This series of sonnets describes something about how the mind works. This meditation on memory in part explains mental illness. The mental impressions of pain are self reinforcing. The only thing that successfully combats that cycle of agony is a counterpart of attraction, the transformative power of love. Love is the cure for depression, the recompense for mental suffering.

The persona of Shakespeare's collection of sonnets obsesses over their beloved. He paints the image of this passion repeatedly and travels beyond the point of exhaustion and into the arena of madness. The frustrated lover reaches a low point of dejection and self loathing. It is only the beloved that can cure him of his depression.