The Penguin Book of the Sonnet
By Various
Edited by Phillis Levin
By Various
Edited by Phillis Levin
Category: Poetry | Literary Criticism
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$25.00
Nov 01, 2001 | ISBN 9780140589290
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Table Of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Proem
FRANCESCO PETRARCA (1304-1374):
from Canzoniere, 132
GEOFFREY CHAUCER (1343?-1400):
from Troilus and Criseyde,
Canticus Troili
SIR THOMAS WYATT (1503?-1542)
âThe longe love, that in my thought doeth harbarâ
âWho so list to hounte I know where is an hyndeâ
âFarewell, Love, and all thy lawes for everâ
âMy galy chargĂšd with forgetfulnesâ
âI find no peace, and all my war is doneâ
HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF SURREY (1517?-1547)âThe soote season, that bud and blome furth bringesâ
âAlas, so all thinges nowe doe holde their peaceâ
âI never saw you, madam, lay apartâ
âLove that liveth and reigneth in my thoughtâ
ANNE LOCKE (1533?-1595)
from A Meditation of a Penitent Sinner: Written in maner of a Paraphrase upon the 51 Psalme of David
âLoe prostrate, Lorde, before thy face I lyeâ
âBut render me my wonted joyes againeâ
GEORGE GASCOIGNE (1539-1578)
âThat self-same tongue which first did thee entreatâ
A Sonet written in prayse of the browne beautie
GILES FLETCHER THE ELDER (1549?-1611)
from Licia or Poems of Love
20. âFirst did I fear, when first my love beganâ
EDMUND SPENSER (1552?-1599)
from Amoretti
1. âHappy ye leaves when as those lilly handsâ
8. âMore then most faire, full of the living fireâ
18. âThe rolling wheele that runneth often roundâ
22. âThis holy season fit to fast and prayâ
23. âPenelope for her Ulissesâ sakeâ
30. âMy love is lyke to yse, and I to fyreâ
37. âWhat guyle is this, that those her golden tressesâ
45. âLeave, lady, in your glasse of christall cleneâ
67. âLyke as a huntsman after weary chaceâ
68. âMost glorious Lord of lyfe that on this dayâ
71. âI joy to see how in your drawen workâ
75. âOne day I wrote her name upon the strandâ
78. âLackyng my love I go from place to placeâ
79. âMen call you fayre, and you doe credit itâ
81. âFayre is my love, when her fayre golden hearesâ
FULKE GREVILLE, LORD BROOKE (1554-1628)
from CĂŠlica
38. âCĂŠlica, I overnight was finely usedâ
39. âThe nurse-life wheat, within his green husk growingâ
100. âIn night when colours all to black are castâ
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY (1554-1586)
from The Countess of Pembrokeâs Arcadia
âMy true love hath my hart, and I have hisâ
from Astrophel and Stella
1. âLoving in truth, and faine in verse my love to showâ
3. âLet daintie wits crie on the Sisters nineâ
5. âIt is most true that eyes are formâd to serveâ
31. âWith how sad steps, O Moone, thou climbâst the skiesâ
37.âMy mouth doth water, and my breast doth swellâ
39. âCome sleepe, O sleepe, the certaine knot of peaceâ
41. âHaving this day my horse, my hand, my launceâ
47. âWhat, have I thus betrayed my libertie?â
49. âI on my horse, and Love on me doth trieâ
54. âBecause I breathe not love to everie oneâ
63. âO Grammer rules, O now your vertues showâ
71. âWho will in fairest booke of Nature knowâ
73. âLove still a boy, and oft a wanton isâ
90. âStella, thinke not that I by verse seeke fameâ
from Certaine Sonnets
âLeave me, O Love, which reachest but to dustâ
SIR WALTER RALEGH (1554?-1618)
A vision upon This Conceipt of the Faery Queene
âA secret murder hath been done of lateâ
To His Son
THOMAS LODGE (1558-1625)
from Phillis: Honoured with Pastorall Sonnets, Elegies, and amorous delights
35. âI hope and feare, I pray and hould my peaceâ
GEORGE CHAPMAN (1559?-1634)
from A Coronet for his Mistress Philosophy
1. âMuses that sing Loveâs sensual emperyâ
HENRY CONSTABLE (1562-1613)
from Diana
âNeeds must I leave, and yet needs must I loveâ
MARK ALEXANDER BOYD (1563-1601)
Sonet (âFra banc to banc, fra wod to wod, I rinâ)
SAMUEL DANIEL (1563-1619)
from To Delia
34. âLooke, Delia, how wee steeme the half-blowne Roseâ
49. âCare-charmer Sleepe, sonne of the sable Nightâ
50. âLet others sing of Knights and Palladinesâ
MICHAEL DRAYTON (1563-1631)
from Idea in Sixtie Three Sonnets
5. âNothing but No and I, and I and Noâ
6. âHow many paltry, foolish, painted thingsâ
7. âLove, in a Humor, playâd the Prodigallâ
15. His Remedie for Love
38. âSitting alone, Love bids me goe and writeâ
61. âSince therâs no helpe, Come let us kisse and partâ
JOHN DAVIES OF HEREFORD (C. 1563?-1618)
âSome blaze the precious beauties of their lovesâ
âAlthough we do not all the good we loveâ
The author loving these homely meats specially, viz.: cream, pancakes, buttered pippin-pies, &c.
