The American Sonnet: An Anthology of Poems and Essays

by Dora Malech (Editor), Laura Smith (Editor)

Poet and scholar team Dora Malech and Laura T. Smith collect and foreground an impressive range of sonnets, including formal and formally subversive sonnets by established and emerging poets, highlighting connections across literary moments and movements. Poets include Phillis Wheatley, Fredrick Goddard Tuckerman, Emma Lazarus, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Gertrude Stein, Fradel Shtok, Claude McKay, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Ruth Muskrat Bronson, Langston Hughes, Muriel Rukeyser, Gwendolyn Brooks, Dunstan Thompson, Rhina P. Espaillat, Lucille Clifton, Marilyn Hacker, Wanda Coleman, Patricia Smith, Jericho Brown, and Diane Seuss. The sonnets are accompanied by critical essays that likewise draw together diverse voices, methodologies, and historical and theoretical perspectives that represent the burgeoning field of American sonnet studies.

Contributor Essayists
Abdul Ali, Baltimore, MD
Anna Lena Phillips Bell, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
Jodie Childers, Queens, New York
Benjamin Crawford, University of Alabama
Meg Day, Franklin and Marshall College
Donna Denizé, St. Albans School
Michael Dumanis, Bennington College
Jordan Finkin, Hebrew Union College
Rebecca Morgan Frank, Northwestern University
Anna Maria Hong, Mount Holyoke College
Gillian Huang-Tiller, University of Virginia, Wise
Walt Hunter, Clemson University
John James, University of California, Berkeley
Matthew Kilbane, University of Notre Dame
Diana Leca, University of Oxford
Ariel Martino, Colgate University
Nate Mickelson, New York University
Lisa L. Moore, University of Texas at Austin
Timo Müller, University of Konstanz, Germany
Carl Phillips, Washington University in St. Louis
Zoë Pollak, Columbia University
Jonathan F.S. Post, UCLA
Stephen Regan, Durham University, UK
Jahan Ramazani, University of Virginia
Hollis Robbins, University of Utah
Nathan Spoon, Joelton, TN
Marlo Starr, Wittenberg University
Yuki Tanaka, Hosei University, Japan
Tess Taylor, Ashland University
Michael Theune, Illinois Wesleyan University
Eleanor Wakefield, University of Oregon
Lesley Wheeler, Washington and Lee University
Jon Woodson, Howard University emeritus

Contributors Poets
Elizabeth Alexander, Agha Shahid Ali, Julia Alvarez, Maggie Anderson, Tacey Atsitty, Charles Bernstein, Ted Berrigan, Jen Bervin, Elizabeth Bishop, Louise Bogan, Ruth Muskrat Bronson, Gwendolyn Brooks, Jericho Brown, Lucille Clifton, Henri Cole, Wanda Coleman, Countee Cullen, William Cullen Bryant, E.E. Cummings, Meg Day, Natalie Diaz, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Rhina Espaillat, Tarfia Faizullah, Robert Frost, torrin a. greathouse, Marilyn Hacker, Robert Hayden, Terrance Hayes, Anthony Hecht, Lynn Hejinian, Leslie Pinckney Hill, Anna Maria Hong, Langston Hughes, David Humphreys, Helen Hunt Jackson, Tyehimba Jess, Helene Johnson, James Weldon Johnson, June Jordan, Douglas Kearney, Richard Kenney, Joan Larkin, Emma Lazarus, Mani Levb, Amy Lowell, Robert Lowell, Nate Marshall, Bernadette Mayer, George Marion McClellan, Brandy Nalani McDougall, Claude McKay, Joyelle McSweeney, Lo Kwa Mei-en, James Merrill, Phillip Metres, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Simone Muench, Marilyn Nelson, Craig Santos Perez, Carl Phillips, Sylvia Plath, Alexander Posey, Lizette Woodworth Reese, Adrienne Rich, Lola Ridge, Muriel Rukeyeser, Kay Ryan, Diane Seuss, Fradel Shtok, Aaron Shurin, giovanni singleton, Patricia Smith, Mary Ellen Solt, Nathan Spoon, Gertrude Stein, Adrienne Su, Lorenzo Thomas, Dunstan Thompson, Natasha Tretheway, Fredrick Goddard Tuckerman, Mona Van Duyn, Ellen Bryant Voight, Margaret Walker, Lucian B. Watkins, Phillis Wheatley, John Wheelwright, Jackie K. White, Walt Whitman, James Wright, Elinor Wylie

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies

383 pages, Paperback

Published January 12, 2023

About the author

Dora Malech is the author of four collections of poetry: Flourish (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2020), Stet (Princeton University Press, 2018), Say So (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2011), and Shore Ordered Ocean (The Waywiser Press, 2009). She lives in Baltimore, where she is an assistant professor in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University.

