Sonnet 30

I thought that Sonnet 30 was quite depressing with the exception of the last couplet. The first twelve lines of this sonnet almost remind me of a suicide note as seen in many movies. The whole theme seems to be awfully sad due to Shakespeare’s sad tone and imagery usage. Small phrases such as, “death’s dateless night” elicit feelings of such loneliness as they represent depressing feelings of death and solitude. He also recalls all of the miseries of his past such as the things he has failed to achieve and how he wasted the best years of his life. However, after these many lines of sadness and memories of the hard times in Shakespeare’s life, he ends the sonnet with a lovely couplet which again shows his love for the young man. He basically says that when he is filled with the horrible sorrow as described earlier, the simple thought of the young man makes him okay. I also think that the preceding lines serve to encourage the young boy not to waste his years like Shakespeare did.