“The Wordsworth Book of Sonnets”

This broad selection of sonnets from the fourtheenth century to the twentieth century is arranged thematically, and ranges from the love sonnets of the early masters to those about despair, faith, the spirit of place and death. As well as the great sonnets of Petrarch and Shakespeare, Donne and Milton, it includes deeply moving examples of the sonnets of poets as diverse as Wordsworth, Keats, Hopkins, Meredith, Brooke and Yeats.

Altough the sonnet – the “little song” – is an exacting verse form, its astonishing range of expression has ensured its popularity with poet and reader alike. The fourteen lines are long enough for a theme to be developed, and short enough to test the poet’s gift for reconciling the conventions of the form with the variety and richness of language.