WHEN TO THE SESSION by William Shakespeare (Poem, Summary & Analysis)

 

WHEN TO THE SESSION

by William Shakespeare

(Poem, Summary & Analysis) 

 

William Shakespeare was an artist of the Elizabethan age. This age is also known as ‘The age of Shakespeare’. The general characteristics of the age are: - 

·      High conception of poetry

·      The spirit of independence

·      Varied poetical forms: - love poetry, patriotic poems, philosophical poetry and satirical poems.

Shakespeare was born in 1564. His age was the golden age of songs and lyrics. He wrote plays, poems, sonnets and essays.

The present sonnet ‘When to the sessions’ is a Shakespearean sonnet. The sonnet pays homage to the dear friend of the poet.

 

WHEN TO THE SESSION

(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 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-bemoanèd 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.

 

‘When to the session’ is the homage to the poet’s friend. In the first quatrain the poet says, that with remembering the sad past, he wastes his precious present time. The same thought runs through the next two quatrains also, but in the couplet he gives just the opposite thought, of which he was talking about in the three quatrains.

In the first quatrain, Shakespeare says, that when he gets the time to enjoy the sweet silent thoughts, he acts foolishly and summons up the remembrances of the sad past. He remembers the time of his loss. He further says, that his weeping for his dear friend’s death, also mars his precious present time. In the last quatrain he confesses, that when he remembers sad account of his past, he doubles his misery and pays the value of his losses again in time, as if not paid before.

In the last two lines of the sonnet the poet changes his tone and says, that it is true, that remembrances of past sad accounts, destroys our valuable present time, but when he thinks of his dear friend, all his past losses are restored and sorrows end.

‘When to the session’ is a Shakespearean sonnet, which is divided into two parts- first of 12 lines and second of 2. Twelve lines are again divided into 3 quatrains (4 lines). The thought of the couplet is opposite to that of the three quatrains. All the quatrains have alternate rhyming and the couplet is a rhymed one. The sonnet has ten syllabic lines, each of two to three metrical feet. There is alliteration also in the sonnet.