"heavy" iamb: 1 2 3 4 / × × / × / × / × / When to the sessions of sweet silent thought Metrists with a slightly more flexible conception of feet may find either a pyrrhic followed by a spondee, or the four-position minor ionic replacing two iambs. Metrists rejecting feet may find an ictus moving to the right. Graphically, these stances add up to more or less the same thing: 1 2 3 4 / × × / × × / / × / When to the sessions of sweet silent thought Exegesis Overview The poem opens up with the speaker remembering his past losses. The narrator grieves his failures and shortcomings while also focusing on the subject of lost friends and lost lovers. Within the words of the sonnet, the narrator uses legal and financial language. He uses words such as: "sessions", "summon", "dateless", and many other legal terms. It's as if the narrator is taking meticulous accounts of his own grief and adds an unhealthy dose of guilt to the proceedings. The poem remains abstract as the process of remembering becomes the drama. About halfway through the sonnet, the speaker changes the tone. Instead ending with a joyous tone as if reminiscing about the dear friend produces restoration and gain, not loss. Quatrain 1 In the first line the phrase "sessions of sweet thought" introduces the concept of Shakespeare remembering past events. Stephen Booth mentions that the word "sessions" refers to judges sitting in a court of law. Booth also notes that in line two the word "summon" is also a court term, which means to be called upon by the court or some authority to either provide evidence or answer a charge. It also means to call a certain quality into action –such as Shakespeare calling his memories to his mind. Helen Vendler also notes that there is slight pause in the phrase "sessions of sweet thought", because Shakespeare's thoughts eventually become painfully rather than "sweet". Finally, the third and fourth lines refer to Shakespeare's regrets. In the third line, Booth says the word "sigh" means "lament". Quatrain 2 Starting on line five of the sonnet, the narrator speaks about not being able to fully reminiscence about his friends using his own eyes. He then recounts that friends of his are long gone within "death's dateless night," using the term dateless as time without