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Penguin Book of The Sonnet

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The Penguin Book of the Sonnet

5 0 0 YEARS OF A CLASSIC TRADITION IN ENGLISH

EDITED BY

Phillis Levin

PENGUIN BOOKS
CONTENTS

Acknowledgments v
Introduction • xxxyii

Proem
FRANCESCO PETRARCA (1304—1374): Canzoniere, 132 lxxvi
GEOFFREY CHAUCER (i343?-i4oo): FROM Troilus and Criseyde,
Canticus Troili lxxvii

SIR THOMAS WYATT ( l 5 O 3 ? - I 5 4 2 )


, "The longe love, that in my thought doeth harbar" 3
"Who so list to hounte I know where is an hynde" > 3
"Farewell, Love, and all thy lawes for ever" 4
"My galy charged with forgetfulnes" 4.
"I find no peace, and all my war is done" 5

HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF SURREY ( l 5 I 7 ? - I 5 4 7 )


"The soote season, that bud and blome forth bringes" 5
"Alas, so all thinges nowe doe holde their peace" 6
"I never saw you, madam, lay apart" 6
"Love that liveth and reigneth in my thought" 7

ANNE LOCKE (l533?—1595)


FROM A Meditation of d" Penitent Sinner: Written in manet of a
Paraphrase upon the 51 Psalme of David
"Loe prostrate, Lorde, before thy face I lye" . 8
"But render me my wonted joyes againe" 8

GEORGE GASCOIGNE ( 1 5 3 9 - I 5 7 8 )
"That self-same tongue which first did thee entreat" 9
A Sonet written in prayse of the browne beautie , 9

Vll
CONTENTS

GILES FLETCHER THE ELDER (1549?— l 6 l l )


FROM Licia or Poems of Love
20. "First did I fear, when first my love began" 10

EDMUND SPENSER (l552?-I599)


FROM Amoretti
1. "Happy ye leaves when as those lilly hands" ' 10
8. "More then most faire, full of the living fire" u
18. "The rolling wheele that runneth often round" u
22. "This holy season fit to fast and pray" 12
23. "Penelope for her Ulisses' sake" 12
30. "My love is lyke to yse, and I to fyre" 13
37. "What guyle is this, that those her golden
* tresses" • 13
45. "Leave, lady, in your glasse of christall clene" 14
67. "Lyke as a huntsman after weary chace" 14
68. "Most glorious Lord of lyfe that on this day" 15
71. "I joy to see how in your drawen work" 15
75. "One day I wrote her name upon the strand" 16
78. "Lackyng my love I go from place to place" 16
79. "Men call you fayre, and you doe credit it" 17
81. "Fayre is my love, when her fayre golden
heares" 17

FULKE GREVILLE, LORD BROOKE (1554-1628)


FROM Ccelica
38. "Caslica, I overnight was finely used" 18
39. "The nurse-life wheat, within his green husk
growing" 18
100. "In night when colours all to black are cast" 19

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY (1554-I586)


FROM The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia
"My true love hath my hart, and I have his" 19
FROM Astrophel and Stella
1. "Loving in truth, and faine in verse my love
to show" ' 20
. 3. "Let daintie wits crie on the Sisters nine" 20
5. "It is most true that eyes are form'd to serve" 21
31. "With how sad steps, O Moone, thou climb'st
the skies" 21
37. "My mouth doth water, and my breast doth
swell" 22

I v'iii I
CONTENTS

39. "Come sleepe, O sleepe, the certaine knot of


peace" 22
41. "Having this day my horse, my hand, my launce" 23
47. "What, have I thus betrayed my libertie?" 23
49. "I on my horse, and Love on me doth trie" 24
54. "Because I breathe not love to everie one" 24
63. " O Grammer rules, O now your vertues show" 25
71. "Who will in fairest booke of Nature know" , 25
73. "Love still a boy, and oft a wanton is" 26
90. "Stella, thinke not that I by verse seeke fame" 26
• FROM Certaine Sonnets
"Leave me, O Love, which reachest but to dust" 27

SIR WALTER RALEGH (l554?-l6l8)


A vision upon This Conceipt of the Faery Queene 27
"A secret murder hath been done of late" 28
To His Son 28

THOMAS.LODGE (1558^1625)
FROM Phillis: Honoured with Pastorall Sonnets, Elegies and amorous
delights
35. "I hope and feare, I pray and hould my peace" 29

GEORGE CHAPMAN (l559?-l6'34)


FROM A Coronet for his Mistress Philosophy
1. "Muses that sing Love's sensual empery" 29

HENRY CONSTABLE (1562-1613)


FROM Diana
"Needs must I leave, and yet needs must I love" 30

MARK ALEXANDER BOYD (1563-1601)


Sonet ("Fra bane to bane, fra wod to wod, I rin") 30

SAMUEL DANIEL (1563—1619)


