Poetry

"When to the sessions of sweet silent thought / I summon up remembrance of things past,"
When I am in a pensive state and recall my memories of past things,
"I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought / And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:"
I regret that I did not achieve many things I tried to get, and with old regrets renewed I now
grieve over having wasted my precious time:
"Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow / For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,"
Then I can cry, being unaccustomed to crying, over dear friends who have died,
"And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe / And moan the expense of many a vanish'd
sight:"
And weep again over former loves that I put behind me long ago, and cry over the pain of many
faded memories:
"Then can I grieve at grievances foregone / And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er"
Then I can grieve over past griefs and recount each sadness with a heavy heart,
"The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan / Which I new pay as if not paid before."
The sad remembrance of things I have grieved over already, which I now grieve over anew as
though I never did before.
"But if the while I think on thee, dear friend / All losses are restored and sorrows end."
But as soon as I think of you, my dear friend, all those wounds are healed, and my sorrows come
to an end.
Why is he saying it?
Sonnet 30 is at the center of a sequence of sonnets dealing with the narrator's growing attachment
to the fair lord and the narrator's paralyzing inability to function without him. The sonnet begins
with the image of the poet drifting off into the "remembrance of things past" - painful memories,
we soon learn, that the poet has already lamented but now must lament anew. The fair lord enters
the scene only in the sonnet's closing couplet, where he is presented as a panacea for the poet's
emotional distress.
Closely mirroring the message of sonnet 29, here Shakespeare cleverly heightens the expression
of his overwhelming anxiety by belaboring the theme of emotional dependence. Whereas in
sonnet 29 he quits his whining after the second quatrain, in sonnet 30 three full quatrains are
devoted to the narrator's grief, suggesting that his dependence on the fair lord is increasing.
Meanwhile sonnet 30's closing couplet reiterates lines 9-14 of sonnet 29 in compact form,
emphasizing that the fair lord is a necessity for the poet's emotional well-being: the fair lord is
the only thing that can bring the poet happiness.
This pinnacle of the poet's plaintive state is beautifully conveyed through an artful use of
repetition and internal rhyme. Beyond the obvious alliteration of "sessions of sweet silent
thought," note the "-nce" assonance of "remembrance" and "grievances," to which may be added

"since" and "cancell'd"; the correspondence of "sigh," "sought," and "sight"; and the rhyme in
"foregone," "fore-bemoaned," "before," and "restored." It is as though the poet wishes to hammer
in his hardship with the repetitive droning of his troubled soul.
Beyond its poetics, sonnet 30 also provides some prime examples of the poet's recurring
tendency to describe his relationship with the fair lord in financial terms. The opening lines of
the sonnet remind us of being called to court (cf. "court sessions" and "summon a witness"). This
is followed by a slew of money-related terms, including "expense," "grievances," "account,"
"paid," and "losses." The phrase "tell o'er" in line 10 is an accounting expression (cf. the modern
bank teller) and conjures up an image of the narrator reconciling a balance sheet of his former
woes and likening them to debts that he can never pay off in full. The only cure for his financial
hardship is the fair lord's patronage - perhaps something to be taken literally, suggesting that the
fair lord is in fact the poet's real-world financial benefactor.
What's he saying?
"When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes / I all alone beweep my outcast state,"
When I'm having bad luck and am looked down upon by other people, I cry alone in self-pity,
"And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, / And look upon myself, and curse my fate,"
And pray, though it seems like no one hears my prayers, and feel sorry for myself,
"Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, / Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,"
Wishing I were more like someone with more hope in his life, or someone very handsome, or
popular,
"Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope, / With what I most enjoy contented least;"
Wanting one person's talent, and another's opportunity, and things that usually make me happy
only making me more upset;
"Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising, / Haply I think on thee, and then my state,"
Even though I am hating myself, I happen to think of you, and then,
"Like to the lark at break of day arising / From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;"
Like a lark that sings at dawn, my situation seems to brighten and become hopeful;
"For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings / That then I scorn to change my state with
kings."
Because thinking of your love makes me feel so rich that I wouldn't switch places with kings.
Why is he saying it?
The emotional state of the speaker in Sonnet 29 is one of depression: in the first line, he assumes
himself to be "in disgrace with fortune," meaning he has been having bad luck. He also feels in
disgrace with "men's eyes," implying that the general public looks on him unfavorably. This
could be real or imagined, but it is enforced in line 2, when he bemoans his "outcast state." Here,
"state" refers to a state of being, and in this case, he is cast out from society.
Lines 3-4 make allusion to Job of the Old Testament in the Bible, who was cast out onto a dung
heap and called to a God who didn't listen. The poet finds himself in the same situation: Heaven

