Department of English

Why has the sonnet, since 1292, seemed to be the ideal form for capturing the bliss and woes of poets in love? And what are the effects of juxtaposing sonnets in a larger poetic collection? Lyric sequences including Dante's Vita Nuova through James Meredith's Modern Love, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese, and John Berryman's Sonnets, ending with modern poets such as Claude McKay, Marilyn Hacker and Henri Cole. Students will compose a sonnet or two themselves and present a sonnet sequence from a time period and writer who interest them.