ABSTRACT
Now you do need to know that they were probably produced initially to please his sponsor, who was almost certainly gay. The first 126 sonnets are all addressed to a beautiful youth. The first ones all inveigh against him continuing to be unmarried. There is more than a hint of passion about them. Then in the last section the poems are written to an anonymous dark lady. There has been speculation about who the people were, but that all seems secondary to the quality - and quantity - of the verse. I wonder if Shakespeare wrote a sonnet every morning in the same way that some people tackle a crossword.
