An essential anthology of favorite classics, hidden treasures, and iconic contemporary examples of this always vital and exciting poetic form.

In his introduction to the selection of some of the greatest sonnets ever written, Paul Muldoon reminds us that part of the reason for the "resilience" of the sonnet is its "very specific length." It is the perfect size for what Dante Gabriel Rossetti described as a "monument of a moment" or William Wordsworth as a "dark patch of earth" that offers "brief comfort" to those who "have felt the weight of excessive freedom."

Among the poets included in this comprehensive edition are Elizabeth Bishop, Wanda Coleman, John Donne, Terrance Hayes, John Keats, Claude McKay, Edna St Vincent Millay, Christina Rossetti, William Shakespeare, Patricia Smith, and W. B. Yeats. It also features Muldoon's translations of sonnets by Charles Baudelaire, Rainer Maria Rilke, César Vallejo, and a sharp collaboration of Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud.

Pages: 192, Dimensions: 13.8x13.8cm