Acknowledgments 33
Editors' Note 35
Personal Essays on Encountering the Sonnet
Edward Hirsch, MY OWN ACQUAINTANCE
39
Eavan Boland, DISCOVERING THE SONNET
43
The Sonnet in Summary 49
The Making of a Sonnet: A Formal Introduction 51
THE SONNET IN THE MIRROR 55
THE SONNET IN THE MIRROR
57
EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY (1892-1950)
"I will put Chaos into fourteen lines"
60
ROBERT BURNS (1759-1796)
A Sonnet upon Sonnets
60
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY (1554-1586)
"My Muse may well grudge at my heav'nly joy"
61
JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS (1840-1893)
from The Sonnet III ("The Sonnet is a world, where feelings caught")
61
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770-1850)
"Scorn not the Sonnet; Critic, you have frowned"
62
"Nuns fret not at their convent's narrow room"
62
JOHN KEATS (1795-1821)
"If by dull rhymes our English must be chain'd"
63
JOHN DOVASTON (1752-1854)
from Sonnets, XXIX. Concluding Sonnet on the Sonnet
63
DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI (1828-82)
from The House of Life ("A Sonnet is a moment's monument")
64
ANNA SEWARD (1747-1809)
To Mr. Henry Cary, On the Publication of his Sonnets
64
EBENEZER ELLIOTT (1781-1849)
Powers of the Sonnet
65
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI (1830-1894)
"Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome"
65
FREDERICK WILLIAM FABER (1814-1863)
Sonnet-writing. To F.W.F.
66
THEODORE WATTS-DUNTON (1832-1914)
The Sonnet's Voice
66
EUGENE LEE-HAMILTON (1845-1907)
What the Sonnet Is
67
EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849)
An Enigma
67
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX (1850-1919)
The Sonnet
68
EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON (1869-1935)
Sonnet ("The master and slave go hand in hand")
68
LORD ALFRED DOUGLAS (1870-1945)
Sonnet on the Sonnet
69
SYLVIA TOWNSEND WARNER (1893-1978)
"Farewell, I thought. How many sonnets have"
69
MERRILL MOORE (1903-1957)
In Magic Words
70
PETER DICKINSON (1927-)
"Scorn not the sonnet" (Wordsworth)
70
GEOFF PAGE (1940-)
The Recipe
71
LOUISE BOGAN (1897-1970)
Single Sonnet
71
GEORGE STARBUCK (1931-1996)
Sonnet with a Different Letter at the End of Every Line
72
HAYDEN CARRUTH (1921-)
Late Sonnet
73
BILLY COLLINS (1941-)
Sonnet ("All we need is fourteen lines, well, thirteen now")
73
THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 75
THE SONNET IN ITS CENTURY: THE SIXTEENTH
77
SIR THOMAS WYATT (1503-1542)
"The long love that in my thought doth harbor"
79
"Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind"
79
"My galley charged with forgetfulness"
80
HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF SURREY (1517-1547)
"Love, that doth reign and live within my thought"
80
"Norfolk sprang thee, Lambeth holds thee dead"
81
ANNE LOCKE (1533-1595)
from A Meditation of a Penitent Sinner, upon the 51. Psalme., Have mercie upon me (o God) after thy great merci
81
GEORGE GASCOIGNE (1525-1577)
"That self-same tongue which first did thee entreat"
82
GILES FLETCHER, THE ELDER (1549-1611)
from Licia, Sonnet XXVIII ("In time the strong and stately turrets fall.")
82
EDMUND SPENSER (1552-1599)
from Amoretti, Sonnet 1 ("Happy ye leaves when as those lilly hands")
83
from Amoretti, Sonnet 8 ("More then most faire, full of the living fire")
83
from Amoretti, Sonnet 30 ("My love is lyke to yse, and I to fyre")
84
from Amoretti, Sonnet 75 ("One day I wrote her name upon the strand")
84
from Amoretti, Sonnet 77 ("Was it a dreame, or did I see it playne")
85
FULKE GREVILLE, LORD BROOKE (1554-1628)
from C‘lica, Sonnet LXXXVI ("The earth with thunder torn, with fire blasted")
85
SIR WALTER RALEGH (1554?-1618)
Sir Walter Ralegh to His Son
86
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY (1554-1586)
from Astrophil and Stella 1 ("Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show")
86
from Astrophil and Stella 31 ("With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climb'st the skies")
87
from Astrophil and Stella 39 ("Come sleep! O sleep, the certain knot of peace")
87
from Astrophil and Stella 54 ("Because I breathe not love to everyone")
88
from Astrophil and Stella 71 ("Who will in fairest book of Nature know")
88
THOMAS LODGE (c. 1558-1625)
from Phillis, Sonnet XL ("Resembling none, and none so poor as I")
89
GEORGE CHAPMAN (1559-1634)
A Coronet for his Mistress Philosophy 1 ("Muses that sing love's sensual empery")
89
SAMUEL DANIEL (1562-1619)
from Delia 49 ("Care-charmer Sleep, son of the sable Night")
90
MICHAEL DRAYTON (1563-1631)
from Idea 61 ("Since there's no help, come let us kiss and part")
90
HUGH HOLLAND (1569-1635)
Upon the Lines, and Life, of the famous Scenic Poet, Master William Shakespeare
91
MARK ALEXANDER BOYD (1563-1601)
Sonet ("Fra banc to banc, Fra wod to wad, I rin")
91
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)
from Love's Labour's Lost (act 4, scene 3)
92
from Romeo and Juliet (act 1, scene 5)
92
Sonnet 18 ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?")
