Thomas Thorpe Issues the First Edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets : HistoryofInformation.com

On May 20, 1609, Shakespeare's Sonnets were first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by publisher Thomas Thorpe. Here is one of his most famous sonnets, and one appropriate for Memorial Day.

"Sonnet 30: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
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, unus'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'd sight;
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned 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."