CHARLES BEST (D. 1602)
Of the Moon
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)
from Loveâs Labourâs Lost
âDid not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eyeâ
from Romeo and Juliet
âIf I profane with my unworthiest handâ
from Sonnets
1. âFrom fairest creatures we desire increaseâ
3. âLook in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewestâ
13. âO, that you were yourself, but, love, you areâ
18. âShall I compare thee to a summerâs day?â
19. âDevouring Time, blunt thou the lionâs pawsâ
20. âA womanâs face, with Natureâs own hand paintedâ
24. âMine eye hath played the painter and hath stelledâ
27. âWeary with toil, I haste me to my bedâ
29. âWhen, in disgrace with Fortune and menâs eyesâ
53. âWhat is your substance, whereof are you madeâ
55. âNot marble nor the gilded monumentsâ
57. âBeing your slave, what should I do but tendâ
60. âLike as the waves make towards the pebbled shoreâ
65. âSince brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless seaâ
71. âNo longer mourn for me when I am deadâ
73. âThat time of year thou mayst in me beholdâ
94. âThey that have powâr to hurt and will do noneâ
105. âLet not my love be called idolatryâ
106. âWhen in the chronicle of wasted timeâ
116. âLet me not to the marriage of true mindsâ
127. âIn the old age black was not counted fairâ
128. âHow oft, when thou, my music, music playâstâ
129. âThâ expense of spirit in a waste of shameâ
130. âMy mistressâ eyes are nothing like the sunâ
134. âSo, now I have confessed that he is thineâ
138. âWhen my love swears that she is made of truthâ
141. âIn faith, I do not love thee with mine eyesâ
144. âTwo loves I have, of comfort and despairâ
146. âPoor soul, the center of my sinful earthâ
147. âMy love is as a fever, longing stillâ
151. âLove is too young to know what conscience isâ
JAMES I (1566-1625)
An Epitaph on Sir Philip Sidney
SIR JOHN DAVIES (1569-1626)
from Gullinge Sonnets
5. âMine Eye, myne eare, my will, my witt, my harteâ
âIf you would know the love which I you bearâ
JOHN DONNE (1572-1631)
La Corona
1. âDeign at my hands this crown of prayer and praiseâ
2. Annunciation
3. Nativity
4. Temple
5. Crucifying
6. Resurrection
7. Ascension
from Holy Sonnets
1. âThou hast made me, and shall thy work decayâ
5. âI am a little world made cunninglyâ
6. âThis is my playâs last scene, here heavens appointâ
7. âAt the round earthâs imagined corners, blowâ
10. âDeath be not proud, though some have called theeâ
13. âWhat if this present were the worldâs last night?â
14. âBatter my heart, three-personed God; for, youâ
18. âShow me dear Christ, thy spouse, so bright and clearâ
19. âOh, to vex me, contraries meet in oneâ
Sonnet. The Token
BEN JONSON (1572?-1637)
A Sonnet to the Noble Lady, the Lady Mary Wroth
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY (1583-1648)
âSonnet to Black It Selfâ
WILLIAM DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORNDEN (1585-1649)
âI know that all beneath the moon decaysâ
âSleep, Silenceâ child, sweet father of soft restâ
LADY MARY WROTH (1587?-1652?)
from Pamphilia to Amphilanthus
A crowne of Sonetts dedicated to Love
ROBERT HERRICK (1591-1674)
To his mistress objecting to him neither toying nor talking
To his ever-loving God
GEORGE HERBERT (1593-1633)
Two Sonnets Sent to His Mother, New-Year 1609/10
Redemption
Prayer
Love (I)
The Sonne
The H. Scriptures (I)
The H. Scriptures (II)
JOHN MILTON (1608-1674)
O Nightingale!