93
Sonnet 29 ("When, in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes")
93
Sonnet 94 ("They that have power to hurt and will do none")
94
Sonnet 116 ("Let me not to the marriage of true minds")
94
Sonnet 129 (-Ili expense of spirit in a waste of shame")
95
Sonnet 130 ("My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun")
95
Sonnet 138 ("When my love swears that she is made of truth")
96
Sonnet 147 ("My love is as a fever, longing still")
96
JAMES I (1566-1625)
An Epitaph on Sir Philip Sidney
97
BARNABE BARNES (1569-1609)
from Parthenophil and Parthenophe, Sonnet XLIIII ("Oh dart and thunder whose fierce violence")
97
SIR JOHN DAVIES (1569-1626)
"If you would know the love which I you bear"
98
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 99
THE SONNET IN ITS CENTURY: THE SEVENTEENTH
101
BEN JONSON (1572-1637)
A Sonnet to the Noble Lady, the Lady Mary Wroth
103
RICHARD BARNFIELD (1574-1627)
To his Friend Maister R.L. In Praise of Musique and Poetrie
103
LADY MARY WROTH (1586-1652)
"When everyone to pleasing pastime hies"
104
JOHN DONNE (1572-1631)
from Holy Sonnets 1 ("Thou hast made me, and shall Thy work decay?")
104
from Holy Sonnets 5 ("I am a little world made cunningly")
105
from Holy Sonnets 7 ("At the round earth's imagined corners, blow")
105
from Holy Sonnets 10 ("Death, be not proud, though some have called thee")
106
from Holy Sonnets 14 ("Batter my heart, three-personed God; for you")
106
from Holy Sonnets 19 ("Oh, to vex me, contraries meet in one")
107
EDWARD, LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY (1583-1648)
Epitaph of King James
107
WILLIAM DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORNDEN (1585-1649)
Sonnet LXXIII ("My lute, be as thou wert when thou didst grow")
108
GEORGE HERBERT (1593-1633)
Prayer (I)
108
"My God, where is that ancient heat towards thee"
109
Redemption
109
"Sure Lord, there is enough in thee to dry"
110
THOMAS CAREW (1595-1640)
Song: Mediocrity in Love Rejected
110
ROBERT HERRICK (1591-1674)
The Bad Season Makes the Poet Sad
111
JOHN MILTON (1608-1674)
"How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth"
111
"A book was writ of late called Tetrachordon"
112
To the Lord General Cromwell, May 1652
112
"Methought I saw my late espoused saint"
113
On the Late Massacre in Piedmont
113
"When I consider how my light is spent"
114
PHILIP AYRES (1638-1712)
A Sonnet, of Petrarc, Shewing how long he had lov'd Madonna Laura
114
APHRA BEHN (1640-1689)
Epitaph on the Tombstone of a Child, the Last of Seven That Died Before
115
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 117
THE SONNET IN ITS CENTURY: THE EIGHTEENTH
119
THOMAS EDWARDS (1699-1757)
On a Family-Picture
121
On the Edition of Mr. Pope's Works with a Commentary and Notes
121
THOMAS GRAY (1716-1771)
On the Death of Mr. Richard West
122
THOMAS WARTON, THE YOUNGER (1728-1790)
To the River Lodon
122
WILLIAM COWPER (1731-1800)
Sonnet to William Wilberforce, Esquire
123
To Mrs. Unwin
123
To George Romney, Esq.
