Sonnet LI
Thus can my love excuse the slow offenceOf my dull bearer when from thee I speed:From where thou art why should I haste me thence?Till I return, of posting is no need.O! what excuse will my poor beast then find,When swift extremity can seem but slow?Then should I spur, though mounted on the wind,In winged speed no motion shall I know,Then can no horse with my desire keep pace;Therefore desire, of perfect’st love being made,Shall neigh no dull flesh in his fiery race,But love, for love, thus shall excuse my jade:‘Since from thee going, he went wilful-slow,Towards thee I’ll run, and give him leave to go.’
Words in this poem
- offence n.
- The act of offending in any sense; esp., a crime or a sin, an affront or an injury. [F., fr. L. offensa. See Offend.]
- posting n.
- The act of traveling post.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet LI is in the public domain. This text is taken from Shakespeare's Sonnets, Project Gutenberg ebook #1041; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Shakespeare, Sonnet LI, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-51.html, id L00069.
Form and metre
Sonnet LI is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 7% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other English sonnets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABABCDCDEFEFGG offenceA · speedB · thenceA · needB · findC · slowD · windC · knowD · paceE · madeF · raceE · jadeF · slowG · goG
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Thus can my love excuse the slow offence | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| Of my dull bearer when from thee I speed: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| From where thou art why should I haste me thence? | 10 | ·········· |
| Till I return, of posting is no need. | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| O! what excuse will my poor beast then find, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| When swift extremity can seem but slow? | 10 | ··˘/˘˘···· |
| Then should I spur, though mounted on the wind, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| In winged speed no motion shall I know, | 10 | ··˘··/˘··· |
| Then can no horse with my desire keep pace; | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Therefore desire, of perfect’st love being made, | 10 | ··˘/····/· |
| Shall neigh no dull flesh in his fiery race, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| But love, for love, thus shall excuse my jade: | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| ‘Since from thee going, he went wilful-slow, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Towards thee I’ll run, and give him leave to go.’ | 10 | ·········· |
Notes from the edition 5
Notes by William J. Rolfe, Shakespeare's Sonnets (New York, 1905), Internet Archive scan
- Line 4 Posting. Rapid travelling, with frequent change of horses.
- Line 6 Swift extremity. The extreme of swiftness.
- Line 7 Mounted on the wind. Cf. A. Y. L. iii. 2. 95 and Cymb. iii. 4- 37-
- Line 13 Wilful-slow. The hyphen is due to Malone.
- Line 14 Go. The word here, as most of the critics agree, seems to have the specific sense of walking as opposed to running. Cf. Temp. iii. 2. 22 : — ■ " Stephano. We '11 not run, Monsieur monster. Trinculo. Nor go neither ; " i78 and T. G. ofV. iii. I. 388 : "Thou must run to him, for thou hast stayed so long that going will scarce serve thy turn." Schmidt de- fines go in these two passages as = " walk leisurely, not to run ; " but the instance in the text he puts under the head of go — " make haste." Tyler makes give him leave to go — " dismiss him, or let him go at his pleasure."
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