Sonnet · Love
Sonnet 42: That thou hast her it is not all my grief
1That thou hast her it is not all my grief,
2And yet it may be said I loved her dearly;
3That she hath thee is of my wailing chief,
4A loss in love that touches me more nearly.
5Loving offenders thus I will excuse ye:
6Thou dost love her, because thou know'st I love her;
7And for my sake even so doth she abuse me,
8Suffering my friend for my sake to approve her.
9If I lose thee, my loss is my love's gain,
10And losing her, my friend hath found that loss;
11Both find each other, and I lose both twain,
12And both for my sake lay on me this cross:
13 But here's the joy; my friend and I are one;
14 Sweet flattery! then she loves but me alone.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Sonnet 42: That thou hast her it is not all my grief” by William Shakespeare — quilloak.com/poems/sonnet-42
Quick facts
- Poem
- Sonnet 42: That thou hast her it is not all my grief
- Poet
- William Shakespeare
- Length
- 14 lines
- Form
- Sonnet
- Themes
- Love, Friendship, Sad
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
- Lines run 10-12 syllables (median 11). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a sonnet, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake
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 42: That thou hast her it is not all my grief 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 60aa2a8038b375fd…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.