References to sex abound in Shakespeare's sonnets. The persona of the poems is in love with a youth. It is mostly framed as an unrequited love story, due in part to Shakespeare's lower status. However, there are references that suggest they have shared the same lovers.

More interesting than the admission of promiscuity is the way the persona handles their feelings of jealousy. Blocked from his love, their shared loves serve as a kind of energetic conduit. Instead of dwelling in the agony of jealousy, the persona transforms that into proof of love, and then further processes it until it becomes another form of love.

It is interesting that love is the saving grace for the poet, but it isn't a wholesome ordained love. No, it is an illicit love that must stay in the shadows. This love lives in a balance between that which must be repressed and that which must be expressed. Without the outlet of poetry to give shape to his feelings, one imagines the poet would be in much worse shape. It is through a transformation of that energy into poetry that it makes possible the appearance of these feelings of love.