personified is God, and in this case he is "deaf," making the poet's cries "bootless," or useless.
The idea of cursing one's fate also hearkens to Job, who cursed himself after falling out of God's
favor.
The speaker finds himself envying what others have, and in lines 5-9 he sees almost everyone as
having something he lacks. He wishes to be like "one more rich in hope," perhaps meaning
hopeful or literally wealthy; "featured like him," refers to someone who is handsome, with
beautiful features; and another is "with friends possessed," or popular, unlike the poet (as has
been established in the first two lines). In line 7, he envies the artistic talent of one man, and the
opportunities afforded someone else.
The simile of a lark is developed in lines 10-12, when the speaker describes the effect that a
thought of his love has on his "state," or emotional well-being. The fact that the lark rises from
the "sullen earth" at "break of day" implies that the day is much happier than the night; day break
is compared to the dawning of a thought of the beloved. As the lark "sings hymns at heaven's
gate," so the poet's soul is invigorated with the thought of the fair lord, and seems to sing to the
sky with rejuvenated hope.
The final couplet of Sonnet 29 declares that this joyfulness brought about by a thought of the fair
lord is enough to convince the speaker that he is better off than royalty. Here, "state" is a pun: it
carries the meaning of emotional well-being, as it did earlier in the poem, and suggests that the
love of the fair lord makes the speaker so happy that all the wealth of a king would not be better.
But it also refers to a nation, or a kingdom..
What's he saying?
"Let me not to the marriage of true minds / Admit impediments. Love is not love"
I will not allow myself to admit that true love has any restrictions. Love is not real love
"Which alters when it alteration finds / Or bends with the remover to remove:"
If it changes in response to change, or if it allows itself to be changed by the one who is
changing:
"O no! it is an ever-fixed mark / That looks on tempests and is never shaken;"
Not at all! Love is a permanent mark that persists unshaken despite the harsh winds of change;
"It is the star to every wandering bark / Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken."
Love is the guiding, constant star for every wandering ship, a fixed point whose nature is
unknown, although its height can be measured.
"Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks / Within his bending sickle's compass
come:"
True love is not subject to the changes of Time, although beautiful faces do fall victim to the
sweep of Time's curved scythe:
"Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks / But bears it out even to the edge of doom."
Love does not change with Time's hours and weeks, but endures through Time right up until the
day of reckoning.

"If this be error and upon me proved / I never writ, nor no man ever loved."
If the above is false and proved against me, it would be as impossible as if I had never written
anything, or if nobody had ever loved.
Why is he saying it?
Sonnet 116 is one of the most famous of the sonnets for its stalwart defense of true love. The
sonnet has a relatively simple structure, with each quatrain attempting to describe what love is
(or is not) and the final couplet reaffirming the poet's words by placing his own merit on the line.
Note that this is one of the few sonnets in the fair lord sequence that is not addressed directly to
the fair lord; the context of the sonnet, however, gives it away as an exposition of the poet's deep
and enduring love for him.
The opening lines of the sonnet dive the reader into the theme at a rapid pace, accomplished in
part by the use of enjambment - the continuation of a syntactic unit from one line of poetry to the
next without any form of pause, e.g., "Let me not to the marriage of true minds / Admit
impediments ..." This first quatrain asserts that true love is immortal and unchanging: it neither
changes on its own nor allows itself to be changed, even when it encounters changes in the loved
one. Quatrain two embarks on a series of seafaring metaphors to further establish the
permanence of true love: in line 5 it is an "ever-fixed mark," a sea mark that navigators could use
to guide their course; in line 7 it is a steadfast star (the North Star, perhaps), whose height we are
able to measure (as with a quadrant) although we may know nothing of its nature (the science of
stars had hardly progressed by Shakespeare's time). Both of these metaphors emphasize the
constancy and dependability of true love.
Finally, quatrain three nails home the theme, with love's undying essence prevailing against the
"bending sickle" of Time. Time's "hours and weeks" are "brief" compared to love's longevity, and
only some great and final destruction of apocalyptic proportions could spell its doom. Note here
the reference back to the nautical imagery of quatrain two with the use of the word "compass" in
line 10.
Sonnet 116 closes with a rather hefty wager against the validity of the poet's words: he writes
that if what he claims above is proven untrue, then he "never writ, nor no man ever loved."
In comparison with most other sonnets, sonnet 116 strikes readers as relatively simple. The
metaphors are reasonably transparent, and the theme is quickly and plainly apparent. The
overarching sentiment of true love's timeless and immutable nature is presented and developed in
the first eight lines, but there is no twist at the third quatrain - rather a continuation of the theme.
Even the couplet is but a simple statement like "there you have it." The simplicity is noteworthy,
and perhaps it was deliberate: Shakespeare's goal may have been unaffected candor, sincerity of
conviction. It should come as no wonder that the lines of sonnet 116 often are quoted as
Shakespeare's authentic definition of love.
Another interesting fact is that this sonnet is found misnumbered (as 119) in all extant copies of
the Quarto (early editions were printed in small books called quartos) but one. Even this fact has
produced speculation about additional encoded meanings.