Sonnet 30

Shakespeare's Sonnet 30, one of his most famous, is a reflection on sad memories reconciled by the realization of the gift he has in his friend. A phrase from the second line of this sonnet has achieved a worldwide circulation in the literature of the twentieth century, with its concern with time: C. K. Scott-Moncrieff chose "Remembrance of Things Past" as the title for his English translation of Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu. The mood of depression, with absence from his friend, continues and brings back to the speaker the thought of earlier friends now dead, and former loves now over.