SONNET - 30 SUMMARY

 Sonnet No 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 the 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 restor'd and sorrows end.

The poet looks back at his past life with anger and anguish.  He is disturbed by the remembrances of the past. He is filled with sorrows.  He realizes that he had wasted much of his time in the pursuit of those unrealizable desires. The poet is separated from his friend and he feels miserable. He thinks of countless friends who are dead. He again mourns for their death. He recounts the past woos and pays the debt of sorrow now. Then he thinks of his friend. As soon as he thinks of him, his grief disappears. His sorrows and sense of loss soon passes away.