124
ANNA SEWARD (1742-1809)
To a Friend, Who Thinks Sensibility a Misfortune
124
To the Poppy
125
ANNA MARIA JONES (1748-1829)
Sonnet to the Moon
125
CHARLOTTE SMITH (1749-1806)
"The partial Muse has from my earliest hours"
126
To the South Downs
126
To Night
127
To a nightingale
127
DAVID HUMPHREYS (1752-1818)
Addressed to His Royal Highness, The Prince of Brazil, On Taking Leave of the Court of Lisbon, July, 1797
128
JOHN CODRINGTON BAMPFYLDE (1754-1796)
On a Wet Summer
128
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 129
THE SONNET IN ITS CENTURY: THE NINETEENTH
131
WILLIAM BLAKE (1757-1827)
To the Evening Star
134
MARY ROBINSON (1758-1800)
from Sappho and Phaon, I. Sonnet Introductory
134
JANE WEST (1758-1852)
Sonnet to May
135
ROBERT BURNS (1759-1796)
Sonnet ("Sing on, sweet thrush, upon the leafless bough")
135
WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES (1762-1850)
To the River Itchin, Near Winton
136
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS (1767-1848)
To the Sun-Dial
136
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770-1850)
Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802
137
"It is a beauteous evening, calm and free"
137
To Toussaint L'Ouverture
138
London, 1802
138
"The world is too much with us; late and soon"
139
"Surprised by joy-impatient as the wind"
139
Mutability
140
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE (1772-1834)
To the River Otter
140
Work Without Hope
141
Pantisocracy
141
MARY TIGHE (1772-1810)
Sonnet Addressed to My Mother
142
ROBERT SOUTHEY (1774-1843)
from Poems on the Slave Trade VI ("High in the air exposed the slave is hung")
142
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR (1775-1864)
To Robert Browning
143
LEIGH HUNT (1784-1859)
To the Grasshopper and the Cricket
143
GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON (1788-1824)
Sonnet on Chalon
144
"Rousseau-Voltaire-our Gibbon-and de Stag"
144
MARY LOCKE (fl. 1791-1816)
"I hate the Spring in path-colored vest"
145
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY (1792-1822)
Ozymandias
145
England in 1819
146
Ode to the iffest Wind
146
JOHN CLARE (1793-1864)
Schoolboys in Winter
149
To John Clare
143
To Wordsworth
150
Sonnet: "I Am"
150
JOHN KEATS (1795-1821)
On first looking into Chapman's Homer
151
On seeing the Elgin Marbles
151
"When I have fears that I may cease to be"
152
To Sleep
152
"Bright Star, would I were stedfast as thou art"
153
To Fanny
153
LIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING (1806-1861)
from Sonnets from the Portuguese XVIII ("I never gave a lock of hair away")
154
from Sonnets from the Portuguese XLIII ("How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.")
154
JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER (1807-1892)
To a Cape Ann Schooner
155
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882)
Mezzo Cammin
155
Night
156
The Cross of Snow
156
EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849)
Sonnet-To Science
157
ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON (1809-1892)
"How thought you that this thing could captivate?"
157
MARGARET FULLER (1810-1850)
Flaxman
158
ROBERT BROWNING (1812-1889)
Why I Am a Liberal
158
EDWARD LEAR (1812-1888)
Cold Are the Crabs
159
JONES VERY (1813-1880)
The New Birth
159
The Dead
160
Yourself
160
WALT WHITMAN (1819-1892)
Patroling Barnegat
161
FREDERICK GODDARD TUCKERMAN (1821-1873)
from Sonnets, First Series X ("An upper chamber in a darkened house")
161
from Sonnets, Second Series VII ("His heart was in his garden; but his brain")
162
from Sonnets, Third Series X ("Sometimes I walk where the deep water dips")
162
MATTHEW ARNOLD (1822-1888)
Shakespeare
163
WILLIAM ALLINGHAM (1824-1889)
In Snow
163
GEORGE MEREDITH (1828-1909)
Lucifer in Starlight
164
DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI (1828-1882)
from The House of Life, XVIII Genius in Beauty
164
from The House of Life, XLVIL Broken Music
165
from The House of Life, LXXXIIL Barren Spring
165
from The House of Life, XCVII. A Superscription
166
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI (1830-1894)
Remember
167
In an Artist's Studio
167
ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE (1837-1909)
On the Russian persecution of the Jews
168
WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT (1840-1922)
St. Valentine's Day
168
THOMAS HARDY (1840-1928)
Hap
169
from She, to Him I
169
from She, to Him II
170
The Pity of It
170
GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS (1844-1889)
God's Grandeur
171
The Windhover
171
"As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame"
172
"Not, I'll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee"
173
"I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day."
