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Sonnet · Love

Sonnet 110: Alas! 'tis true, I have gone here and there

by William Shakespeare

1Alas! 'tis true, I have gone here and there,

2And made my self a motley to the view,

3Gor'd mine own thoughts, sold cheap what is most dear,

4Made old offences of affections new;

5Most true it is, that I have look'd on truth

6Askance and strangely; but, by all above,

7These blenches gave my heart another youth,

8And worse essays prov'd thee my best of love.

9Now all is done, save what shall have no end:

10Mine appetite I never more will grind

11On newer proof, to try an older friend,

12A god in love, to whom I am confin'd.

13 Then give me welcome, next my heaven the best,

14 Even to thy pure and most most loving breast.

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Quick facts

Poem
Sonnet 110: Alas! 'tis true, I have gone here and there
Poet
William Shakespeare
Length
14 lines
Form
Sonnet
Themes
Love, Sad, Peace

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape
14 lines · one 14-line stanza
Line length
Mostly 10-syllable lines (pentameter length).
The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record
William Shakespeare1564–1616
Source record
PoetryDBSonnet 110: Alas! 'tis true, I have gone here and there by william-shakespeare, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision
Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record
Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint
SHA-256 f2723b7ca991523d
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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