HomePoetsPoemsBooks

William Shakespeare

Sonnet iii

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-cancell’d woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish’d sight.

Then can I grieve at grievous 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.

About the poet

William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare
1564-1616

 
By the same poet
Sonnet i
Sonnet ii
Sonnet iv
Sonnet v
Sonnet vi
Sonnet vii
Sonnet viii
Sonnet ix
Sonnet x
Sonnet xi
Sonnet xii
Sonnet xiii
Sonnet xiv
Sonnet xv
Sonnet xvi
Sonnet xvii
Sonnet xviii
Sonnet xix
Sonnet xx
Carpe Diem
Silvia
The Blossom
Spring and Winter (i)
Spring and Winter (ii)
Fairy Land (i)
Fairy Land (ii)
Fairy Land (iii)
Fairy Land (iv)
Fairy Land (v)
Love
Dirge
Under the Greenwood Tree
Blow, blow, thou Winter Wind
It was a Lover and his Lass
Take, O take those Lips away
Aubade
Fidele
The Phoenix and the Turtle
 
Related books
The Arden Shakespeare: Shakespeare's Sonnets, William Shakespeare, Katherine Duncan-Jones (Editor)
Shakespeare's Sonnets (Penguin Classics), William Shakespeare
The Complete Sonnets [AUDIOBOOK], William Shakespeare, Michael Williams (Narrator), Peter Egan (Narrator), Peter Orr (Narrator), Bob Peck (Narrator)
William Shakespeare at amazon.co.uk

Support this site

Please help us to improve this site by supporting the site on Patreon. As a supporter you will get access to the English Verse Discord server, where you can meet other poetry enthusiasts and help shape the development of the site.

Become a supporter

Find out more