The Final Couplet  By  cover art

The Final Couplet

By: Theo Cowan
  • Summary

  • Join me, Theo Cowan, as I desperately attempt to work out what the hell William Shakespeare was going on about in all those sonnets. Don't worry, I create stupid little stories to accompany each one so you don't get too bored.
    Theo Cowan
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Episodes
  • Shakespeare's Sonnet 67
    Jul 28 2024

    This one should be called Sonnet 66 part 2 but Shakespeare tricked us again. He talks of nature and the decline of beauty.


    Sonnet 67

    Ah! wherefore with infection should he live,
    And with his presence grace impiety,
    That sin by him advantage should achieve,
    And lace itself with his society?
    Why should false painting imitate his cheek,
    And steal dead seeming of his living hue?
    Why should poor beauty indirectly seek
    Roses of shadow, since his rose is true?
    Why should he live, now Nature bankrupt is,
    Beggared of blood to blush through lively veins?
    For she hath no exchequer now but his,
    And proud of many, lives upon his gains.
    O! him she stores, to show what wealth she had
    In days long since, before these last so bad.

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    17 mins
  • Shakespeare's Sonnet 66
    Jul 21 2024

    Shakespeare talks about all the things that make him so angry he wants to die!


    Sonnet 66

    Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,
    As to behold desert a beggar born,
    And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,
    And purest faith unhappily forsworn,
    And gilded honour shamefully misplaced,
    And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
    And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,
    And strength by limping sway disabled
    And art made tongue-tied by authority,
    And folly, doctor-like, controlling skill,
    And simple truth miscalled simplicity,
    And captive good attending captain ill:
    Tired with all these, from these would I be gone,
    Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.

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    21 mins
  • Shakespeare's Sonnet 65
    Jul 14 2024

    Shakespeare continues his tirade about time and youth.

    Out story continues with Shakespeare finally making his way to Barbados!


    Sonnet 65

    Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,
    But sad mortality o'ersways their power,
    How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,
    Whose action is no stronger than a flower?
    O! how shall summer's honey breath hold out,
    Against the wrackful siege of battering days,
    When rocks impregnable are not so stout,
    Nor gates of steel so strong but Time decays?
    O fearful meditation! where, alack,
    Shall Time's best jewel from Time's chest lie hid?
    Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back?
    Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?
    O! none, unless this miracle have might,
    That in black ink my love may still shine bright.

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    23 mins

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