How Soon Hath Time
To Mr. H. Lawes, On His Airs
On the Detraction Which Followed Upon My Writing Certain Treatises
On the New Forcers of Conscience Under the Long Parliament
To the Lord General Cromwell
On the Late Massacre in Piedmont
âWhen I consider how my light is spentâ
âMethought I saw my late espousĂšd Saintâ
CHARLES COTTON (1630-1687)
Resolution in Four Sonnets, of a Poetical Question Put to Me by a Friend, Concerning Four Rural Sisters
THOMAS GRAY (1716-1771)
On the Death of Mr. Richard West
THOMAS WARTON, THE YOUNGER (1728-1790)
To the River Lodon
ANNA SEWARD (1747-1809)
To Mr. Henry Cary, on the Publication of His Sonnets
CHARLOTTE SMITH (1749-1806)
To the Moon
To Sleep
Written Near a Port on a Dark Evening
WILLIAM BLAKE (1757-1827)
To the Evening Star
ROBERT BURNS (1759-1796)
A Sonnet upon Sonnets
THOMAS RUSSELL (1762-1788)
To the Spider
ELIZABETH COBBOLD (1767-1824)
from Sonnets of Laura
I. Reproach
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770-1850)
âNuns fret not at their conventâs narrow roomâ
Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802
âThe world is too much with us; late and soonâ
âIt is a beauteous evening, calm and freeâ
from Sonnets Dedicated to Liberty
To Toussaint LâOuverture
London, 1802
âIt is no Spirit who from heaven hath flownâ
âSurprised by joy-impatient as the windâ
from The River Duddon, A Series of Sonnets (1820)
III. âHow shall I paint thee?-Be this naked stoneâ
from Ecclesiastical Sonnets in Series (1822)
47. âWhy sleeps the future, as a snake enrolledâ
âScorn not the Sonnet; critic, you have frownedâ
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE (1772-1834)
To the River Otter
To Nature
To a Friend, Who Asked How I Felt, When the Nurse First Presented My Infant to Me
Work Without Hope
ROBERT SOUTHEY (1774-1843)
from Poems on the Slave Trade
VI. âHigh in the air exposed the slave is hungâ
To a Goose
CHARLES LAMB (1775-1834)
The Family Name
JOSEPH BLANCO WHITE (1775-1841)
To Night
HORACE SMITH (1779-1849)
Ozymandias
EBENEZER ELLIOTT (1781-1849)
âIn these days, every motherâs son or daughterâ
MARTHA HANSON (FL. 1809)
âHow proudly Man usurps the power to reignâ
MARY F. JOHNSON (FL. 1810 D. 1863)
The Idiot Girl
LEIGH HUNT (1784-1859)
To the Grasshopper and the Cricket
GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON (1788-1824)
On Chillon
âRousseau-Voltaire-our Gibbon-and de StaĂ«lâ
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY (1792-1822)
To Wordsworth
Feelings of a Republican on the Fall of Bonaparte
Ozymandias
England in 1819
Ode to the West Wind
JOHN CLARE (1793-1864)
To Wordsworth
Henâs Nest
To John Clare
The Happy Bird
The Thrushâs Nest
JOHN KEATS (1795-1821)
On First Looking into Chapmanâs Homer
To My Brothers
âGreat spirits now on earth are sojourningâ
On the Grasshopper and Cricket
âWhen I have fears that I may cease to beâ
To Homer
âBright star, would I were stedfast as thou artâ
Sonnet to Sleep
âIf by dull rhymes our English must be chainâdâ
âI cry your mercy-pity-love!-aye, loveâ
HARTLEY COLERIDGE (1796-1849)
To a Friend
âLet me not deem that I was made in vainâ
âThink upon Death, âtis good to think of Deathâ
THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES (1803-1849)
