Sonnet 30
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought,
I 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 cancelled woe,
And moan th’ expense of many a vanished sight.
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o’er
The 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 restored, and sorrows end.
This was my first introduction to the sonnets, and will forever be my favorite because of it. I LOVE the sonnets.
And while we cannot credit Shakespeare for the turn of phrase, here’s a quote from Viola from “Shakespeare in Love,” which I’m rewatching:
I will have poetry in my life. And adventure. And love. Love above all. Not the artful postures of love, but love that overthrows life. Unbiddable, ungovernable – like a riot in the heart, and nothing to be done, come ruin or rapture.