FROM To Delia
34. "Looke, Delia, how wee steeme the '
half-blowne Rose" 31
49. "Care-charmer Sleepe, sonne of the sable
Night" 31
50. "Let others sing of Knights and Palladines" 32

I ix I • •
CONTENTS
/

MICHAEL DRAYTON (1563-1631)


FROM Idea in Sixtie Three Sonnets
5. "Nothing but N o and I, and I and N o " 32
6. "How many paltry, foolish, painte'd things" 33
7. "Love, in a Humor, play'd the Prodigall" 33
15. His Remedie for Love 34
38. "Sitting alone, Love bids me goe and write" 34
61. "Since, ther's no helpe, Come let us kisse and
part" 35

JOHN DAVIES OF HEREFORD (1563?—l6l8)


"Some blaze the precious beauties of their loves". 35
"Although we do not all the good we love" 36
The author loving these homely meats specially, viz.:
cream, pancakes, buttered pippin-pies, &c. 36

CHARLES BEST (D. l6O2)


Of the Moon 37

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564—l6l6)


FROM Love's Labour's Lost
"Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye" 37
FROM Romeo and Juliet
"If I profane with my unworthiest hand" 38
FROM Sonnets
1. "From fairest creatures we desire increase" 38
3. "Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest" 39
13' "O, that you were yourself, but, love, you are" ' 39
18. "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" 40
19. "Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws" • 40
20. "A woman's face, with Nature's own hand
painted" - 41
24. "Mine eye hath played the painter and hath
stelled" 41
27. "Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed" 42
29. "When, in disgrace with Fortune and men's
eyes" . • 42
53. "What is your substance, whereof are you made" 43
55. "Not marble nor the gilded monuments" 43
57. "Being your slave, what should I do but tend" 44
• 60. "Like as the waves make towards the pebbled
shore" 44
CONTENTS

65. "Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, n o r


boundless sea" 45
71. " N o longer m o u r n for m e when I am dead" 45
73. "That time of year thou mayst in m e behold" 46
94. "They that have pow'r to hurt and will do
none". . 46
105. "Let not my love be called idolatry" 47
106. " W h e n in the chronicle of wasted t i m e " . 47
116. "Let m e not to the marriage of true minds" 48
127. "In the old age black was not counted fair" 48
128. " H o w oft, w h e n thou, my music, music play'st" 49
129. " T h ' e x p e n s e of spirit in a waste of shame" 49
130. " M y mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" 50
134. "So, n o w I have confessed that he is thine" 50
138. " W h e n my love swears that she is made of
truth" ' 5 1
141. "In faith; I do not love thee with mine eyes" 51
• 144. "Two loves I have, of comfort and despair" 52
146. "Poor soul, the center of m y sinful earth" 52
147. " M y love is as a fever, longing still" 53
151. "Love is too young to know what conscience is" 53
•9

JAMES I (1566—1625)
An Epitaph on Sir Philip Sidney 54

SIR JOHN DAVIES (1569-1626)


FROM Gullinge Sonnets
5. "Mine Eye, myne eare, my will, my witt, my harte" 54
"If you would know the love which I you bear" 55

JOHN DONNE (1572-1631)


La Corona
. 1. "Deign at my hands this crown of prayer and
praise" ' 55
2. Annunciation 56
3. Nativity 56
4. Temple 57
5. Crucifying • 57
6. Resurrection 58
7. Ascension 58

XI
CONTENTS

FROM Holy Sonnets


i. "Th'ou hast made me, and shall thy work decay" 59
5. "I am a little world made cunningly" 59
6. "This is my play's last scene, here heavens .'
appoint" . 60
7. "At the round earth's imagined corners, blow" 60
10. "Death be not proud, though some have
called thee" 61
13. "What if this present were the world's, last
night?" 61
14. "Batter my heart, three-personed God; for, you" 62
18. "Show me dear Christ, thy spouse, so bright
and clear" 62
19. "Oh, to vex me, contraries meet in one" . 63
Sonnet. The Token 63

BEN JONSON (l572?-l637)


A Sonnet to the Noble Lady, the Lady Mary Wroth • 64

LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY (1583-1648)


Sonnet to Black It Self ' 64

WILLIAM DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORNDEN ( 1 5 8 5 - I 6 4 9 )


"I know that all beneath the moon decays" 65
"Sleep, Silence' child, sweet father of soft rest" • 65

LADY MARY WROTH (l587?-l652?)