To Night
A Crocodile
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING (1806-1861)
Finite and Infinite
from Sonnets from the Portuguese
I. âI thought once how Theocritus had sungâ
VII. âThe face of all the world is changed, I thinkâ
XIII. âAnd wilt thou have me fashion into speechâ
XVIII. âI never gave a lock of hair awayâ
XLII. âHow do I love thee? Let me count the waysâ
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882)
Chaucer
The Cross of Snow
CHARLES TENNYSON TURNER (1808-1879)
Lettyâs Globe
On the Eclipse of the Moon of October 1865
EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849)
To Science
ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON (1809-1892)
âIf I were loved, as I desire to beâ
âMine be the strength of spirit fierce and freeâ
ROBERT BROWNING (1812-1889)
Why I Am a Liberal
JONES VERY (1813-1880)
Yourself
AUBREY THOMAS DE VERE (1814-1902)
The Sun God
GEORGE ELIOT (1819-1880)
from Brother and Sister
I. âI cannot choose but think upon the timeâ
XI. âSchool parted us; we never found againâ
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL (1819-1891)
The Street
FREDERICK GODDARD TUCKERMAN (1821-1873)
from Sonnets, First Series
10. âAn upper chamber in a darkened houseâ
28. âNot the round natural world, not the deep mindâ
from Sonnets, Second Series
7. âHis heart was in his garden; but his brainâ
29. âHow oft in schoolboy-days, from the schoolâs swayâ
MATTHEW ARNOLD (1822-1888)
Shakespeare
West London
SYDNEY DOBELL (1824-1874)
The Army Surgeon
GEORGE MEREDITH (1828-1909)
from Modern Love
I. âBy this he knew she wept with waking eyesâ
XVII. âAt dinner, she is hostess, I am hostâ
XXX. âWhat are we first? First, animals; and nextâ
XXXIV. âMadam would speak with me. So, now it comesâ
XLVII. âWe saw the swallows gathering in the skyâ
XLIX. âHe found her by the oceanâs moaning vergeâ
L. âThus piteously Love closed what he begatâ
Lucifer in Starlight
DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI (1828-1882)
from The House of Life
Introductory Sonnet
XV. The Birth-Bond
XIX. Silent Noon
LIII. Without Her
LXXXIII. Barren Spring
XCVII. A Superscription
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI (1830-1894)
Rest
In an Artistâs Studio
from The Thread of Life
âThus am I mine own prison. Everythingâ
ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE (1837-1909)
Cor Cordium
On the Russian Persecution of the Jews
THOMAS HARDY (1840-1928)Hap
She, to Him (I)
She, to Him (II)
In the Old Theatre, Fiesole (April 1887)
At a Lunar Eclipse
A Church Romance
Over the Coffin
We Are Getting to the End
ROBERT BRIDGES (1844-1930)
âWhile yet we wait for spring, and from the dryâ
GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS (1844-1889)
Godâs Grandeur
âAs kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flameâ
Spring
The Windhover
Pied Beauty
The Caged Skylark
Peace
Felix Randal
âI wake and feel the fell of dark, not dayâ
âNo worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of griefâ
âNot, Iâll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on theeâ
That Nature Is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection
âThou art indeed just, Lord, if I contendâ
To R. B.
