Shakespeare's Sonnets: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

Shakespeare's Sonnets: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

Sonnet 30

Original Text
SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS (London: G. Eld for T. T. and sold by William Aspley, 1609): c3r.
1When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
2I summon up remembrance of things past,
3I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought
4And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
5Then can I drown an eye (un-us'd to flow)
6For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
7And weep afresh love's long-since cancell'd woe,
8And moan th'expense of many a vanish't sight.
9Then can I grieve at grievances fore-gone,
10And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
11The sad account of fore-bemoanèd moan,
12Which I new pay, as if not paid before.
13    But if the while I think on thee (dear friend)
14    All losses are restor'd, and sorrows end.

Notes

1] sessions] judicial sittings. Back to Line
2] summon] call to court. Back to Line
3] An extrametrical line. Back to Line
4] my dear time's waste] the way I way waste my time. Back to Line
6] dateless] endless (first used by Shakespeare, and in Richard II). Back to Line
7] afresh] a fresh Q. long-since] an adverb for which this appears to be the earliest citation (OED, "long," adv., 4). cancell'd] paid in full. Back to Line
8] expense] glossed by OED as "loss." An extrametrical line. Back to Line
9] grievances fore-gone] old sorrows. This is the earliest OED citation for the participial adverb "fore-gone." Back to Line
10] tell] count. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1609
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2008
Rhyme
ababcdcdefefgg
Form
sonnet