FROM Pamphilia to Amphilanthus
A crowne of Sonetts dedicated to Love 66

ROBERT HERRICK (159I-1674)


To his mistress objecting to him neither toying nor talking 73
To his ever-loving God 73

GEORGE HERBERT (1593-1633)


Two Sonnets Sent to His Mother, New-Year 1609/10 74
Redemption 75
Prayer . 75
Love (1) ' 76
The Sonne ' 76
The H. Scriptures (1) 77
The H. Scriptures (11) ' 77

X l li\
CONTENTS

JOHN MILTON (1608-1674)


O Nightingale! 78
How Soon Hath Time 78
To Mr. H. Lawes, On His Airs . 79
On the Detraction Which Followed Upon My Writing
Certain Treatises 79
On the New Forcers of Conscience Under the Long
Parliament ,• 80
To the Lord General Cromwell 80
On the Late Massacre in Piedmont 81
"When I consider how my light is spent" 81
"Methought I saw my late espoused Saint" . 82

CHARLES COTTON (163O-1687)


Resolution in Four Sonnets, of a Poetical Question Put to
. Me by a Friend, Concerning Four Rural Sisters 82

THOMAS GRAY (1716—1771)


On the Death of Mr. Richard West 84 •

THOMAS WARTON, THE YOUNGER ( 1 7 2 8 - I 7 9 0 )


To the River Lodon 85

ANNA SEWARD (1747—1809)


To Mr. Henry Cary, on the Publication of His Sonnets 85

CHARLOTTE SMITH (1749-1806)


To the Moon 86
To Sleep 86
Written Near a Port on a Dark Evening 87

WILLIAM BLAKE (1757-1827)


To the Evening Star • 87

ROBERT BURNS (1759-I796)


A Sonnet upon Sonnets 88

THOMAS RUSSELL (1762-I788)


To the Spider 88

ELIZABETH COBBOLD ( 1 7 6 7 - 1 8 2 4 )
FROM Sonnets of Laura .
1. Reproach 89

I xiii I
CONTENTS

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770-1850)


"Nuns fret not at their convent s narrow room" . 89
Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 90
"The world is too much with us; late and soon" 90
"It is a beauteous evening, calm and free" 91
FROM Sonnets Dedicated to Liberty
To Toussaint L'Ouverture 91
London,1802 92
"It is no Spirit who from heaven hath flown" 92
"Surprised by joy—impatient as the wind" 93
FROM The River Duddon, A Series of Sonnets
Hi. "How shall I paint thee?—Be this naked stone" 93
FROM Ecclesiastical Sonnets in Series
47. "Why sleeps the future, as a snake enrolled" 94
"Scorn not the Sonnet; critic, you have frowned" 94

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE (1772-1834)


To the River Otter 95
To Nature 95
To a Friend, Who Asked How I Felt, When the
Nurse First Presented My Infant to Me .- 96
Work Without Hope 96

ROBERT SOUTHEY (1774-1843)


FROM Poems on the Slave Trade
VI. "High in the air exposed the slave is hung" 97
To.a Goose 97

CHARLES LAMB (1775-1834)


The Family Name 98

JOSEPH BLANCO WHITE (1775-1841)


To Night 98

HORACE SMITH (1779—1849)


Ozymandias 99

EBENEZER ELLIOTT (1781-1849)


"In these days, every mother's son or daughter" 99

MARTHA HANSON (FL. 1809)


"How proudly Man usurps the power to reign" ioo

xiv I
CONTENTS

MARY F.JOHNSON (FL. l 8 l O , D. 1863) '


The Idiot Girl . ioo

LEIGH HUNT (1784-1859)


To the Grasshopper and the Cricket 101

GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON (1788-I824)


On Chillon 101
"Rousseau—Voltaire—our Gibbon—and de Stael" 102

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY ( 1 7 9 2 - 1 8 2 2 )


To Wordsworth 102
Feelings of a Republican on the Fall of Bonaparte 103
Ozymandias " 103
England in 1819 104
Ode to the West Wind 104

JOHN CLARE (1793-1864)


To Wordsworth . 107
Hen's Nest 107
To John Clare ' 108
The Happy Bird 108
The Thrush's Nest 109

JOHN KEATS (1795-1821) .


On First Looking into Chapman's Homer •. 109
To My Brothers no
"Great spirits now on earth are sojourning" no
On the Grasshopper and Cricket in
"When I have fears that I may cease to be" ' in
To Homer ' 112
"Bright star,-.would I were stedfast as thou art" 112
Sonnet to Sleep . 113
"If by dull rhymes our English must be chain'd" 113
"I cry your mercy—pity—love!—aye, love" 114

HARTLEY COLERIDGE (1796-1849)


To a Friend ' 114
"Let me not deem that I was made in vain" - 115
"Think upon Death,'tis good to think of Death" 115

xv
CONTENTS

THOMAS LOVELE BEDDOES (1803-1849)


To Night . 116
A Crocodile 116

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING ( l 8 o 6 - l 8 6 l )


Finite and Infinite 117
FROM Sotinetsfrom the Portuguese
1. "I thought once how Theocritus had sung" , 117
VII. "The face of all the world is changed, I think" 118
xiii. "And wilt thou have me fashion into speech" 118
XVIII. "I never gave a lock of hair away" . 119
XLH. "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways" 119

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882)


Chaucer 120
T h e Cross of Snow 120

CHARLES TENNYSON TURNER (l8o8—1879)


