Sonnet 51: Thus Can My Love Excuse the Slow Offence

SONNETCAST – William Shakespeare's Sonnets Recited, Revealed, Relived

Sonnet 51 picks up from the dull-paced journey of Sonnet 50 and contrasts this with the poet's boundless desire for speed once he is on the way back home to his lover. It also marks the end of the extended period of separation that began with Sonnet 43 and so concludes this sequence of nine sonnets that appear to have been written while Shakespeare is away from London.