Poetry Month: Day 20

The first day of the IRA conference was great; I'll post more later about the individual sessions.  When thinking about what poem to post, I recalled that the most commonly used words today were "power" and "powerful."  Reading is powerful, connections with texts are powerful, teachers have power to affect students in ways that may not become apparent for years.  Here's Shakespeare's take on the power we have and how we choose to use it.

Sonnet XCIV: They that have Power to Hurt and will do None

By William Shakespeare

 

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. 

Here's to using our power as teachers wisely, doing no harm.  Here's to the joy of reading, and talking about what we read.  Here's to going to bed after a long and busy day of learning!