The Final Couplet

Shakespeare's Sonnet 118


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Shakespeare tries to explain why he's been cheating on his lover so much. I'm not sure if it's going to work to be honest.


Sonnet 118

Like as, to make our appetites more keen,
With eager compounds we our palate urge;
As, to prevent our maladies unseen,
We sicken to shun sickness when we purge;
Even so, being full of your ne'er-cloying sweetness,
To bitter sauces did I frame my feeding;
And, sick of welfare, found a kind of meetness
To be diseased, ere that there was true needing.
Thus policy in love, to anticipate
The ills that were not, grew to faults assured,
And brought to medicine a healthful state
Which, rank of goodness, would by ill be cured;
   But thence I learn and find the lesson true,
   Drugs poison him that so fell sick of you.

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The Final CoupletBy Theo Cowan