174
"Thou art indeed just, Lord; if I contend"
174
EMMA LAZARUS (1849-1887)
The New Colossus
175
Long Island Sound
175
1492
176
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX (1850-1919)
Friendship After Love
176
LIZETTE WOODWORTH REESE (1856-1935)
April in Town
177
OSCAR WILDE (1856-1900)
On the Sale by Auction of Keats' Love Letters
177
LOUISE IMOGEN GUINEY (1861-1920)
The Lights of London
178
FORGE SANTAYANA (1863-1952)
On a Piece of Tapestry
178
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 179
THE SONNET IN ITS CENTURY: THE TWENTIETH
181
W.B. YEATS (1865-1939)
Leda and the Swan
183
CHARLOTTE MEW (1869-1928)
Not for that City
183
EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON (1869-1935)
Reuben Bright
184
George Crabbe
184
How Annandale Went Out
185
The Sheaves
185
Why He Was There
186
JAMES WELDON JOHNSON (1871-1938)
Mother Night
186
PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR (1872-1906)
Robert Gould Shaw
187
Douglass
187
TRUMBULL STICKNEY (1874-1904)
"Live blindly and upon the hour. The Lord"
188
Six O'Clock
188
ROBERT FROST (1874-1963)
Design
189
The Silken Tent
189
Never Again Would Birds' Song Be the Same
190
RUPERT BROOKE (1875-1915)
Sonnet Reversed
190
The Soldier
191
EDWARD THOMAS (1878-1917)
February Afternoon
191
WALLACE STEVENS (1879-1955)
The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain
192
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS (1883-1963)
Sonnet in Search of an Author
192
ELINOR WYLIE (1885-1928)
Self-portrait
193
SARA TEASDALE (1884-1933)
Crowned
193
EZRA POUND (1885-1972)
A Virginal
194
SIEGFRIED SASSOON (1886-1967)
Dreamers
194
Trench Duty
195
Banishment
195
ROBINSON JEFFERS (1887-1962)
Love the Wild Swan
196
MARIANNE MOORE (1887-1972)
No Swan So Fine
196
EDWIN MUIR (1887-1959)
Milton
197
JOHN CROWE RANSOM (1888-1974)
Piazza Piece
197
T.S. ELIOT (1888-1965)
from The Fire Sermon
198
IVOR GURNEY (1890-1937)
Strange Hells
198
CLAUDE MCKAY (1890-1948)
The Lynching
199
If We Must Die
199
America
200
EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY (1892-1950)
"What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why"
200
WILFRED OWEN (1893-1918)
Anthem for Doomed Youth
201
Dulce et Decorum Est
201
Futility
202
DOROTHY PARKER (1893-1967)
I Shall Come Back
203
E.E. CUMMINGS (1894-1962)
from Two III ("next to of course god america i")
203
from One Times One XIV ("pity this busy monster,manunkind")
204
ROBERT GRAVES (1895-1985)
In Her Praise
205
EDMUND BLUNDEN (1896-1974)
Vlamertinghe: Passing the Chateau, July 1917
205
HART CRANE (1899-1932)
To Emily Dickinson
206
ALLEN TATE (1899-1979)
from Sonnets at Christmas I ("This is the day His hour of life draws near")
206
LEONIE ADAMS (1899-1988)
A Gull Goes Up
207
JANET LEWIS (1899-1988)
At Carmel Highlands
207
YVOR WINTERS (1900-1968)
To Emily Dickinson
208
STERLING BROWN (1901-1989)
Salutamus
208
ROBERT FRANCIS (1901-1987)
The Gardener
209
COUNTEE CULLEN (1903-1946)
Yet Do I Marvel
209
From the Dark Tower
210
LANGSTON HUGHES (1902-1967)
Christ in Alabama
210
EDWIN DENBY (1903-1983)
The Subway
211
CECIL DAY-LEWIS (1904-1972)
from O Dreams, O Destinations 4 ("Our youthtime passes down a colonnade")
211
PATRICK KAVANAGH (1904-1967)
Epic
212
STANLEY KUNITZ (1905-2006)
So Intricately Is This World Resolved
212
R.A.K. MASON (1905-1971)
Sonnet of Brotherhood
213
PHYLLIS MCGINLEY (1905-1978)
View from a Suburban Window
213
ROBERT PENN WARREN (1905-1989)
Milton: A Sonnet
214
WILLIAM EMPSON (1906-1984)
The Ants
214
LOUIS MACNEICE (1907-1963)
Sunday Morning
215
W.H. AUDEN (1907-1973)
from Sonnets from China XII ("Here war is harmless like a monument")
216
HELENE JOHNSON (1907-1995)
Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem
216
A.D. HOPE (1907-2001)
Pasiphae
217
THEODORE ROETHKE (1908-1963)
For an Amorous Lady
217
KATHLEEN RAINE (1908-2003)
Angelus
218
JAMES AGEE (1909-1955)
from Sonnets ("So it begins. Adam is in his earth")
219
STEPHEN SPENDER (1909-1995.)
