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One cannot read Shakespeare’s Sonnets coherently without understanding the framing story, which is based on Arthur Golding’s translation of the story of Narcissus and Echo from Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

"So had he mocked this wretched Nymph and many more besides,
That lived in the waters, Woods, and groves, or Mountains.
So had he mocked many men. Of which one, unhappy
To find himself thwarted so, raised his hands to Heaven,
And said : I pray to God that he may feel fierce Cupid's fire
As I do now, but not the joy of what he desires.
The Goddesse Ramnuse (who takes vengeance on wicked people)
Agreed to his fair request out of pity."