Sonnet XXX
When to the sessions of sweet silent thoughtI 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 cancell’d woe,And moan the expense of many a vanish’d sight:Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,And heavily from woe to woe tell o’erThe sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,Which I new pay as if not paid before.But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,All losses are restor’d and sorrows end.
Words in this poem
- dateless a.
- Without date; having no fixed time.
- afresh adv.
- Anew; again; once more; newly. [Pref. a- + fresh.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet XXX is in the public domain. This text is taken from Shakespeare's Sonnets, Project Gutenberg ebook #1041; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Shakespeare, Sonnet XXX, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-30.html, id L00048.
Form and metre
Sonnet XXX is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other English sonnets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABCDCDEFEFGG thoughtA · pastB · soughtA · wasteB · flowC · nightD · woeC · sightD · foregoneE · o'erF · moanE · beforeF · friendG · endG
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When to the sessions of sweet silent thought | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| I summon up remembrance of things past, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought, | 10 | ·····/···· |
| And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste: | 10 | ·········· |
| Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And weep afresh love’s long since cancell’d woe, | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| And moan the expense of many a vanish’d sight: | 11 | ···˘/·/·/˘· |
| Then can I grieve at grievances foregone, | 10 | ·····/˘˘// |
| And heavily from woe to woe tell o’er | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan, | 10 | ··˘/··˘/˘· |
| Which I new pay as if not paid before. | 10 | ·········· |
| But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, | 10 | ·········· |
| All losses are restor’d and sorrows end. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.