EUGENE LEE-HAMILTON (1845-1907)
from Imaginary Sonnets
Luther to a Bluebottle Fly (1540)
ALICE CHRISTINA MEYNELL (1847-1922)
To a Daisy
EMMA LAZARUS (1849-1887)
The New Colossus
OSCAR WILDE (1856-1900)
On the sale by auction of Keatsâ love letters
HĂ©las
FRANCIS THOMPSON (1859-1907)
Allâs Vast
W. B. YEATS (1865-1939)
The Folly of Being Comforted
The Fascination of Whatâs Difficult
At the Abbey Theater
âWhile I, from that reed-throated whispererâ
Leda and the Swan
Meru
A Crazed Girl
High Talk
ERNEST DOWSON (1867-1900)
A Last Word
EDWARD ARLINGTON ROBINSON (1869-1935)
Firelight
Calvary
Cliff Klingenhagen
Reuben Bright
Credo
Sonnet (âThe master and the slave go hand in handâ)
The Sheaves
JAMES WELDON JOHNSON (1871-1938)
Mother Night
PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR (1872-1906)
Robert Gould Shaw
Douglass
AMY LOWELL (1874-1925)
To John Keats
TRUMBULL STICKNEY (1874-1904)
âBe still. The Hanging Gardens were a dreamâ
Six OâClock
RUPERT BROOKE (1875-1915)
The Hill
Clouds
A Memory
from 1914
The Soldier
ALICE DUNBAR-NELSON (1875-1935)
Sonnet (âI had no thought of violets of lateâ)
ROBERT FROST (1875-1963)
A Dream Pang
Mowing
Meeting and Passing
Hyla Brook
The Oven Bird
Range-Finding
Acquainted with the Night
Design
The Silken Tent
Never Again Would Birdsâ Song Be the Same
EDWARD THOMAS (1878-1917)
Some Eyes Condemn
February Afternoon
EZRA POUND (1885-1972)
A Virginal
ELINOR WYLIE (1885-1928)
from Wild Peaches
1. âWhen the world turns completely upside downâ
2. âThe autumn frosts will lie upon the grassâ
Sonnet (âWhen, in the dear beginning of the feverâ)
A Lodging for the Night
SIEGFRIED SASSOON (1886-1967)
Dreamers
Glory of Women
On Passing the New Menin Gate
ROBINSON JEFFERS (1887-1962)
Love the Wild Swan
MARIANNE MOORE (1887-1972)
No Swan So Fine
EDWIN MUIR (1887-1959)
Milton
T. S. ELIOT (1888-1965)
from The Dry Salvages
JOHN CROWE RANSOM (1888-1974)
Piazza Piece
CLAUDE MCKAY (1890-1948)
If We Must Die
The Harlem Dancer
America
ARCHIBALD MACLEISH (1892-1983)
The End of the World
Aeterna Poetae Memoria
EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY (1892-1950)
âThou art not lovelier than lilacs,-noâ
âTime does not bring relief; you all have liedâ
âIf I should learn, in some quite casual wayâ
âOh, think not I am faithful to a vowâ
âPity me not because the light of dayâ
âI shall go back again to the bleak shoreâ
âI, being born a woman and distressedâ
âWhat lips my lips have kissed, and where, and whyâ
âStill will I harvest beauty where it growsâ
from Fatal Interview (1931)
II. âThis beast that rends me in the sight of allâ
VII. âNight is my sister, and how deep in loveâ
XX. âThink not, nor for a moment let your mindâ
XXX. âLove is not all: it is not meat nor drinkâ
âI will put Chaos into fourteen linesâ
âRead history: so learn your place in Timeâ
from Epitaph for the Race of Man (1934)
V. âWhen Man is gone and only gods remainâ
WILFRED OWEN (1893-1918)
Anthem for Doomed Youth
Dulce et Decorum Est
Futility
DOROTHY PARKER (1893-1967)
âI Shall Come Backâ
e. e. cummings (1894-1962)
âwhen thou hast taken thy last applause,and whenâ
âmy girlâs tall with hard long eyesâ
âit is at moments after i have dreamedâ
âit may not always be so;and i sayâ
from Sonnets-Actualities
I. âwhen my love comes to see me itâsâ
II. âit is funny,you will be dead some dayâ
VII. âyours is the music for no instrumentâ
X. âa thing most new complete fragile intenseâ
XII. âmy love is building a buildingâ
âi like my body when it is with yourâ
â ânext to of course god america iâ
âif i have made,my lady,intricateâ
âi carry your heart with me(i carry it inâ
JEAN TOOMER (1894-1967)
November Cotton Flower
ROBERT GRAVES (1895-1985)
History of the Word
EDMUND BLUNDEN (1896-1974)
Vlamertinghe: Passing the Chateau, July 1917
LOUISE BOGAN (1897-1970)
Fifteenth Farewell
Simple Autumnal
Sonnet (âDark, underground, is furnished with the boneâ)
Single Sonnet
Musician
HART CRANE (1899-1932)
To Emily Dickinson
ALLEN TATE (1899-1979)
from Sonnets at Christmas
2. âAh, Christ, I love you rings to the wild skyâ
YVOR WINTERS (1900-1968)
To Emily Dickinson
ROY CAMPBELL (1901-1957)
Luis de CamÔes
COUNTEE CULLEN (1903-1946)
Yet Do I Marvel
At the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem
EDWIN DENBY (1903-1983)
Air
MERRILL MOORE (1903-1957)
They Also Stand . . .
