May 28th, 2012 → 8:30 am @ Lea // No Comments

“I summon up remembrance of things past.” – Sonnet 30

On this Memorial Day I take a minute to remember those that have passed away, both in war and simply in general.  Sonnet 30 is, of course, a perennial favorite of Shakespeare’s, perhaps because while it contemplates loss and sad things past, it also ends on a hopeful note of friendship.  I love this sonnet, so, I just can’t help it, I’m going to paste the entire thing below:

“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 canceled 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.”