When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

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 (un-us'd to flow)

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't sight.

Then can I grieve at grievances fore-gone,

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 restor'd, and sorrows end.