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.
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