The Final Couplet

Shakespeare's Sonnet 82


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Shakespeare compares himself to other writers again. Apparently he doesn't consider himself "new wave"!


Our Story continues with a Ben Jonson & William Shakespeare poet off.


Sonnet 82

I grant thou wert not married to my Muse,
And therefore mayst without attaint o'erlook
The dedicated words which writers use
Of their fair subject, blessing every book.
Thou art as fair in knowledge as in hue,
Finding thy worth a limit past my praise;
And therefore art enforced to seek anew
Some fresher stamp of the time-bettering days.
And do so, love; yet when they have devised,
What strained touches rhetoric can lend,
Thou truly fair, wert truly sympathized
In true plain words, by thy true-telling friend;
   And their gross painting might be better used
   Where cheeks need blood; in thee it is abused.

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The Final CoupletBy Theo Cowan