A reading of Shakespeare’s 30^th sonnet

‘When to the sessions of sweet silent thought / I summon up remembrance of things past’: these rank among the more famous lines from Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Sonnet 30 very much continues the idea introduced in the previous sonnet, that when he’s feeling a bit down the poet can make himself feel much better simply by thinking of the Fair Youth. Here is a short summary and analysis of Sonnet 30 and its uplifting loveliness.

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night,
And weep afresh love’s long since cancelled woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanished sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o’er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before. Read the rest of this entry →