The sonnets were composed over an unknown period probably beginning around 1592 and ending around 1598. The precise dates of the sonnets are, as yet, undetermined and are the subject of continuing scholarly debate. The sonnets were published in a Quarto edition in 1609 by Thomas Thorpe.

The sonnets are 154 poems of 14 lines (except for 126 which is 12 lines) written in iambic pentameter (except for 145, which is in tetrameter) and exclusively employ the rhyme scheme which has come to be called the Shakespearean Sonnet: abab cdcd efef gg. The sonnets are composed of an octet and sestet and typically progress through three quatrains to a concluding couplet.

"TO THE ONLIE BEGETTER OF THESE INSVING SONNETS MR. W.H. ALL HAPPINESS AND THAT ETERNITIE PROMISED BY OUR EVER-LIVING POET WISHETH THE WELL-WISHING ADVENTVRER IN SETTING FORTH" T.T.