The story is set in the immediate aftermath of a global
nuclear war that has wiped out mankind and describes in great detail the devastation it has caused to a small town. In the end, the town is revealed as
Stratford-upon-Avon, with the
epitaph on the grave of
William Shakespeare providing both the location and the title of the story. Employing a
third-person objective narrator and a very matter-of-fact style, the story achieves a chilling effect despite completely omitting descriptions of human tragedy and suffering. Instead, it merely shows the bleakness of the completely depopulated ruins of the town and surrounding landscape, interspersed with sparse hints of how its destruction fit into the global events. Concepts like
mutual assured destruction,
nuclear overkill and (insufficient)
missile defence systems are also hinted at. ==References==