Letty's Globe 121
On the Eclipse of the Moon of October 1865 121

EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849),


To Science 122

ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON (1809—1892)


"If I were loved, as I desire to be" 122
"Mine be the strength of spirit fierce and free" 123

ROBERT BROWNING (1812-1889)


Why I Am a Liberal 123

JONES VERY (1813-1880)


Yourself ' 124 '

AUBREY THOMASDE VERE (1814-I902)


The Sun God 124

GEORGE ELIOT (1819-1880)


FROM Brother and Sister
1. "I cannot choose but think upon the time" 125
XI. "School parted us; we never found again" ' 125

xvi
CONTENTS

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL ( 1 8 1 9 - 1 8 9 1 )


The Street . 126

FREDERICK GODDARD TUCKERMAN ( 1 8 2 I - 1 8 7 3 )


FROM Sonnets^ First Series
I'O. "An upper chamber in a darkened house" . 126
28. "Not the round natural world, not the deep
mind" 127
FROM Sonnets, Second Series
7. "His Heart was in his garden; but his brain" 127
29. "How oft in schoolboy-days, from the school's
sway" 128

MATTHEW ARNOLD (l822-l£


Shakespeare • 128
West London 129

SYDNEY DOBELL (1824-1874)


The Army Surgeon 129

GEORGE MEREDITH (1828-I9O9)


FROM Modern Love
1. "By this h e knew she wept with waking
eyes" 130
XVH. "At dinner, she is hostess, I am host" 130
XXX. " W h a t are we first? First, animals; and next" 131
xxxiv. "Madam would speak with me. So, n o w
it comes" ' 131
XLVII. " W e saw the swallows gathering in the sky" 132
XLIX. " H e found her by the ocean's moaning verge" 132
L. "Thus piteously Love closed what h e begat" . ' 133
Lucifer in Starlight 133

DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI ( 1 8 2 8 - 1 8 8 2 )


FROM The House of Life
Introductory Sonnet ' 134
x v . T h e Birth-Bond / 134
xix. Silent N o o n 135
Lin. W i t h o u t H e r 135
Lxxxm. Barren Spring 136
XCVH. A Superscription 136

xvii
CONTENTS

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI (1830-1894)


Rest 137
In an Artist's Studio 137
FROM The Thread of Life
"Thus am I mine own prison. Everything" 138

ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE ( 1 8 3 7 - I 9 0 9 )


Cor Cordium ' 138
On the Russian Persecution of the Jews ' • 139

THOMAS HARDY (184O-1928)


Hap 139
She, to Him (i) . 140
She, to Him (11) • 140
In the Old Theatre, Fiesole (April 1887) 141
At a Lunar Eclipse 141
A Church Romance 142
Over the Coffin 142
We Are Getting to the End 143

ROBERT BRIDGES (1844—1930)


"While yet we wait for spring, and from the dry" 143

GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS (1844-1889)


God's Grandeur . 144
"As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame" 144
Spring 145
The Windhover 145
Pied Beauty 146
The Caged Skylark . 146
Peace 147
Felix Randal 147
"I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day" 148
"No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief" 148
"Not, I'll not, carrion comfprt, Despair, not feast on thee" 149
That Nature Is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of
the Resurrection ' 150
"Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend" 151
To R. B. 151

XV1I1
CONTENTS

EUGENE LEE-HAMILTON (1845-1907)


FROM Imaginary Sonnets
Luther to a Bluebottle Fly (1540) 152

ALICE CHRISTINA MEYNELL (1847-I922)


To a Daisy ' 152

EMMA LAZARUS (1849-1887)


The New Colossus 153

OSCAR WILDE (1856-I9OO)


On the sale by auction of Keats' love letters 153
Helas 154

FRANCIS THOMPSON (1859-I9O7) •


All's Vast 154

W. B. YEATS (1865-1939)
The Folly of Being Comforted 155
The Fascination.of What's Difficult 155
At the Abbey Theatre 156
"While I,from that reed-throated whisperer"- 156
Leda and the Swan • • 157
Meru 157
A Crazed Girl 158
High Talk 158

ERNEST DOWSON (1867-I9OO)


A Last Word 159

EDWARD ARLINGTON ROBINSON (1869—1935) '


Firelight 159
Calvary ' 160
Cliff Klingenhagen 160
Reuben Bright 161
Credo • 161
Sonnet ("The master and the slave go hand in hand") 162
The Sheaves 162

JAMES WELDON JOHNSON (187I-I938)


Mother Night 163
CONTENTS

PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR ( 1 8 7 2 - 1 9 0 6 ) '


Robert Gould Shaw 163
Douglass 164

AMY LOWELL (1874-1925)


To John Keats . 164

TRUMBULL STICKNEY ( 1 8 7 4 - I 9 O 4 )
"Be still.The Hanging Gardens.were a dream" 165
Six O'Clock 165

RUPERT BROOKE ( 1 8 7 5 - I 9 1 5 )
The Hill , 166
Clouds 166
A Memory • . 167
- FROM 1914
The Soldier 167

ALICE DUNBAR-NELSON ( 1 8 7 5 - I 9 3 5 )
Sonnet ("I had no thought of violets of late") 168

ROBERT FROST (1875—1963) .


