Sonnet 51 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

. It is part of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man. It is a continuation of the argument from

Sonnet 50 Sonnet 50 is one of The Sonnets, 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It is a member of the The Sonnets#Fair Youth, Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man. It is contin ...

. According to the Norton Anthology, sonnet 51 is considered part of the "long sequence" (18-126) and focuses on the young man who Shakespeare wrote about in the preceding group of sonnets namely the first 17 sonnets known as the

procreation sonnets The procreation sonnets are Shakespeare's sonnets numbers 1 through 17. Although Sonnet 15 does not directly refer to procreation, the single-minded urgings in the previous sonnets, may suggest to the reader that procreation is intended in the ...

. This poem focuses on a young man fighting time to return to his lover, and includes description of haste and timeliness.

Structure

Sonnet 51 is an English or Shakespearean sonnet. An English sonnet contains three quatrains, followed by a final rhyming couplet. It follows the form's typical

rhyme scheme A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other. An example of the ABAB r ...

, ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, and is composed in a type of poetic

metre The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its prefi ...

called

iambic pentameter Iambic pentameter () is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in that line; rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called " feet". "Iam ...

based on five pairs of metrically weak/strong syllabic positions. The sixth line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:

  ×    /   ×   / × /  ×   /    ×    / 
When swift extremity can seem but slow? (51.6)

:/ = ''ictus'', a metrically strong syllabic position. × = ''nonictus''. The fifth line, while it may be scanned as a regular iambic pentameter, may also be scanned with two variations:

/    ×  ×  /    ×    ×  /    /      ×   / 
O! what excuse will my poor beast then find, (51.5)

The first is an initial reversal, the second a rightward movement of the third ictus (resulting in a four-position figure, × × / /, sometimes referred to as a ''minor ionic''). There are seven possible initial reversals in this sonnet (in lines one, four, five, seven, eight, thirteen, and fourteen), three possible mid-line reversals (in lines three, eleven, and twelve) and two possible ''minor ionics'' (moving the first ictus of line two, and the third ictus of line five). This metrical agitation contrasts with the plodding regularity of Sonnet 50.

Notes

References

External links

Analysis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sonnet 051 British poems Sonnets by William Shakespeare