The following version of this poem was used to create this guide: Wroth, Mary. "Sonnet 37." Poetry Nook. https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/sonnet-37-0.

Note that all parenthetical citations within the guide refer to the lines of the poem from which the quotations are taken.

Mary Sidney, who would become Mary Wroth, Countess of Montgomery, was born in 1587. Her family were established patrons of the arts. Her uncle, Philip Sidney, was a celebrated Renaissance poet, courtier, and soldier who himself authored the famous sonnet sequence Astrophil and Stella.

Mary Wroth was educated by her aunt and household tutors. She was married to Sir Robert Wroth, an arrangement that seems to have been primarily financial in nature. She was extremely unhappy in her marriage. By 1613, she had begun to write in earnest, beginning with her sonnet cycles. Soon afterwards, her husband died, leaving her with significant debts and an infant son. As a widow, she lived with her cousin and lover, the Earl of Pembroke. Pembroke was married, but they lived together quite openly and had two children. The later part of her life was dedicated to trying to settle the debts left by her husband, and none of her literary works from this period survive. She died in 1653.