Special Pleading
Time, hurry my Love to me:Haste, haste! Lov'st not good company?Here's but a heart-break sandy waste'Twixt Now and Then. Why, killing hasteWere best, dear Time, for thee, for thee!
Oh, would that I might divineThy name beyond the zodiac signWherefrom our times-to-come descend.He called thee `Sometime'. Change it, friend:`Now-time' sounds so much more fine!
Sweet Sometime, fly fast to me:Poor Now-time sits in the Lonesome-treeAnd broods as gray as any dove,And calls, `When wilt thou come, O Love?'And pleads across the waste to thee.
Good Moment, that giv'st him me,Wast ever in love? Maybe, maybeThou'lt be this heavenly velvet timeWhen Day and Night as rhyme and rhymeSet lip to lip dusk-modestly;
Or haply some noon afar,-- O life's top bud, mixt rose and star,How ever can thine utmost sweetBe star-consummate, rose-complete,Till thy rich reds full opened are?
Well, be it dusk-time or noon-time,I ask but one small boon, Time:Come thou in night, come thou in day,I care not, I care not: have thine own way,But only, but only, come soon, Time.
Words in this poem
- sometime adv.
- At a past time indefinitely referred to; once; formerly.
- lonesome a.
- Secluded from society; not frequented by human beings; solitary.
- wast
- The second person singular of the verb be, in the indicative mood, imperfect tense; -- now used only in solemn or poetical style.
- maybe adv.
- Perhaps; possibly; peradventure. [For it may be.]
- haply adv.
- By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be.
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
- boon n.
- A prayer or petition. [OE. bone, boin, a petition, fr. Icel. b; akin to Sw. & Dan. b, AS. b, and perh. to E. ban; but influenced by F. bon good, fr. L. bonus. Ban, Bounty.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Special Pleading is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Sidney Lanier, Project Gutenberg ebook #579; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sidney Lanier, Special Pleading, in Poems (1884), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #579, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lanier-poems/special-pleading.html, id L07630.
Form and metre
Special Pleading is 30 lines in 6 stanzas of 5 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABBA, complete in 4 of its 6 stanzas; the stanza is the Limerick. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 30% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other limericks, other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 A-BBA meA · company · wasteB · hasteB · theeA
- 2 AABBA divineA · signA · descendB · friendB · fineA
- 3 AABBA meA · treeA · doveB · loveB · theeA
- 4 --AA- me · maybe · timeA · rhymeA · modestly
- 5 AABBA afarA · starA · sweetB · completeB · areA
- 6 AABBA timeA · timeA · dayB · wayB · timeA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Time, hurry my Love to me: | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Haste, haste! Lov'st not good company? | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Here's but a heart-break sandy waste | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| 'Twixt Now and Then. Why, killing haste | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Were best, dear Time, for thee, for thee! | 8 | ········ |
| Oh, would that I might divine | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Thy name beyond the zodiac sign | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Wherefrom our times-to-come descend. | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| He called thee `Sometime'. Change it, friend: | 9 | ··˘·/···· |
| `Now-time' sounds so much more fine! | 7 | ······· |
| Sweet Sometime, fly fast to me: | 7 | ·/····· |
| Poor Now-time sits in the Lonesome-tree | 9 | ······/˘· |
| And broods as gray as any dove, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And calls, `When wilt thou come, O Love?' | 8 | ········ |
| And pleads across the waste to thee. | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Good Moment, that giv'st him me, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Wast ever in love? Maybe, maybe | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Thou'lt be this heavenly velvet time | 9 | ···/˘˘/˘· |
| When Day and Night as rhyme and rhyme | 8 | ········ |
| Set lip to lip dusk-modestly; | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Or haply some noon afar, | 7 | ·/˘··˘/ |
| -- O life's top bud, mixt rose and star, | 8 | ········ |
| How ever can thine utmost sweet | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| Be star-consummate, rose-complete, | 8 | ··/˘˘·˘/ |
| Till thy rich reds full opened are? | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| Well, be it dusk-time or noon-time, | 8 | ········ |
| I ask but one small boon, Time: | 7 | ······· |
| Come thou in night, come thou in day, | 8 | ········ |
| I care not, I care not: have thine own way, | 10 | ·········· |
| But only, but only, come soon, Time. | 9 | ·/˘·/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.