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
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.

Text Authorship:

  • by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), appears in Sonnets, no. 94

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 94, first published 1857

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 106
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