WHEN TO THE SESSIONS OF SWEET SILENT THOUGHT

When to his Sessions

 of Sweet Silent Thought

William Shakespeare

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 to 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.