Sample Explication

Introduction:

In Sonnet 30 the speaker reviews his life, concluding sadly that there is much in his life that he regrets. The controlling metaphor of the sonnet is a courtroom before which the past events of his life are summoned for judgment. Despite the sadness of most of the poem, the speaker ends with one positive thing in his life that makes up for all past sorrows.

Shakespeare establishes two aspects of the poem in the first line. First by using "sessions" he puts us in the courtroom from which all of his metaphors will be taken. He also establishes the pensive mood of the poem in the phrase "sweet silent thought." This slow, alliterated phrase describes a time in which the speaker at first calmly begins a review of his life. The second line continues the courtroom metaphor by issuing summons for the past events of the speaker’s life. This line calls the court to order; the official review has begun. The third and fourth lines establish a sad tone that will increase through the sonnet. We understand that lost opportunities (line three) and old sorrows (line four) will be the substance of the speaker’s remembering.

This more melancholy mood continues and increases in the second quatrain. Lines five and six find the speaker crying about dead friends. Their loss is captured in the slow and alliterated phrase, "death’s dateless night." The second half of this quatrain recounts two additional sorrows: old love wounds and "vanished sight(s)." In this quatrain the speaker cries, weeps, and moans. The increasing sorrow is captured in lines seven and eight in the repeated alliteration "weep --- woe" and "moan --- many." It’s as if the speaker is caught in a rhythmic sobbing.

The third quatrain’s tone changes from sorrow and anger, but this change is not the sonnet’s turn. This quatrain begins with the speaker recalling grievances, wrongs committed against him. It continues this theme with "woes" in line ten. In line eleven we find the speaker moaning about past injuries in front of the metaphoric judge and jury. It concludes with the observation that in remembering these woes he is suffering them again. The increased anguish of this quatrain is embodied in the increased and condensed doubling of words throughout the quatrain: "grieve --- grievances," "woe --- woe," bemoaned moan," and "pay --- paid." This poor fellow is completely captured by his past. He is almost sputtering with useless hurt.

This sets us up for the sonnet’s conclusion. Line thirteen’s "But" announces the sonnet’s turn. The speaker breaks free of the past by remembering his "dear friend." Continuing the courtroom language to the very end, the sonnet tells us that the friend "restores" all losses and brings this sorrowful remembering to an end. Note that in this sonnet the friend saves the speaker from himself. There were never any real wrongs and sorrows threatening the speaker - only the speaker’s own sorrowful turn of mind. This couplet brings the poem to a rhythmic or musical conclusion by returning us to a very regular rhythm - just as the friend restores the speaker to a regular state of mind. The last line is strictly iambic and neatly divided in two.