The poem
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, 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.
This may well be Shakespeare's best sonnet. It speaks of the great and dark truth about the human predicament. It is not how well we start, (tall blonde, cute, innocent etc...)but what we become that matters, that defines us. In the old joke: To be is to do - Plato To do is to be - Aristotle Do be do be do - Frank Sinatra It is Aristotle who we should listen to. So, here in this sonnet is advice about how important…
Read the whole commentThis may well be Shakespeare's best sonnet.
It speaks of the great and dark truth about the human predicament. It is not how well we start, (tall blonde, cute, innocent etc...)but what we become that matters, that defines us. In the old joke:
To be is to do - Plato
To do is to be - Aristotle
Do be do be do - Frank Sinatra
It is Aristotle who we should listen to.
So, here in this sonnet is advice about how important it is to understand that it is what we do that defines us. Beauty is the opposite of skin deep - something that anyone who have fallen for a pretty psychopath can surely attest to.
My crystal ball tells me that Shakespeare is writing from direct and heartfelt experience here. Without a tardis, we will not ever know for certain. I highly recommend "A Portrait of Mr W.H." by Oscar Wilde for a startlingly clairvoyant insight into Shakespeare's inspiration for his sonnets.