Shakespeare Sonnet 30
‘When to the sessions of sweet silent thought’
Sonnet 30 belongs to the group that is mistakenly thought to be addressed to a young man, but no young man appears, only a "dear friend"-only his poetic talent.
The speaker in Shakespeare Sonnet 30 dramatizes the simple idea that despite all of the sorrow and lack he has experienced in his life, the one thing he can count on to restore “all losses” and end his sorrow is his dear friend, his ability to write poems.
First Quatrain: “When to the sessions of sweet silent thought”
This sonnet has the “when-then” structure of many of the sonnets. The speaker says that when something happens, then another thing follows it. In this sonnet, in the first stanza, the speaker’s “when” clause consists of a looking back on his life: “When to the sessions of sweet silent thought / I summon up remembrance of things past.” The “sessions of sweet silent thought” refer directly to the times that he is musing about a poem.
When such a musing session happens to lead him to thoughts of sadness and loss, he “sigh[s]” at what he was unable to accomplish or at what he was unable to attain, and he bemoans his wasted time in certain pursuits.
Second Quatrain: “Then can I drown an eye, unus’d to flow”
Such sad memories cause him to cry a flood of tears, and he goes on to remember friends who have died, and old lost loves who made him sorrowful, but long since he had forgotten. Still these memories, when they attend him during a session “of sweet silent thought,” lay heavy on his heart, and he suffers anew as if the sorrow had just begun.
Even though he had overcome the sorrow, and his tears were “unus’d to flow,” the memories can become so vivid that they overtake his composure, and his tears rush freely down cheeks that had long remained dry and stalwart against pain.
Third Quatrain: “Then can I grieve at grievances foregone”
His past grief becomes so heavy that he has the ability to take account of it as if the grief were newly minted. He has the ability to shape in it a poem to “tell o’er / The sad account.” He can retell it to make it so real that others can experience it in his poems.
The speaker has a great confidence in his knowledge of his own heart and his ability to create art with his grief. His memories provide the material, and his mind and genius for writing allow him to capture his emotion in sturdy poems.
The Couplet: “But if the while I think on thee, dear friend”
Despite the fact that his sorrows are deep and wield his strength to tears, and the lack he has suffered makes him doubt some of his past choices, all he has to do to recover is remember that his God-given gift of poetic genius is enough to remove all pain and sorrow. He thinks of his ability to compose as a "dear friend."
Other articles on Shakespeare: Who is Shakespeare?
Sonnet Commentaries: Sonnet 1, Sonnet 2, Sonnet 3, Sonnet 4, Sonnet 5, Sonnet 6, Sonnet 7, Sonnet 8, Sonnet 9, Sonnet 10, Sonnet 11, Sonnet 12, Sonnet 13, Sonnet 14, Sonnet 15, Sonnet 16, Sonnet 17, Sonnet 18, Sonnet 19, Sonnet 20, Sonnet 21, Sonnet 22, Sonnet 23, Sonnet 24, Sonnet 25, Sonnet 26, Sonnet 27, Sonnet 28, Sonnet 29, Sonnet 116, Sonnet 126, Sonnet 130, Sonnet 138
