First published in 1609, the 154 sonnets refer cryptically to the poet's relations with various persons - particularly a handsome young man, a dark woman, and a rival poet. As the sequence of sonnets stands, it roughly falls into two sections: 1-126 are concerned mainly with the youth and 127-154 mainly with the mistress.

The poems are characterised by the expression of strong feeling within an exquisitly controlled artistic form, and the themes are as varied as varied can be, for as William Wordsworth in a sonnet about sonnets thought: 'with this key / Shakespeare unlocked his heart'. The poem to the youth dwell on the great renaissance themes of friendship, love, death, change and immorality and the relationship of the poet's art to all these on the 'Dark Lady' are concerned with the poet's relationship with his mistress.

William Shakespeare, perhaps the greatest English playwright ever, was born in 1564. By 1592 he was sufficiently established as a playwright to be criticized in print. He was a leading member of the Lord Chamberlain's Company, which became the King's Men on the accession of James I in 1603. He died in April 1616 and is buried in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon.