Sonnet cycles were greatly in vogue in the Elizabethan era (roughly 1558-1610), the time around Queen Elizabeth’s reign in England. Some of the most famous sonnet cycles of the age were written by William Shakespeare, Philip Sidney, and Edmund Spenser. The sonnet sequences were generally united by recurring themes, such as love, heartbreak, marriage, mortality, and religion. In Shakespeare’s sonnets, love, beauty, time, and art take centerstage. Unlike the stylized, courtly lover of Italian sonnets or the sonnet cycle of Sidney, Shakespeare’s personae are more reasonable.

Shakespeare’s sonnets are untitled and thus recognized by their first lines or assigned number. Numbering 154 in total, The sonnets first appeared in the 1609 quarto edition of Shakespeare's poetry. The sonnets are widely regarded to be addressed to two distinct muses: 1-126 to the “Fair Youth,” a young man with whom Shakespeare had a close relationship, and 127-152 to a mysterious woman. Sonnets 153 and 154 refer to Cupid, the god of romance.

In the “Fair Youth” sequence, the speaker at first urges the youth to get married and make copies (children) of his beauty, since youth and beauty are fleeing. Sonnets 18 and onward describe the youth’s perfect beauty, as well as the speaker’s anxiety about their limited time with the youth.