The Place 2 Be: Shakespeare's Sonnets

Critique of Sonnet 51

SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS

Theme: Journeyman's Lament
Content: A carry-on from Sonnet 50 but contrasting the previous plodding characteristics of the horse with the fact that even a swift Pegasus would be inadequate to speed the author back to his subject.

Thus can my love excuse the slow offence
Of 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.

The quatrains have a preoccupation with rejection: here, an explicit no (there is no hidden no in return of as return is always spelled as returne in the Quarto).

The act of excusing is here assigned to the subject.

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.

The act of excusing is here assigned to the horse.

Now no features both explicitly and hidden.

winged speed refers to the mythical flying horse Pegasus who would be inadequate to speed the author back to his subject.

Then can no horse with my desire keep pace;
Therefore desire, of perfects love being made,
Shall rein no dull flesh in his fiery race;
But love, for love, thus shall excuse my jade:

Here, no features twice again but both explicitly.

The act of finding excuse is here assigned to the subject.

Since from thee going he went wilful-slow,
Towards thee I'll run and give him leave to go.

In the couplet there is no excuse as the author effects to run back to the subject, although the horse is excused by way of leave to go.

no is absent from the couplet as the emphasis is on the opposite: go.