Daybreck
219
MALCOLM LOWRY (1909-1957;
Christ Walks in This Infernal District Too
220
DOROTHEA TANNING (1910-)
Report from the Field
120
ELIZABETH BISHOP (1911-1979)
The Prodigal
221
J.V. CUNNINGHAM (1911-1985)
The Aged Lover Discourses in the Flat Style
222
PAUL GOODMAN (1911-1972)
from Sonnets, 1 3 ("Foster excellence. If I do not")
222
JOSEPHINE MILES (1911-1985)
Luncheon 2
223
KENNETH PATCHEN (1911-1972)
Religion Is That I Love You
223
DELMORE SCHWARTZ (1913-1966)
The Beautiful American Word, Sure
224
MURIEL RUKEYSER (1913-1980)
from Letter to the Front 7 ("To be a Jew in the twentieth century")
224
ROBERT HAYDEN (1913-1983)
Those Winter Sundays
225
GEORGE BARKER (1913-1991)
To My Mother
225
KARL SHAPIRO (1913-2000)
Jew
226
DYLAN THOMAS (1914-1953)
"When all my five and country senses see"
227
WELDON KEES (1914-1955)
For My Daughter
227
JOHN BERRYMAN (1914-1972)
from Sonnets to Chris
117
("All we were going strong last night this time")
228
WILLIAM STAFFORD (1914-1993)
A Stared Story
228
JUDITH WRIGHT (1915-2000)
Sonnet ("Now let the draughtsman of my eyes be done")
229
GAVIN EWART (1916-1995)
Sonnet: Afterwards
229
JAMES MCAULEY (1917-1976)
Piet…
230
ROBERT LOWELL (1917-1977)
Words for Hart Crane
231
History
231
GWENDOLYN BROOKS (1917-2000)
Gay Chaps at the Bar
232
WILLIAM MEREDITH (1919-)
The Illiterate
232
AMY CLAMPITT (1920-1994)
The Cormorant in Its Element
233
GWEN HARWOOD (1920-1995)
In the Park
233
EDWIN MORGAN (1920-)
The Coin
234
HOWARD NEMEROV (1920-1991)
A Primer of the Daily Round
234
GEORGE MACKAY BROWN (1921-1996)
Chapel Between Cornfield and Shore
235
MARIE PONSOT (1921-)
Out of Eden
235
RICHARD WILBUR (1921-)
O
236
PHILIP LARKIN (1922-1985)
Whatever Happened?
236
HOWARD MOSS (1922-1987)
The Snow Weed
237
DONALD DAVIE (1922-1995)
Jacob's Ladder
238
CONSTANCE URDANG (1922-1996)
from To Live with a Landscape I ("Take your boulevards, your Locust Street")
238
ALAN ANSEN (1922-2006)
Tennyson
239
ELIZABETH BREWSTER (1922-)
Death by Drowning
239
ANTHONY HECHT (1923-2004)
Naming the Animals
240
DANIEL HOFFMAN (1923-)
Violence
240
EDGAR BOWERS (1924-2000)
In the Last Circle
241
JANE COOPER (1924-2007)
from After the Bomb Tests 1 ("The atom bellies like a cauliflower")
241
DONALD JUSTICE (1925-2004)
Mrs. Snow
242
The Pupil
242
KENNETH KOCH (1925-2002)
from Our Hearts 1 ("All hearts should beat when Cho Fu's orchestra plays 'Love'")
243
CAROLYN KIZER (1925-)
Reunion
244
FRANK O'HARA (1926-1966)
from A City Winter 1 ("I understand the boredom of the clerks")
244
JAMES K. BAXTER (1926-1972)
from Jerusalem Sonnets 10 ("Dark night-or rather, only the stars")
245
JAMES MERRILL (1926-1995)
Marsyas
245
ALLEN GINSBERG (1926-1997)
from Two Sonnets I ("I dwelled in Hell on earth to write this rhyme")
246
W.D. SNODGRASS (1926-)
μητιfinalsigma;...omicronυτιfinalsigma (Not any man...No Man)
247
JOHN ASHBERY (1927-)
Sonnet ("Each servant stamps the reader with a look")
247
WILLIS BARNSTONE (1927-)
The Secret Reader
248
GALWAY KINNELL (1927-)
Blackberry Eating
248
W.S. MERWIN (1927-)
Sonnet ("Where it begins will remain a question")
249
JAMES WRIGHT (1927-1980)
My Grandmother's Ghost
249
R.F. BRISSENDEN (1928-1991)
Samuel Johnson Talking
250
THOMAS KINSELLA (1928-)
Wedding Morning
250
PHILIP LEVINE (1928-)
Llanto
251
ANNE SEXTON (1928-1974)
To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Triumph
251
BURNS SINGER (1928-1964)
from Sonnets for a Dying Man XLIX ("The life I die moves through the death I live")
252
THOM GUNN (1929-2004)
High Fidelity
252
JOHN MONTAGUE (1929-)
from She Writes 1 ("Dear one, no news from you so long.")
253
ADRIENNE RICH (1929-)
Final Notations
253
DEREK WALCOTT (1930-)
Homage to Edward Thomas
254
RUTH FAINLIGHT (1931-)
High Pressure Zone
255
SYLVIA PLATH (1932-1963)
Conversation Among the Ruins
255
GEOFFREY HILL (1932-)
Requiem for the Plantagenet Kings
256
C.K. STEAD (1932-)
from Twenty-two Sonnets 16 ("Xuan Lot Danang fallen, we wait for the fall of Saigon.")
