The Making of a Sonnet: A Norton Anthology

An enlightening, celebratory anthology of the most classic and enduring of forms by two major poets.

This illuminating anthology of five and a half centuries of the sonnet follows the form through its various moments and makers. The editors, poets themselves, pay particular attention to the way in which the sonnet thrived or waned over the centuries. They also focus on the way in which individual poets claimed these fourteen lines: lengthened them, shortened them, elaborated on them, and were in turn defined by them. Three sections—“The Sonnet in the Mirror,” “The Sonnet Goes to Different Lengths,” and “The Sonnet Around the World”—show the extraordinary durability of this form and the ways in which poets have proved ingenious at reinventing it. Along with approximately three hundred sonnets and a “sonnet workshop,” the editors pay particular attention to the craft and history of the form following it through its various adventures, right up to its extraordinary resurgence in contemporary poetry.