Sonnet 30

By William Shakespeare

Shakespeare (1564-1616) is the preeminent poet and playwright of the English language. He is the master of wordplay and musical language.

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, unus'd to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan th' expense of many a vanish'd 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 restor'd, and sorrows end.

Shakespeare’s sonnets are brilliant for their focus. He often spends the first twelve lines developing a single idea, only to twist and complicate it with the last two. Here, he starts with the idea that you can make yourself sad by choosing to dwell on the unfortunate events of your past. “Old woes” waste your dear time with “new wails.” One thing I note is the line “I summon up the remembrance of things past.” These aren’t just idle thoughts that drift into the speakers head. He is actively choosing to lead his “sweet silent thoughts” into the “lack of many things [he] sought.”

The speaker isn’t a normally unhappy person. His eyes are “unused to flow,” meaning he doesn’t cry very often. But choosing to dwell on his sorrowful past causes him to “weep afresh” things which he has already healed from (“canceled”). He has already “paid before” for these woes, but he pays for them again after pulling them to the front of his mind.

Choosing to dwell in past sorrows makes sorrow present, but the last two lines offer a nice counterpoint.

Our thoughts hold power the other way as well. When we choose to dwell on the people that we love “all losses are restor’d, and sorrows end.” There is peace and joy to be found in focusing our thoughts on people whom we love and who love us.

This is a classic 14 line journey from Shakespeare. Show us an interesting thought, and then an interesting counterpoint. Focus on past sorrows leads to sorrow, but focus on present love leads to peace. After reading the poem, I’m left with two burning questions, only one of which the poem can help us answer.

First, what does it say about humanity that our minds have indirect power over our emotions? Maybe we can’t totally think our way into and out of happiness, but where we focus seems to have some long term effects. Does the poem offer any thoughts about why that is? Or does it reveal more about the nature of the mind than the nature of humanity?

Second, and more important because it is more specific, where have my thoughts been focused? And where will I focus them today?