When other petty griefs have done their spite, 11. And other strains of woe, which now seem woe, 14. Compared with loss of thee, will not seem so. This sonnet continues directly from the previous one. It is a threnody of forthcoming woes which threaten to obliterate the poet entirely.
Some doubt still remains as to the reality of the separation and loss.
It echoes also sonnet 87, which has only recently oppressed us with the finality of separation - Farewell, thou art too dear for my possessing. So that we feel ourselves to be speeding down an ever decreasing spiral of loss and wretchedness, as the beloved youth frees himself from the shackles of love and no longer wishes to continue the association. For I must ne'er love him whom thou dost hate . But the thought is immediately corrected, for the pain of separation, if it is to occur, is best endured immediately. The uncertainty of his position, whether or not he still is loved, and whether or not he should cut his losses immediately, thereby preventing a long drawn out agony, carries over from the previous two sonnets.