PATRICK KAVANAUGH (1904-1967)
Canal Bank Walk
PHYLLIS MCGINLEY (1905-1978)
Evening Musicale
ELLIOTT COLEMAN (1906-1980)
from Oedipus Sonnets
3. âIn a May evening, commuter, kingâ
W. H. AUDEN (1907-1973)
Whoâs Who
Our Bias
Montaigne
Rimbaud
Brussels in Winter
from The Quest: A Sonnet Sequence
The Door
from In Time of War
XII. âAnd the age ended, and the last deliverer diedâ
XXVII. âWandering lost upon the mountains of our choiceâ
LOUIS MACNEICE (1907-1963)
Sunday Morning
MALCOLM LOWRY (1909-1957)
Delirium in Vera Cruz
JAMES REEVES (B. 1909)
Leaving Town
STEPHEN SPENDER (1909-1995)
âWithout that once clear aim, the path of flightâ
ELIZABETH BISHOP (1911-1979)
The Prodigal
Sonnet (âCaught-the bubbleâ)
GEORGE BARKER (1913-1991)
To My Mother
ROBERT HAYDEN (1913-1980)
Those Winter Sundays
Frederick Douglass
MURIEL RUKEYSER (1913-1980)
On the Death of Her Mother
DELMORE SCHWARTZ (1913-1966)
The Beautiful American Word, Sure
JOHN BERRYMAN (1914-1972)
from Berrymanâs Sonnets (1967)
7. âIâve found out why, that day, that suicideâ
15. âWhat was Ashore, then? . . Cargoed with Forgetâ
36. âKeep your eyes open when you kiss: do: whenâ
107. âDarling I wait O in my upstairs boxâ
115. âAll we were going strong last night this timeâ
WELDON KEES (1914-1955)
For My Daughter
WILLIAM STAFFORD (1914-1993)
Time
DYLAN THOMAS (1914-1953)
Among Those Killed in the Dawn Raid Was a Man Aged a Hundred
MARGARET WALKER (1915-1998)
Childhood
For Malcolm X
GWENDOLYN BROOKS (1917-2000)
from The Children of the Poor
1. âPeople who have no children can be hardâ
4. âFirst fight. Then fiddle. Ply the slipping stringâ
from Gay Chaps at the Bar
gay chaps at the bar
still do I keep my look, my identity . . .
my dreams, my works, must wait till after hell
piano after war
the progress
CHARLES CAUSLEY (B. 1917)
Autobiography
ROBERT LOWELL (1917-1977)
History
Words for Hart Crane
Ezra Pound
Robert Frost
Fishnet
Dolphin
WILLIAM MEREDITH (B. 1919)
The Illiterate
AMY CLAMPITT (1920-1994)
The Cormorant in Its Element
HOWARD NEMEROV (1920-1991)
A Primer of the Daily Round
HAYDEN CARRUTH (B. 1921)
from Sonnets
2. âHow is it, tell me, that this new self can beâ
3. âLast night, I donât know if from habit or intentâ
4. âWhile you stood talking at the counter, cuttingâ
5. âFrom our very high window at the Sheratonâ
Sonnet (âWell, she told me I had an aura. âWhat?â I saidâ)
Late Sonnet
MARIE PONSOT (B. 1921)
Out of Eden
Call
RICHARD WILBUR (B. 1921)
Praise in Summer
PHILIP LARKIN (1922-1985)
âLove, we must part now: do not let it beâ
ANTHONY HECHT (B. 1923)
Double Sonnet
The Feast of Stephen
JANE COOPER (B. 1924)
Praise
DONALD JUSTICE (B. 1925)
The Wall
Mrs. Snow
Henry James by the Pacific
JAMES K. BAXTER (1926-1972)
from Jerusalem Sonnets
1. âThe small gray cloudy louse that nests in my beardâ
JAMES MERRILL (1926-1995)
Marsyas
Last Words
W. D. SNODGRASS (B. 1926)
Mhâ tiV . . . OuâtiV
JOHN ASHBERY (B. 1927)
Rain Moving In
W. S. MERWIN (B. 1927)
Epitaph on Certain Schismatics
Substance
JAMES WRIGHT (1927-1980)
Saint Judas
My Grandmotherâs Ghost
DONALD HALL (B. 1928)
President and Poet
