Sonnets

A sonnet is a moments monument, said Dante Gabriel Rossetti in a sonnet about sonnets. The sonnets in this collection – whether they capture moments of perception, recognition, despair or celebration – reveal how great an amount of feeling, insight and experience can be concentrated into a mere fourteen lines. Here are classics such as Miltons On His Blindness, Yeatss Leda and the Swan and Frosts The Oven Bird, juxtaposed with the mischievous wit of Rupert Brookes Sonnet Reversed, the lyric defiance of Mona Van Duyns Caring for Surfaces and the comic poignancy of Philip Larkins To Failure.

From the lovelorn laments of Dante and Petrarch to the artful heights of Sidney, Spenser and Shakespeare, from the masterpieces of Wordsworth and Keats to the innovations of Elizabeth Bishop, Wallace Stevens and James Merrill, the sonnet has proved both versatile and enduring. This delightful anthology displays the incredible range and power of the verse form that has inspired poets across the centuries.