Sonnet 89

Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault,

And I will comment upon that offence;

Speak of my lameness, and I straight will halt,

Against thy reasons making no defence.

Thou canst not, love, disgrace me half so ill,

To set a form upon desirèd change,

As I'll myself disgrace, knowing thy will,

Be absent from thy walks, and in my tongue

Thy sweet beloved name no more shall dwell,

Lest I, too much profane, should do it wrong,

And haply of our old acquaintance tell.

For thee against myself I"ll vow debate;

For I must ne'er love him whom thou dost hate.

Commentary

For the second time, Shakespeare mentions his lameness (see Sonnet 37 for the first occasion). Line 3 reads 'speak of my lameness, and I straight will halt'. There is no suggestion that the word is used metaphorically here. The poet is saying that he will understand that he is being cut off by the young man because of a physical infirmity ie his lameness. Still, the poet manages a pun, using the word 'halt' (meaning both 'stop' and 'limp') at the end of the line. But this is a sad, resigned poem. There is not even relief from metaphors from nature: there are none. The vocabulary is taken from the law, 'fault', 'offence', 'defence', and religion 'disgrace', 'profane', and speech generally, 'debate', 'tongue', 'tell'. But the strongest word is 'hate', the last word, and a word taken up immediately in the next sonnet.