A Dream Pang 168
Mowing 169
Meeting and Passing 169
Hyla Brook ' 170
The Oven Bird . 170
Range-Finding 171
Acquainted with the Night - 171
Design a 172
The Silken Tent ' 172
Never Again Would Birds' Song Be the Same 173

EDWARD THOMAS ( 1 8 7 8 - I 9 I 7 )
Some Eyes Condemn • 173
February Afternoon ' 174

EZRA POUND (1885-1972)


A Virginal 174

XX
CONTENTS

ELINOR WYLIE (1885-1928)


FROM Wild Peaches
1. "When the world turns completely upside down" 175
2. "The autumn frosts will lie upon the grass" 175
Sonnet ("When, in the dear beginning of the fever") 176
A Lodging for the Night 176

SIEGFRIED SASSOON (1886-1967)


Dreamers 177
Glory of Women 177
On Passing the New Menin Gate 178

ROBINSON JEFFERS (1887-I962)


Love the Wild Swan , .. 178

MARIANNE MOORE (1887-I972)


. No Swan So Fine 179

EDWIN MUIR (1887-1959)


Milton 179

T. S. ELIOT (1888-I965)
FROM T h e Dry Salvages 180

JOHN CROWE RANSOM (1888-1974)


Piazza Piece 180,

CLAUDE MCKAY (189O-I948)


If We Must Die 181
The Harlem Dancer 181
America 182

ARCHIBALD MaCLEISH (1892-I983)


The End of the World 182
Aeterna Poetae Memoria 183

EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY ( 1 8 9 2 - 1 9 5 0 )


"Thou art not lovelier than lilacs,—no" 183
"Time does not bring relief; you all have lied" 184
"If I should learn, in some quite casual way" 184
"Oh, think not I am faithful to a vow!" 185
"Pity me not because the light of day"' 185

xxi
CONTENTS

"I shall go back again to the bleak shore" 186


"I, being born a woman and distressed" 186
"What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why" 187
"Still will I harvest beauty where it grows" ' 187
FROM Fatal, Interview
11. "This beast that rends me in the sight of all" 188
vii. "Night is my sister, and how deep in love" 188
xx. "Think riot, nor for a moment let your mind" . 189
XXX. "Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink" • 189
"I will put Chaos into fourteen lines" 190
"Read history: so learn your place in Time" ' 190
FROM Epitaph for the Race of Man
V. "When Man is gone and only gods remain" 191

WILFRED OWEN (1893-1918)


Anthem for DoomedYouth 191
Dulce et Decorum Est 192
Futility 193

DOROTHY PARKER (1893-1967)


"I Shall Come Back" • 193

E. E. CUMMINGS (1894-I962)
"when thou hast taken thy last applause.and when" 194
"my girl's tall with hard long eyes" 194
"it is'at moments after i have dreamed" 195
"it may not always- be so;and i say" 195
FROM Sonnets—Actualities
I. "when my love comes to see me it's"( • 196
11. "it is funnyyou will be dead some day" 196
Vii. '-'yours is the music for no instrument" 197
X. "a thing most new complete fragile intense" 197
XII. "my love is building a building" 198
"i like my body when it is with your" 198
" 'next to of course god america i" . 199
"if i have made,my ladyintricate" 199
"i carry your heart with me(i carry it in" 200

JEAN TOOMER (1894—1967)


November Cotton Flower 200

xxii
CONTENTS •

ROBERT GRAVES (1895-I985)


History of the Word ' , 201

EDMUND BLUNDEN (1896-1974)


Vlamertinghe: Passing the Chateau, July 1917 201

LOUISE BOGAN (1897-I970)


Fifteenth Farewell 202
Simple Autumnal 203
Sonnet ("Dark, underground, is furnished with the bone") 203
Single Sonnet 204
Musician 204

HART CRANE (1899-I932)


To Emily Dickinson 205

ALLEN TATE (1899-1979)


FROM Sonnets at Christmas
2. "Ah, Christ, I love you rings to the wild sky" 205

YVOR WINTERS (19OO-I968)


To Emily Dickinson 206

ROY CAMPBELL (19O2-I957)


Luis de Camoes 206

COUNTEE CULLEN (1903-1946)


Yet Do I Marvel 207
At the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem 207

EDWIN DENBY (19O3-I983)


Air 208

MERRILL MOORE (19O3-I957)


They Also Stand . . . ' 2 0 8

PATRICK KAVANAUGH (1904—1967) »


Canal Bank Walk 209

PHYLLIS MCGINLEY (1905-1978)


Evening Musicale •• 209

xxm
CONTENTS

ELLIOTT COLEMAN (1906-I980)


FROM Oedipus Sonnets
3. "In a May evening, commuter, king" 210

w. H. AUDEN (1907-1973)
Who's Who . • 210
Our Bias ' 211
Montaigne 211
Rimbaud • 212
Brussels in Winter ' 212
FROM The Quest: A Sonnet Sequence
The Door • 213
FROM In Time of War\
XII. "And the age ended, and the last deliverer
died" 213
XXVII. "Wandering lost upon the mountains of our
choice" 214

LOUIS MaCNEICE (19O7-I963) .


