Fernando António Nogueira Pessôa was born on June 13, 1888, in Lisbon, Portugal. He was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, philosopher, translator and publisher. He was considered as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest poets who wrote in Portuguese. He also wrote in and translated from English and French. He was a prolific writer who apart from writing under his name, but he also used around twenty-seven other names. He died young, at the age of forty-seven, on November 30, 1935, of cirrhosis of the liver.

His work gained fame after his death and he was included in the 26 writers that established the parameters of the western literature.

This book was first published by the author himself, in 1918, along with another short volume of verse. According to some of his readers, his sonnets are dark and existential, invoking a certain feeling.