Great Sonnets

by Paul Negri (Editor)

Treasury of over 170 English and American sonnets by more than 70 poets, from the Renaissance to the 20th century. Shakespeare's "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?", Milton's "On His Blindness," Wordsworth's "The World Is Too Much with Us," many more by Spenser, Sidney, Blake, Byron, Coleridge, Longfellow, Yeats, Frost, Poe, etc. Includes 2 selections from the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, School, Literature, Shakespeare, Fiction, Drama

112 pages, Paperback

First published August 23, 1994

Reviews

[Nicole ✨Reading Engineer✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This a collection of Sonnets from famous works. I had to read this for my literature class... Why did I take a literature class... Honestly, I love to read but some of these things that lessons say these poems mean literally don't make any sense! Some of these poems were good, but most I was looking around in puzzlement.

[Yogesh Gangwar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favourite one-A timid grace sits trembling in her eye.

[Jay-Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my MOST cherished books! I love sonnets.

[Zane Akers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Copped at the ReUzeIt store despite the height of my to-read stack and despite the sticker price of 50 cents more than the original price. "Treasury" is an accurate word to describe this excellent collection of sonnets by poets from the 1530s to around the mid 20th century. I don't know anything about the editor or why Dover Thrift asked him to put together a book of great sonnets by great poets, but Negri has done a wonderful job. Poets are introduced in order of their year of birth, and each poet has a one-to-two-sentence biographical note including tidbits like what each brought to the sonnet form, what literary movement each belonged to, which poets were friends, and other similar data. Each poet is represented by one to four representative sonnets. Byron, we are told, was not fond of the format and wrote very few sonnets; Edna St Vincent Millay, on the other hand, was a prolific sonneteer. If you are, like Byron, a disainer of the sonnet form, maybe this book isn't for you, but actually, yes it is: if anything will bring you around to the form, it will be this book. I plan to reread this slim volume with a pen and pad to note down words I don't know, allusions I didn't get, and poets who bear further reading based on the quality of the selections in this book.

[Alysha Rummler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of the sonnet now I guess? Some of the more famous ones I watched youtube videos that helped me understand the deeper meaning, but really I just enjoyed meandering through this collection, picking up bits of prose that I loved. I just love the form of the sonnet and was so impressed by so many.

Some of my faves:
Death be not proud by John Donne
O Time! who know'st a lenient hand to lay by William Lisle Bowles
The world is too much with us by William Wordsworth
If thou must love me by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Silent Noon by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Lux Est Umbra Dei bt John Addington Symonds
The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus
Slow Through the Dark by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Dreamers by Siegfried Sassoon

[emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

( 4 stars )

things i have learned by reading this sonnet collection for my literature class:

1. poetry but especially sonnets are hella gay
see Lord Alfred Douglas’ “The Dead Poet”. sad and fruity.

2. sonnet writers cracked taylor swift’s easter eggs way before we did because the amount of times the word “evermore” is used…

3. religion can be very sexual (???)

4. i really love stupid little romantic sonnets about women

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not a big poetry person, but I do love the romantic stuff. And what, I ask you, is more romantic than a sonnet? That’s right—nothing! So, needless to say, I’m pretty pleased with this collection, which reads like a hit list of famous sonnets:

• Shakespeare’s “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?”
• John Donne’s “Death Be Not Proud”
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the
Ways”
• Emma Lazarus’ “The New Colossus”
• Robert Frost’s “Acquainted with the Night”

And that’s just to name a few! Of course, not all of the sonnets are romantic. Donne’s verse is, in general, what poetry people like to call “metaphysical,” while Frost’s famed offering is just plain ol’ moody. And Lazurus’ sonnet is as inspirational as it is idealistic, which explains why part of it is forever inscribed on the Statue of Liberty. (“Give me your tired, your poor/ Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”) But that’s the nice thing about this collection—it’s a mixed bag. There’s something for everyone. And, with over a 170 sonnets by 70 different poets, I do mean everyone. Assuming, of course, that you like sonnets.

[rinabeana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is a wonderful collection of sonnets. I admit that I was somewhat intimidated by them because they often take a little while to interpret, many of them being written in an old style. It's totally worth it if you take the time, though!

[max · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well selected compendium of sonnets showing the range of topics possible, techniques employed to greatest success, and highlighting lesser-known instances that are near-peerless, such those by Milton and Hartley Coleridge.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was struck by how fanciful the sonnets are, how unabashedly in love with artifice. Pure virtuosity.

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good.

[Jonna Seppa]

His deepest, most personal writing, imo...

[Maggie Needham · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's Shakespeare. Enough said.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many wonderful sonnets. Helped me to appreciate the dynamism of the form.

[Shouvik Hore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grow Old along with Me,
The best is yet to be.
Should be what this ambitious collection whispers in all ears.

[sch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sep 2025. Teaching text for AP Lit (selections).

Jun 2024. Considering for senior English. Finished, it'll do.