| Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900. |
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| William Shakespeare. 1564–1616 |
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147. Sonnets
iii |
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| 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, | 5 |
| For precious friends hid in death's dateless night, | |
| And weep afresh love's long-since-cancell'd woe, | |
| And moan th' expense of many a vanish'd sight: | |
| Then can I grieve at grievances foregone, | |
| And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er | 10 |
| 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. | |
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