Sunday Sonnet

Today’s poem is by novelist & poet & librettist Janet Loxley Lewis, born in Chicago, Illinois in 1899 & died in Los Altos, California in 1998. According to The Poetry Foundation, she considered poetry “superior” to prose. Her first book was published in 1922 & she was publishing into the 1990s.

I have been to the place she describes in this poem, alas, all too briefly.

References

Lewis, Janet. “Carmel Highlands”. The Making of a Sonnet: A Norton Anthology. Edited by Edward Hirsch & Eavan Boland. NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2008. poem can be found on page 207.

The Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/janet-loxley-lewis

Sunday Sonnet

Today’s poem is from The Art of the Sonnet, edited by Stephen Burt & David Mikics. This is the book that made me want to write nothing but sonnets.

I am sure that you have heard of Rita Dove. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1987; she was the United States Poet Laureate from 1993-1995; and the the Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia from 2004-2006, as well as winning numerous other awards & accolades. She currently teaches at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville.

She has been one of my favorite poets for many years.

References.

Dove, Rita. “Party Dress for a First Born.” The Art of the Sonnet. edited by Stephen Burt & David Mikics. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010. poem is found on page 377.

Sunday Sonnet

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted a Sunday Sonnet … I apologize. Today’s poem is by Hartley Coleridge, the son of the much more famous poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

I admit that I found this poem simply by opening The Penguin Book of the Sonnet & there was the poem. Somewhat like bibliomancy. I had never read this poem before; indeed, I had never heard of Hartley Coleridge, although I am a great fan of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Here is the poem:

References.

Coleridge, Hartley. “To A Friend”. The Penguin Book of the Sonnet: 500 Years of a Classic Tradition in English. Edited by Phillis Levin. NY: Penguin Books, 2001. poem found on page 114.

Sunday Sonnet

Today’s poem is from the second edition of the Feminist classic, No More Masks! : An Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Women Poets, edited by Florence Howe. This is a updated version of the 1973 edition of No More Masks! but with many more poets featured; however, some of the fine feminist poets found in the 1973 declined to be included in the second edition.

I chose a poem that wasn’t in the first edition. This is by Alice Ruth Moore Dunbar-Nelson, who lived from 1875 to 1935 & who was married to the poet Paul Dunbar-Nelson. They were both prominent in the Harlem Renaissance.

References

Dunbar-Nelson, Alice Ruth Moore. “To Marie Curie”. No More Masks! : An Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Women Poets. Edited & with an Introduction by Florence Howe. NY: HarperPerennial, 1993. Poem is found on page 16.

Sunday Sonnet

Still getting settled in my new home but I’m able to start back with some of my regular posts again. Here’s a poem by John Keats from The Penguin Book of the Sonnet.

references

Keats, John. “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer”. The Penguin Book of the Sonnet: 500 Years of a Classic Tradition in English. Edited by Phyllis Levin. NY: Penguin Books, 2001. Poem found on page 109.

Sunday Sonnet

I’m pulling today’s poem from an entirely different book & from an unheard voice, as far as Sunday Sonnet is concerned.

Back when I was an English Major at the State University of New York at Buffalo (UB), I took a wonderful survey class about English Romanticism. Naturally, we studied John Keats.

This is the book we used:

I had a really nice time reading through this today! You can get lost in a book like this.

Here’s today’s sonnet:

References.

Keats, John. “Sonnet. On the Sea.” Keat’s Poetry and Prose. Selected and Edited by Jeffrey N. Cox. New York: W.W.Norton & Company, 2009. poem is found on page 79.

Sunday Sonnet

Today’s poem is by Paul Valéry, a French poet, essayist & philosopher. This was translated by the poet & translator Richard Wilbur. From The Making of a Sonnet: A Norton Anthology.

References.

Valéry, Paul. “Helen”. translated by Richard Wilbur. The Making of a Sonnet: A Norton Anthology. Edited by Edward Hirsch & Eavan Boland. NY: W.W.Norton & Company, 2008.

Sunday Sonnet

Today’s poem is taken from The Penguin Book of Women’s Poets. Back in the 1980s, I worked at the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library & I used to borrow this book all the time – it was a major influence on my poetry at the time. A few years ago, I found it at a used book store & immediately scooped it up. It remains one of my favorite collection of poetry.

This sonnet is by Louise Labé. She is one of the greatest poets of the French Renaissance.

References.

Labé, Louise. “XX”. The Penguin Book of Women Poets. Edited by Carol Cosman, Joan Keefe & Kathleen Weaver. NY: Penguin Books, 1979. poem found on page 110.

Sunday Sonnet

Today’s poem is by Mary Robinson, a prolific British poet of the eighteenth century. She was also an actress, a dramatist & an all-around celebrity. She published fourteen volumes during her lifetime; two books were published after her death at age 43 in 1800.

References.

Robinson, Mary. “Sappho and Phaon 24”. The Art of the Sonnet. edited by Stephen Burt & David Mikics. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010. poem is found on page 100.

Sunday Sonnet

Today’s poem is by Lisa Jarnot. She’s another Buffaloian & studied with Robert Creeley at the State University at New York at Buffalo (the reason I went to UB, although I was immediately sidetracked by the great local music scene Buffalo had in the late 1970s). She received a MFA from Brown University, where she worked with the poet Robert Duncan. She currently lives in Queens, NY. In addition to writing poetry, she is an avid gardener. She is currently going to seminary to become a minister. Her poetry is filled with color and life. I never get tired of reading her words.

References

Jarnot, Lisa. “Stein Meat Work”. The Reality Street Book of Sonnets. Edited by Jeff Hilson. Hastings, Suffolk: Reality Street Editions, 2008. poem found on page 316.