Sunday Morning . 214

MALCOLM LOWRY (1909—1957)


Delirium inVera Cruz 215

JAMES REEVES (19O9-I978) ;


Leaving Town 215

STEPHEN SPENDER (19O9-I995)


"Without that once clear aim, the path of flight" 216

ELIZABETH BISHOP (19II—1979)


The Prodigal 217
Sonnet ("Caught—the bubble") ' 218

GEORGE BARKER ( 1 9 1 3 - I 9 9 1 ) '


To My Mother • 218

ROBERT HAYDEN (1913-1980)


Those Winter Sundays 219
Frederick Douglass . 219

xxiv
CONTENTS

MURIEL RUKEYSER ( 1 9 1 3 - 1 9 8 0 )
Oil the Death of Her Mother 220

DELMORE SCHWARTZ ( 1 9 1 3 - I 9 6 6 )
The Beautiful American Word, Sure 220

JOHN BERRYMAN (1914-1972)


F R O M Berryman's Sonnets
7. "I've found out why, that day, that suicide" 221
15. " W h a t was Ashore, then? . . Cargoed with Forget" 221
36. "Keep your eyes open w h e n you kiss: do: w h e n " 222
• 107. "Darling I wait O in my upstairs b o x " 222
115. "All we were going strong last night this time" 223

WELDON KEES (l9.I4-I955)


For M y Daughter , 223

WILLIAM STAFFORD (1914—1993)


Time 224

DYLAN THOMAS (I9I4-I953)


A m o n g Those Killed in the DaWn R a i d Was a M a n
Aged a H u n d r e d 224

MARGARET WALKER (1915—1998)


Childhood 225
For Malcolm X ' 225

GWENDOLYN BROOKS (1917—2000)


FROM The 'Children of the Poor
1. "People who have no children can be hard" - 226
4. "First fight. Then fiddle. Ply the slipping string" 226
FROM Gay Chaps at the Bar
gay chaps at the bar 227
still do I keep my look, my identity . . . 227
my dreams, my works, must wait till after hell 228
piano after war 228
the progress 229

CHARLES CAUSLEY (B. I917)


Autobiography 229

XXV
CONTENTS

ROBERT LOWELL (1917-I977)


History ' . 230
Words for Hart Crane 230
Ezra Pound 231
Robert Frost 231
Fishnet ' - 232
Dolphin 232

WILLIAM MEREDITH (B. I919)


The Illiterate 233

AMY CLAMPITT (l920—1994)


The Cormorant in Its Element 233
c
HOWARD NEMEROV (l92O—I99l)
A Primer of the Daily Round . 234

HAYDEN CARRUTH (B. I 9 2 l )


FROM Sonnets
2. "How is it, tell me, that this new self can be" 234
3. "Last night, I don't know if from habit or intent" 235
4. "While you stood talking at the counter,
cutting" 235
5. "From our very high window at the Sheraton" 236
Sonnet ("Well, she told me I had an aura. 'What?' I said") 236
Late Sonnet 237

MARIE PONSOT (B. I92l)


Out of Eden 237
Call - 238

RICHARD WILBUR (B. 1921)


Praise in Summer 238

PHILIP LARKIN (1922—1985) . '


"Love, we must part now: do not let it be" 239

ANTHONY HECHT (B. I923)


Double Sonnet 240
The Feast of Stephen . . 241

xxvi
CONTENTS

JANE COOPER (B. I924)


Praise - ' 243

DONALD JUSTICE (B. I925)


The Wall ' ' 2 4 4
Mrs. Snow 244
Henry James by the Pacific 245

JAMES K. BAXTER ( 1 9 2 6 - 1 9 7 2 )
FROM Jerusalem Sonnets
1. "The small gray cloudy louse that nests in my
beard" . 245

JAMES MERRILL (1926-I995)


Marsyas ' 246
Last Words • 246

W. D. SNODGRASS (B. I926)


tig . . . Otmg . 247

JOHN ASHBERY (B. I927)


Rain Moving In 248

W. S. MERWIN (B. I927)


Epitaph on Certain Schismatics 248
Substance 249

JAMES WRIGHT (1927-I980) '


Saint Judas 249
My Grandmother's Ghost 250

DONALD HALL (B. I928)