PHILIP LEVINE (B. 1928)
Llanto
THOM GUNN (B. 1929)
First Meeting with a Possible Mother-in-Law
Keats at Highgate
JOHN HOLLANDER (B. 1929)
from Powers of Thirteen
âJust the right number of letters-half the alphabetâ
âThat other time of day when the chiming of Thirteenâ
from The Mad Potter
âClay to clay: Soon I shall indeed becomeâ
ADRIENNE RICH (B. 1929)
from Contradictions: Tracking Poems
1. âLook: this is January the worst onslaughtâ
14. âLately in my dreams I hear long sentencesâ
18. âThe problem, unstated till now, is howâ
Final Notations
DEREK WALCOTT (B. 1930)
Homage to Edward Thomas
GEOFFREY HILL (B. 1932)
September Song
Funeral Music
SYLVIA PLATH (1932-1963)
Mayflower
JOHN UPDIKE (B. 1932)
Island Cities
TED BERRIGAN (1934-1983)
from The Sonnets
III. âStronger than alcohol, more great than songâ
JEAN VALENTINE (B. 1934)
Rain
ROBERT MEZEY (B. 1935)
Hardy
GRACE SCHULMAN (B. 1935)
The Abbess of Whitby
CHARLES WRIGHT (B. 1935)
Composition in Grey and Pink
JUNE JORDAN (B. 1936)
Sunflower Sonnet Number Two
JUDITH RODRIGUEZ (B. 1936)
In-flight Note
FREDERICK SEIDEL (B. 1936)
Elms
JOHN FULLER (B. 1937)
from Lily and Violin
6. âAfterwards we may not speak: piled chordsâ
TONY HARRISON (B. 1937)
from Fom The School of Eloquence
On Not Being Milton
LES MURRAY (B. 1938)
Comete
CHARLES SIMIC (B. 1938)
History
DICK ALLEN (B. 1939)
Lost Love
FRANK BIDART (B. 1939)
Self-Portrait, 1969
SEAMUS HEANEY (B. 1939)
The Forge
Act of Union
The Seed Cutters
A Dream of Jealousy
from Clearances
II. âPolished linoleum shone there. Brass taps shoneâ
III. âWhen all the others were away at Massâ
STANLEY PLUMLY (B. 1939)
from Boy on the Step
1. âHeâs out of breath only halfway up the hillâ
5. âNone of us dies entirely-some of us, allâ
BILLY COLLINS (B. 1941)
American Sonnet
Duck/Rabbit
Sonnet (âAll we need is fourteen lines, well, thirteen nowâ)
DOUGLAS DUNN (B. 1942)
France
MARILYN HACKER (B. 1942)
Sonnet (âLove drives its rackety blue caravanâ)
from Love, Death, and the Changing of the Seasons
âDid you love well what very soon you leftâ
from Cancer Winter
âSyllables shaped around the darkening dayâsâ
âI woke up, and the surgeon said, âYouâre curedâ â
âThe odd and even numbers of the streetâ
âAt noon, an orderly wheeled me upstairsâ
DAVID HUDDLE (B. 1942)
from Tour of Duty
Words
from Album
Coda
ANN LAUTERBACH (B. 1942)
Aperture
CHARLES MARTIN (B. 1942)
Easter Sunday, 1985
from Making Faces
II. The End of the World
The Philosopherâs Balloon
WILLIAM MATTHEWS (1942-1997)
Vermin
HENRY TAYLOR (B. 1942)
Green Springs the Tree
LOUISE GLĂCK (B. 1943)
Snowdrops
ELLEN BRYANT VOIGT (B. 1943)
from Kyrie
âDear Mattie, Youâre sweet to write me every dayâ
âWhen does a childhood end? Mothersâ
âThis is the double bed where sheâd been bornâ
âOnce the world had had its fill of warâ
EAVAN BOLAND (B. 1944)
Yeats in Civil War
The Singers
Heroic
J. D. MCCLATCHY (B. 1945)
My Mammogram
LEON STOKESBURY (B. 1945)
To His Book
STAR BLACK (B. 1946)
Rilkeâs Letter from Rome
Personals
MARILYN NELSON (B. 1946)
Balance
Chosen
Chopin
BRUCE SMITH (B. 1946)
from In My Fatherâs House
