Sonnet ninety-four is unique in that it has a very prominent shift between lines eight and nine. Before the shift, the speaker is speaking about the strength and restraint of a person, and how not giving into temptation can raise a person to a higher level above many others, making them respectable and sophisticated. After the shift, there is little to no emphasis on people directly, but on plants and vegetation. The plants and flowers are used to emphasize the idea previously made before the shift of not being easily tempted. In the last line, the speaker states that “Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.” This can be a metaphor for the idea that doing something really awful or giving in to temptation can make a person even more undesirable than the already undesired. What is said after the shift is used to support what was said prior to the shift in a different form in order to emphasize the idea that giving into temptation will bring misfortune.
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