President and Poet 250

PHILIP LEVINE (B. 1928)


Llanto - 2 5 1

THOM GUNN (B. 1929)


First Meeting with a Possible Mother-in-Law 252
Keats at Highgate 1 252

xxvii
. CONTENTS

JOHN HOLLANDER (B. I 9 2 9 )


FROM Powers of Thirteen
"Just the right number of letters—half the alphabet" 253
"That other time of day when the chiming of
Thirteen" 253
FROM The Mad Potter
"Clay to clay: Soon I shall indeed become" 254

ADRIENNE RICH (B. I 9 2 9 )


FROM Contradictions: Tracking Poems
1. "Look: this is January the worst
onslaught" 254
14. "Lately in my dreams I hear long sentences" 255
18. "The problem, unstated till now, is how" 255
Final Notations 256

DEREK WALCOTT (B. 1930)


Homage to Edward Thomas 256

GEOFFREY HILL (B. I932)


September Song 257
Funeral Music . 258

SYLVIA PLATH (1932-I963)


Mayflower 262

JOHN UPDIKE (B. 1932)


Island Cities ' 262

TED BERRIGAN (1934-I983)


FROM The Sonnets
III. "Stronger than alcohol, more great than song" 263

JEAN VALENTINE (B. 1934)


Rain " , 263

ROBERT MEZEY (B. I935)


Hardy . 264

GRACE SCHULMAN (B. 1935)


The Abbess of Whitby 264

XXVlll
CONTENTS

CHARLES WRIGHT (B. I935) ,


Composition in Grey and Pink

JUNE JORDAN (B. I936)


Sunflower Sonnet Number Two ' 266

JUDITH RODRIGUEZ (B. I936)


In-flight Note 266

FREDERICK SEIDEL (B. I936)


Elms • __ 267

JOHN FULLER (B. 1937)


FROM Lily and Violin »
6. "Afterwards we may not speak: piled chords" 267

TONY HARRISON (B. 1937)


FROM from The School, of Eloquence
On Not Being Milton 268

LES MURRAY (B. 1938)


Comete • • 269

CHARLES SIMIC (B. 193 8)


History 269

DICK ALLEN (B. 1939)


Lost Love 270

FRANK BIDART (B. 1939)


Self-Portrait, 1969 ' . 270

SEAMUS HEANEY (B. 1939)


The Forge 271
Act of Union 272
The Seed Cutters 273
A Dream of Jealousy 273
FROM Clearances
II. "Polished linoleum shone there. Brass taps shone" 274
III. "When all the others were away at Mass" 274

xxix
CONTENTS

STANLEY PLUMLY (B. 1939)


FROM Boy on the Step
1. "He's out of breath only halfway up the hill" 275
5. "None of us dies entirely—some of us, all" 275

BILLY COLLINS (B. I941)


American Sonnet 276
Duck / Rabbit . 277
Sonnet ("All we need is fourteen lines, well, thirteen now") • 277

DOUGLAS DUNN ( B . I 9 4 2 )
France 278

MARILYN HACKER (B. 1942)


Sonnet ("Love drives its rackety blue caravan") 278
FROM Love, Death, and the Changing of the Seasons
"Did you love well what very soon you left" * 279
FROM Cancer Winter
"Syllables shaped around the darkening day's" 279
"I woke up, and the surgeon said, 'You're cured' " 280
"The odd and even numbers of the street" 280
"At noon, an orderly wheeled me upstairs" 281

DAVID HUDDLE (B. I942) I


FROM Tour of Duty
Words 281
FROM Album
Coda " 282

ANN LAUTERBACH (B. 1942)


Aperture 283

CHARLES MARTIN ( B . 1942)


Easter Sunday, 1985 284
FROM Making Faces
11. The End of the World 285
The Philosopher's Balloon 286

WILLIAM MATTHEWS (1942—1997)


Vermin . 286

xxx
CONTENTS

HENRY TAYLOR (B. 1942)


Green Springs the Tree ' 287

LOUISE GLUCK (B. 1943)


Snowdrops 287

ELLEN BRYANT VOIGT (B. 1943)


FROM Kyrie
"Dear Mattie,You're sweet to .write me every day" " 288
"When does a childhood end? Mothers" 288
"This is the double bed where she'd been born" 289
"Once the world had had its fill of war" 289

EAVAN BOLAND (B. 1944)


Yeats in Civil War . 290
The Singers 291
Heroic • 291

J. D. MCCLATCHY (B. 1945)


My Mammogram 292

LEON STOKESBURY ( B . 1945) . .