O My Invisible Estate
MOLLY PEACOCK (B. 1947)
The Lull
Desire
Instead of Her Own
The Purr
The Hunt
HUGH SEIDMAN (B. 1947)
14 First Sentences
FLOYD SKLOOT (B. 1947)
My Daughter Considers Her Body
RACHEL HADAS (B. 1948)
Moments of Summer
DAVID LEHMAN (B. 1948)
Sonnet (âNo roof so poor it does not shelterâ)
TIMOTHY STEELE (B. 1948)
Summer
AGHA SHAHID ALI (B. 1949)
from I Dream I Am the Only Passenger on Flight 423 to Srinagar,
âand when we-as if from ashes-ascendâ
âAttar-of jasmine? What was it she woreâ
DENIS JOHNSON (B. 1949)
Sway
Passengers
SHEROD SANTOS (B. 1949)
Married Love
JULIA ALVAREZ (B. 1950)
from 33
âWhere are the girls who were so beautifulâ
âLetâs make a modern primer for our kidsâ
âEver have an older lover say: Godâ
âSecretly I am building in the heartâ
DANA GIOIA (B. 1950)
Sunday Night in Santa Rosa
T. R. HUMMER (B. 1950)
The Rural Carrier Stops to Kill a Nine-Foot Cottonmouth
MEDBH MCGUCKIAN (B. 1950)
Still Life of Eggs
PAUL MULDOON (B. 1951)
Why Brownlee Left
Holy Thursday
October 1950
RITA DOVE (B. 1952)
Hadesâ Pitch
Sonnet in Primary Colors
MARK JARMAN (B. 1952)
from Unholy Sonnets
2. âWhich is the one, which of the imps insideâ
9. âSomeone is always praying as the planeâ
14. âIn via est cisternaâ
ELIZABETH MACKLIN (B. 1952)
I Fail to Speak to My Earth, My Desire
Foolishly Halved, I See You
TOM SLEIGH (B. 1953)
The Very End
Eclipse
from The Work
4. The God
ROSANNA WARREN (B. 1953)
Necrophiliac
DAVID WOJAHN (B. 1953)
from Mystery Train: A Sequence
1. Homage: Light from the Hall
2. Buddy Holly Watching Rebel Without a Cause, Lubbock, Texas, 1956
DAVID BAKER (B. 1954)
Top of the Stove
BRUCE BOND (B. 1954)
Isaac
PHILLIS LEVIN (B. 1954)
Final Request
JAMES MCCORKLE (B. 1954)
Deer at the Corner of the House
JOHN BURNSIDE (B. 1955)
The Myth of the Twin
CAROL ANN DUFFY (B. 1955)
Prayer
ROBIN ROBERTSON (B. 1955)
Wedding the Locksmithâs Daughter
APRIL BERNARD (B. 1956)
Sonnet in E
HENRI COLE (B. 1956)
Chiffon Morning
ANNIE FINCH (B. 1956)
My Raptor
KARL KIRCHWEY (B. 1956)
Zoo Story
In Transit
DEBORAH LASER (B. 1956)
from Between Two Gardens
âNight shares this day with me, is the rumpledâ
JACQUELINE OSHEROW (B. 1956)
Sonnet for a Single Day in Autumn
Yom Kippur Sonnet, with a Line from Lamentations
JAMES LASDUN (B. 1958)
Powder Compact
Plague Years
KATE LIGHT (B. 1960)
Reading Someone Elseâs Love Poems
Your Unconscious Speaks to My Unconscious
And Then There Is That Incredible Moment,
JOE BOLTON (1961-1990)
from Style
II. âI was surprised to find how light I feltâ
SASCHA FEINSTEIN (B. 1963)
from Sonnets for Stan Gage (1945-1992)
âFloodlight shadow. Your shoes are strokingâ
âWith young people the heart keeps beating evenâ
RAFAEL CAMPO (B. 1964)
The Mental Status Exam
MIKE NELSON (B. 1967)
Light Sonnet for the Lover of a Dark
DANIEL GUTSTEIN (B. 1968)
What Can Disappear
BETH ANN FENNELLY (B. 1971)
Poem Not to Be Read at Your Wedding
JASON SCHNEIDERMAN (B. 1976)
The Disease Collector
Appendix: The Architecture of a Sonnet
Explanatory Notes
Suggestions for Further Reading
Biographical Notes
Index of Authors
Index of Titles and First Lines