256
STEPHEN BERG (1934-)
My Bohemian Life
257
WENDELL BERRY (1934-)
The Venus of Botticelli
258
MARK STRAND (1934-)
One Winter Night
258
SANDRA GILBERT (1936-)
October 29, 1991: 4 PM, outside Saratoga Springs
259
JUNE JORDAN (1936-)
Sunflower Sonnet Number Two
260
FREDERICK SEIDEL (1936-)
Robert Kennedy
260
C.K. WILLIAMS (1936-)
The Doe
261
ALICIA OSTRIKER (1937-)
Sonnet. To Tell the Truth
261
LES MURRAY (1938-)
Performance
262
CHARLES SIMIC (1938-)
History
262
FRANK BIDART (1939-)
Self-Portrait, 1969
263
KENNETH FIELDS (1939-)
Poetic
264
SEAMUS HEANEY (1939-)
Fireside
264
Requiem for the Croppies
265
MICHAEL LONGLEY (1939-)
Ceasefire
265
BILL KNOTT (1940-)
Suicidal (or Simply Drunken) Thoughts on Being Refused a Guggenheim Grant for the 11th Time
266
ROBERT PINSKY (1940-)
Sonnet ("Afternoon sun on her back")
267
TOM CLARK (1941-)
Sonnet ("Five A.M. on East Fourteenth I'm out to eat")
267
DEREK MAHON (1941-)
Grandfather
268
ELIZABETH SMITHER (1941-)
Visiting Juliet Street
268
MARILYN HACKER (1942-)
Fourteen
269
ELEAN NI CHUILLEANAIN (1942-)
The Angel in the Stone
269
WILLIAM MATTHEWS (1942-1997)
Cheap Seats, the Cincinnati Gardens, Professional Basketball, 1959
270
DOUGLAS DUNN (1942-)
Modern Love
270
SUSAN MITCHELL (1942-)
from From a Book of Prophets, 3. Boca Raton, 1990
271
DAVE SMITH (1942-)
The Spring Poem
271
LOUISE GLUCK (1943-)
Earthly Terror
272
MICHAEL PALMER (1943-)
Pre-Petrarchan Sonnet
273
ELLEN BRYANT VOIGT (1943-)
from Kyrie ("Who said the worst was past, who knew")
273
W.S. DI PIERO (1945-)
Starlings
274
J.D. MCCLATCHY (1945-)
from Kilim 1 ("The force of habit takes order to its heart")
274
ALICE NOTLEY (1945-)
Sonnet ("The late Gracie Allen was a very lucid comedienne")
275
KAY RYAN (1945-)
Full Measure
276
MARILYN NELSON (1946-)
Beauty Shoppe
276
IAN WEDDE (1946-)
from Earthly: Sonnets for Carlos, 20 sonnet for Carlos
277
DAVID LEHMAN (1948-)
Like a Party
277
ALAN GOULD (1949-)
An interrogator's Opening Remarks
278
DENIS JOHNSON (1949-)
Passenge's
PHILIP NEILSEN (1949-)
Vermouth
279
SHEROD SANTOS (1949-)
Ghost Sonnet
279
EDITH SPEERS (1949-)
from Love Sonnets, Sonnet 9 ("Darling! I have to see you! Can you come?")
280
JULIA ALVAREZ (1950-)
from 33 ("Let's make a modern primer for our kids")
281
DANA GIOIA (1950-)
Sunday Night in Santa Rosa
281
T.R. HUMMER (1950-)
Telepathic Poetics
282
MEDBH MCGUCKIAN (1950-)
Shelmalier
282
PAUL MULDOON (1951-)
from The Old Country I ("Where every town was a tidy town")
283
RITA DOVE (1952-)
Sonnet in Primary Colors
283
SUSAN STEWART (1952-)
from Slaughter 5 ("Now let us go back to the stunning")
284
TOM SLEIGH (1953-)
from The Work, 1. Today ("Today, this moment, speechlessly in pain")
285
ROSANNA WARREN (1953-)
Alps
285
DAVID WOJAHN (1953-)
from Mystery Train, 1. Homage: Light from the Hall
286
DAVID BAKER (1954-)
from Sonnets from One State West, 1. Inside the Covered
Bridge Historic Site
286
PHILLIS LEVIN (1954-)
On the Other Hand
287
MARY JO SALTER (1954-)
Half a Double Sonnet
288
CAROL ANN DUFFY (1955-)
Prayer
288
KIMIKO HAHN (1955-)
from Reckless Sonnets 8 ("My father, as a boy in Milwaukee, thought")
289
PAULA MEEHAN (1955-)
Queen
289
ROBIN ROBERTSON (1955-)
Swimming in the Woods
290
HENRI COLE (1956-)
Black Camellia
290
THE SONNET GOES TO DIFFERENT LENGTHS 293
THE SONNET GOES TO DIFFERENT LENGTHS
295
DANTE ALIGHIERI (1265-1321)
from La Vita Nuova (The New Life), ("Death, alway cruel, Pity's foe in chief") (trans. Dante Gabriel Rossetti)
298
from La Vita Nuova (The New Life), ("All ye that pass along Love's trodden way") (trans. Dante Gabriel Rossetti)
298
GEOFFREY CHAUCER (1342-1400)
from Troilus and Criseyde, Canticus Troili
299
MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI (1475-1564)