To His Book 294

STAR BLACK (B. I946)


Rilke's Letter from Rome 295
Personals 295

MARILYN NELSON (B. 1946)


Balance - 296
Chosen • 296
Chopin , 297

BRUCE SMITH (B. I946)


FROM In My Father's House
O My Invisible Estate 297

MOLLY PEACOCK (B. I947)


The Lull . . 298
Desire . 298
Instead of Her O w n 299
The Purr • 299
The Hunt t 300

xxxi
CONTENTS

HUGH SEIDMAN (B. 1947)


14 First Sentences 300

FLOYD SKLOOT (B. I947)


My Daughter Considers Her Body .301

RACHEL HADAS (B. I948)


Moments of Summer 301

DAVID LEHMAN- (B. I948)


Sonnet ("No roof so poor it does not shelter") 303

TIMOTHY STEELE (B. I 9 4 8 )


JSummer 303

AGHA SHAHID ALI (B. 1949)


FROM I Dream I Am the Only Passenger on Flight 423 to Srinagar,
"and when w e ^ a s if from ashes—ascend" • 304
"Attar—of jasmine? What was it she wore" - 304

DENIS JOHNSON (B. 1949)


Sway 305
Passengers 305

SHEROD SANTOS ( B . 1949)


Married Love 306

JULIA ALVAREZ (B. I950)


FROM 33 .
"Where are the girls who were so beautiful?" 306
"Let's make a modern primer for our kids" 307
"Ever have an older lover say: God" • • 307
"Secretly I am building in the heart" 308

DANA GIOIA (B. I950)


Sunday Night in Santa Rosa • 308

T. R. HUMMER (B. I950)


The Rural Carrier Stops to Kill a Nine-Foot Cottonmouth 309

MEDBH MCGUCKIAN (B. I950)


Still Life of Eggs ' ' . 309

I xxxii I'
CONTENTS

PAUL MULDOON (B. I951)


Why Brownlee Left 310
. Holy Thursday 310
October 1950 311

.RITA DOVE (B. 1952)


Hades' Pitch . 311
Sonnet in Primary Colors 312

MARK JARMAN (B. 1952)


FROM Unholy Sonnets
\ • 2. "Which is the one, which of the imps inside" 312
9. "Someone is always praying as the plane" 313
14.' "In via est cisterna" 313

ELIZABETH MACKLIN (B. 195 2)


I Fail to Speak to My Earth, My Desire 314
Foolishly Halved, I See You 314

TOM SLEIGH (B. I953)


The Very End 315
Eclipse 315
FROM T h e Work
4. T h e God - ' 3 1 6

ROSANNA WARREN (B. I953)


Necrophiliac 316

DAVID WOJAHN (B. 1953)


FROM Mystery Train: A Sequence
1. Homage: Light from the Hall 317
2. Buddy Holly Watching Rebel Without a Cause,
Lubbock, Texas, 1956 318

DAVID BAKER (B. I954)


Top of the Stove 319

BRUCE BOND ( B . I954)


Isaac 319

PHILLIS LEVIN (B. I954)


Final Request 320

I xxxiii I
CONTENTS

JAMES. MCCORKLE (B. 1954)


Deer at the Corner of the House 320

JOHN BURNSIDE (B. I955)


The Myth of the Twin 321

CAROL ANN DUFFY (B. I955)


Prayer 322

ROBIN ROBERTSON (B. I955)


Wedding the Locksmith's Daughter 323

APRIL' BERNARD (B. I956)


Sonnet in E 323

HENRI COLE (B.


Chiffon Morning 324

ANNIE FINCH (B. I956)


My Raptor 327

KARL KIRCHWEY (B. I956)


Zoo Story , 327
In Transit • . 328

DEBORAH LASER (B. I956)


FROM Between Two Gardens
"Night shares this day with me, is the rumpled" 328

JACQUELINE OSHEROW (B. 1956)


Sonnet for a Single Day in Autumn 329
Yom Kippur Sonnet, with a Line from Lamentations 329

JAMES LASDUN (B. I958)


Powder Compact 330
Plague Years ' , 330

KATE LIGHT (B. i 9 6 0 )


Reading Someone Else's Love Poems 331
Your Unconscious Speaks to My Unconscious 331
And Then There Is That Incredible Moment, 332

xxxiv
CONTENTS

JOE BOLTON (1961-I99O)


FROM Style
II. "I was surprised to find how light I felt" 332

SASCHA FEINSTEIN (B. I963)


FROM Sonnets for Stan Gage (1945-1992)
"Floodlight shadow. Your shoes are stroking" 333
"With young people the heart keeps beating even" .333

RAFAEL CAMPO (B. I964)


The Mental Status Exam 334

MIKE NELSON (B. I967)


Light Sonnet for the Lover of a Dark 334

DANIEL GUTSTEIN ( B . I968)


What Can Disappear 335

BETH ANN FENNELLY (B. I971)


Poem Not to Be Read at Your Wedding • 335

JASON SCHNEIDERMAN (B. I976)


The Disease Collector 336

Appendix: The Architecture of a Sonnet 337


Explanatory Notes . 347
Suggestions for Further Reading 365
Biographical Notes 373
Index of Poets 425
Index of Tides and First Lines 428
Credits 440

XXXV

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