Sonnet · Sad
Sonnet 30: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
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, unused to flow,
6For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
7And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
8And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight:
9Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
10And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
11The sad account of fore-bemoaned 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.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Sonnet 30: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought” by William Shakespeare — quilloak.com/poems/sonnet-30
Quick facts
- Poem
- Sonnet 30: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
- Poet
- William Shakespeare
- Length
- 14 lines
- Form
- Sonnet
- Themes
- Sad, Friendship, Love
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 14 lines · one 14-line stanza
- Line length
- Lines run 10-11 syllables (median 10), consistent with pentameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- William Shakespeare1564–1616
- Source record
- PoetryDBSonnet 30: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought by william-shakespeare, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 bf489435a15226bb…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.