from Sonnets, V To Giovanni da Pistoia When the Author was Painting the Vault of the Sistine Chapel, (trans. Gail Mazur)
300
GEORGE PEELE (1556-1596)
from Polyhymnia, Farewell to Arms
301
THOMAS WATSON (c. 1557-1592)
from Hekatompathia, A Passionate Century of Love XIX ("if Cupid were a child, as poets feign")
301
THOMAS LODGE (c. 1557-1625)
from Rosalynde, Montanus's Sonnet
302
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)
Sonnet 126 ("0 thou, my lovely boy, who in the power")
303
BARNABE BARNES (c. 1569-1609)
from Parthenophil and Parthenophe. Sonnettes, Madrigals, Elegies and Odes 36 ("And thus continuing with outrageous fier")
304
JOHN DONNE (1572-1631)
Sonnet. The Token
304
GEORGE HERBERT (1593-1633)
A Wreath
305
JOHN MILTON (1608-1674)
On the New Forcers of Conscience under the Long Parliament
305
SIR JOHN SUCKLING (1609-1641)
from Sonnets I ("Dost see how unregarded now")
306
RICHARD LOVELACE (1618-1657)
Sonnet ("When I by thy faire shape did sweare")
307
ANN RADCLIFFE (1764-1823)
Storied Sonnet
307
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770-1850)
"It is no Spirit who from Heaven hath flown"
308
JOHN KEATS (1795-1821)
"Nature withheld Cassandra in the skies"
308
RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803-1882)
Woods: A Prose Sonnet
309
EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849)
Sonnet-Silence
309
ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON (1809-1892)
The Kraken
310
MARY BRYAN (fl. 1815)
The Maniac (2)
311
FORGE MEREDITH (1828-1909)
from Modern Love I ("By this he knew she wept with waking eyes")
311
from Modern Love XXV ("You like not that French novel? Tell me why.")
312
from Modern Love XXX ("What are we first? First, animals; and next")
313
from Modern Love L ("Thus piteously Love closed what he begat")
313
GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS (1844-1889)
Pied Beauty
314
Peace
314
Felix Randal
315
Spelt from Sibyl's Leaves
316
That Nature Is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection
316
ARTHUR RIMBAUD (1854-1891)
from Nonsense, Part 2, I. Drunk Driver (trans. Wyatt Mason)
318
ROBERT FROST (1875-1963)
Hyla Brook
318
BLAISE CENDRARS (1887-1961)
from Unnatural Sonnets, OpOetic (trans. Ron Padgett)
319
from Unnatural Sonnets, Academie Medrano (trans. Ron Padgett)
320
EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY (1892-1950)
Rendezvous
320
E.E. CUMMINGS (1894-1962)
from Sonnets-Actualities XVI ("i have found what you are like")
321
JOHN BROOKS WHEELWRIGHT (1897-1940)
Father
322
W.H. AUDEN (1907-1973)
from The Quest III ("Two friends who met here and embraced are gone")
323
ELIZABETH BISHOP (1911-1979)
Sonnet ("Caught-the bubble")
323
ROY FULLER (1912-1991)
from Meredithian Sonnets I ("To suffer, yes, but suffer and not create")
324
ROBERT DUNCAN (1919-1988)
Sonnet 4
324
5th Sonnet
325
MONA VAN DUYN (1921-2004)
Double Sonnet for Minimalists
326
GERALD STERN (1923-)
American Heaven
327
JOHN HOLLANDER (1929-)
from Powers of Thirteen ("That other time of day when the chiming of Thirteen")
328
JOHN UPDIKE (1932-)
Love Sonnet
328
JEAN VALENTINE (1934-)
X
329
TED BERRIGAN (1934-1983)
from The Sonnets L ("I like to beat people up")
329
from The Sonnets, LXXIL A Sonnet for Dick Gallup
330
TONY HARRISON (1937-)
On Not Being Milton
330
PAUL MARIANI (1940-)
Hopkins in Ireland
331
BILLY COLLINS (1941-)
American Sonnet
332
BERNADETTE MAYER (1945-)
Sonnet ("You jerk you didn't call me up")
333
RONALD WALLACE (1945-)
Broken Sonnet
333
SANDRA MCPHERSON (1943-)
Sonnet for Joe
334
BRAD LEITHAUSER (1953-)
Post-Coitum Tristesse: A Sonnet
335
KARL KIRCHWEY (1956-)
from Two Tidal Sonnets, 1. Ludovisi Throne
335
THE SONNET AROUND THE WORLD 337
THE SONNET AROUND THE WORLD
