Shakespeare is known to write and compose poems throughout the year and published a quarto of 154 sonnets in 1609. Most of his sonnets deal primarily with the themes of passage of time, love, infidelity, jealousy, beauty and mortality.

A number of sonnets towards the beginning of Shakespearean sonnet sequence have been addressed to a young man where the young man has been encouraged to marry and have children. He goes on to say that the child is a copy of the father and the father lives through his child. The last 28 sonnets, however, have been addressed to a woman who has been described as a mysterious dark lady. The lady has been depicted in a light which is far from an idealistic picture. The lady has been alleged to have cheated on him, stole away his boyfriend and even triggered feelings such as obsession and jealousy.

The sonnets proclaim his love for the young man and wishes to immortalize the person through his poems. He has compared the changing seasons to the different moods of love. The sonnet “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” is quite famous and very oft quoted. Sonnet 126 is perhaps the shortest one that celebrates youth but ends in a note of eventuality where youth shall be consumed by death and decay.