Page 25 - 100 Best Loved Poems - Teaching Unit

“Sonnet XCIV”
by William Shakespeare, page 7

Vocabulary
inherit – receive
base – dishonorable, vile
infection – disease
fester – worsen, be made bitter

1. What kind of people is the speaker describing in the first two quatrains of the sonnet?

Shakespeare lists many qualities, including: People who could hurt others but choose not
to; people who are able to draw out emotion from others without showing any themselves;
people who are not easily tempted; and people who are ruled only by themselves.

2. What does the speaker claim will happen to these people?

The speaker says that these people will prosper and lead, they will “inherit heaven’s
graces.”

3. In the sonnet’s concluding sestet, the speaker shifts his thoughts to a description of nature,
discussing lilies and weeds. What does the final couplet suggest about the tone and
message of the poem in its entirety?

The final sestet compares flowers and weeds as parallel to the stewards and the lords and
owners. The final couplet suggests that the speaker’s tone is one of realism and
disenfranchisement. He claims “lilies that fester smell far worse then weeds,” which
suggests that the lords and owners by nature are not meant to be beautiful, but to be deadly
and controlling. Shakespeare is suggesting that people with great power and status who
succumb to temptation and treachery are far worse than those of lower status who may
occasionally be tempted or be deceitful. This comparison is called a metaphor.

T-7