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The Penguin Book of the Sonnet: 500 Years of a Classic Tradition in English

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If you're a sonnet lover, this is a must-have for your collection. It is a wonderful tome to while away the hours,and savor through the years. The anthologist's preface is extremely helpful, and every sonneteer worthy of note down the the ages is included. It was in fact, while perusing these pages on a gloomy Sunday that I became fully aware of two particularly racy sonnets by Edna St. Vincent Millay, and decided to include my Sonnets for Sinners: Everything One Needs to Know About Illicit Love (which, alas,one critic complained is only one part anthology--the rest being self-help).

The sonnet begins when a fine man of law
devised the structure of a little song;
a genre that, while definitely not long,
could say a lot -- indeed entirely more
than any ballad sung by troubadour.
Journeys to far lands have made it strong,
and many fine companies it has been among;
its makers are the ones who know the score.
Shakespeare and Milton, Wordsworth and Millay,
Longfellow, Whittier, that transcendental lot,
a host of other poets have used the form;
it's a surprising, yet quite lovely way
to take some flowers, fit them in tiny pot,
and in this way create a wondrous norm.

THE SONNET IN OLD AGE

If to the sessions of sweet silent thought
one summons memories of sonnets long reread in mind
unsprings the blasted lyrics Time has left unpaged
dreams of other nights and other days
in quiet places long since lost in youth
where little lines embodied- Glory, Beauty, Truth.

Then Shakespeare Donne Keats,
Hopkins Milton Wordsworth Yeats
obscuring lesser names and smaller shades
inspire with dearer dearer life
tranquillity's reflection
in old age
Consoling our last moments
in God's praise.