339
GUIDO CAVALCANTI (c. 1255-1300)
Sonnet IX ("I am reduced at last to self compassion") (adapted by Ezra Pound)
343
DANTE ALIGHIERI (1265-1321)
from La Vita Nuova (The New Life) ("The thoughts are broken in my memory") (trans. Dante Gabriel Rossetti)
343
RANCESCO PETRARCH (1304-1374)
"I find no peace, and all my war is done" (adapted by Sir Thomas Wyatt)
344
MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI (1475-1564)
"My lady, these eyes see vividly-far, near" (trans. John Frederick Nims)
344
VITTORIA COLONNA (1492-1547)
from Sonnets for Michelangelo 1 ("Since my chaste love for many years") (trans. Abigail Brundin)
345
JOACHIM DU BELLAY (1522-1560)
"Heureux qui, comme Ulysse, a fait un Beau Voyage..." (adapted by Anthony Hecht)
345
LUIS DE CAMOES (1524-1580)
Reader (trans. William Baer)
346
LUIS DE GONGORA (1561-1627)
Sonnet LXXXII (Amorous) (trans. Edith Grossman)
346
LOPE DE VEGA (1562-1635)
Instant Sonnet (trans. Edith Grossman)
347
SOR JUANA INES DE LA CRUZ (1648-1695)
Sonnet 145 ("This thing you see, a bright-colored deceit") (trans. Edith Grossman)
347
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE (1749-1832)
Nature and Art (trans. David Luke)
348
GIUSEPPE BELLI (1791-1863)
Night of Terror (trans. Miller Williams)
348
ALEKSANDR PUSHKIN (1799-1837)
from Eugene Onegin VII ("The art of verse, that lofty pleasure") (trans. Babette Deutsch)
349
GERARD DE NERVAL (1808-1855)
The Disinherited (trans. Daniel Hoffman)
349
CHARLES BAUDELAIRE (1821-1867)
Correspondences (trans. Richard Howard)
350
STEPHANE MALLARME (1842-1898)
The Tomb of Poe (trans. Louis Simpson)
351
PAUL VERLAINE (1844-1896)
Night Scene (trans. Norman R. Shapiro)
351
ARTHUR RIMBAUD (1854-1891)
Voyelles (trans. F. Scott Fitzgerald)
352
RUBEN DARIO (1867-1916)
"I pursue a form that my style does not find" (trans. Will Derusha and Alberto Acereda)
352
PAUL VALERY (1871-1945)
Helen (trans. Richard Wilbur)
353
RAINER MARIA RILKE (1875-1926)
An Archaic Torso of Apollo (trans. W.D. Snodgrass)
353
ALFONSINA STORNI (1892-1938)
To My Lady of Poetry (trans. Kay Short)
354
CSAR VALLEJO (1892-1938)
Black Stone Lying on a White Stone (trans. Robert Bly and John Knoepfle)
354
ILYAS FARHAT (1893-1980)
My Burned Suit (trans. Salma Khadra Jayyusi and John Heath-Stubbs)
355
JORGE GUILLN (1893-1984)
The Horses (trans. Richard Wilbur)
355
EUGENIO MONTALE (1896-1981)
"The bangs that hide your childlike forehead" (trans. Jonathan Galassi)
356
FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA (1898-1936)
"O secret voice of dark love!" (trans. John K. Walsh and Francisco Aragon)
356
JORGE LUIS BORGES (1899-1986)
A Poet of the Thirteenth Century (trans. Alan S. Trueblood)
357
RAYMOND QUENEAU (1903-1976)
from 100,000,000,000,000 Poems ("At five precisely out went La Marquise") (trans. Stanley Chapman)
357
PABLO NERUDA (1904-1973)
from Cien sonetos de amor LXXXIX ("When I die, I want your hands on my eyes") (trans. Stephen Tapscott)
358
MIGUEL HERNANDEZ (1910-1942)
"You threw me a lemon, oh it was sour" (trans. Robert Bly)
359
ANA ENRIQUETA TERAN (1918-)
"Subtle in your fourteen lines surge" (trans. Marcel Smith)
359
YEHUDA AMICHAI (1924-2000)
A Pity. We Were Such a Good Invention (trans. Assia Gutmann)
360
PHILLIPPE JACCOTTET (1925-)
Sonnet ("Don't worry, it will come! You're drawing near") (trans. Donald Justice)
360
DAHLIA RAVIKOVITCH (1936-2005)
Clockwork Doll (trans. Chana Bloch and Ariel Bloch)
361
LAM THI MY DA (1949-)
Night Harvest (trans. Martha Collins and Thuy Dinh)
361
TEN QUESTIONS FOR A SONNET WORKSHOP 363
THE SONNET UNDER THE LAMP: A HISTORY OF COMMENTS ON A FORM 38'
Appendices
1. Suggestions for Further Reading
395
2. Biographies
398
Permissions Acknowledgments 477
Index 493