The Making Of A Sonnet: A Norton Anthology

An enlightening, celebratory anthology of the most classic and enduring of forms edited by two major poets.
This illuminating anthology follows the sonnet through its various moments and makers over five and a half centuries. Edward Hirsch and Eavan Boland, two of our foremost poets, focus on the form's chronological vicissitudes, paying particular attention to how individual poets--from Shakespeare to Strand--have claimed these fourteen lines: lengthened them, shortened them, elaborated on them, and, in turn, been defined by them. Three sections--"The Sonnet in the Mirror," "The Sonnet Goes to Different Lengths," and "The Sonnet Around the World"--show the form's extraordinary durability and its reinventions. The collection opens with personal introductions by the editors, and, in the appendix, they provide "Ten Questions for a Sonnet Workshop" to jump-start a conversation between students and teachers. With more than three hundred poems, "The Making of a Sonnet" guides readers through a vigorous history of the form's adventures in craft and practice, right up to its extraordinary resurgence in contemporary poetry.