Reviews

[Bernie Gourley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first one-third of this book is an anthology of sonnets by American poets that highlight some of the characteristics of form and content that evolved in America. Therefore, one shouldn’t expect these to all be fourteen lines of iambic pentameter. America is the land of Whitman, and discomfort with strict rules and constraining requirements along with a desire to etch one’s individuality and voice into all activities is part of what makes a thing American. It’s an enchanting and suitably diverse (also an inherently American requirement) selection of poems, and I think all poetry readers would enjoy reading it. Included among the almost 100 poets are: Walt Whitman, Phillis Wheatley, Natasha Trethewey, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Agha Shahid Ali, Claude McKay, Edna St. Vincent Millay, e.e. cummings, Countee Cullen, Natalie Diaz, Emma Lazarus, Terrance Hayes, Muriel Rukeyser, Sylvia Plath, James Wright, Gertrude Stein, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Lucille Clifton. The poets run the gamut from the Colonial Era to present-day heavyweights, and their works approach the sonnet from perfectly conventionally to wildly experimentally.

The remainder of the book is a collection of short essays that discuss various aspects of the sonnet in America. While the editors don’t explicitly group the essays, I would put them in three baskets. First, there are those essays that examine the work of a particular poet and discuss that artist’s influence on the sonnet. Second, some of the essays examine sonnets through the lens of a particular demographic and investigate how poets of that demographic have influenced, been influenced by, or modified the sonnet, be it those of a particular race, sexual identity, place on the autistic spectrum, etc. Third, most of the other essays explore technical aspects such as line length, rhyme schemes, metering, etc.

As I mentioned, I believe poetry readers will enjoy the selection of poems anthologized, herein. The essays are another matter. They are much more of a mixed bag for poets and poetry readers and are more geared toward other scholars. That is to say, some of them are both interesting and useful for poets and poetry readers, but others will probably not be of much interest to the non-academic reader. While the essays are brief and most are quite readable, a number of them either delve into arcane matters or tumble so deeply down the rabbit hole of wokeness that it’s hard to grasp what the author’s point is (or whether he or she has one.)

If you enjoy poetry and are interested in the American influence on the sonnet, this book is well worth reading – at least the poems and a selection of the essays.

[J Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

The American Sonnet: An Anthology of Poems and Essays, edited by Dora Malech and Laura T. Smith, is ideal for those who simply enjoy poetry as well as those engaged in formal study.

I no longer teach literature so my interest in this book is as a reader rather than an educator. What appealed to me was a combination of the variety of sonnets and the variety of critical approaches. I sat down a few times and just read some of the poems, though admittedly I like to read them slowly and take time after each to think about them. By having all of the poems together I was able to do this easily without getting sidetracked. I also took a few of the essays that immediately attracted my attention and read them while referring back to the poems. In my electronic review copy this wasn't quite as easy, but in the final copy there will be links between poems mentioned and the essays, so it will be much easier then. I admit to being old fashioned and preferring a bound copy for this type of reading, but that is just me.

I have read a number of books in the past few years that have a poem and an essay about that poem together. Those are wonderful for diving deeper into that one poem (and for learning how to do your own dive into other poems) but it doesn't speak to larger themes and trends between poems, styles, or eras. I liked having essays that were making larger points about the sonnet (and poetry more generally) with references to poems in the anthology that illustrated their points. I learned a lot about the sonnet as a form (a constantly changing form, it turns out) as well as about many of these particular sonnets.

Thinking back on my teaching days, I would have considered this for an upper-level course on the sonnet, but I wouldn't have made my students buy it if we were going to only spend a couple of weeks on it. That said, I would have incorporated some of the essays and poems into a lower-level course. This would also make an excellent addition to a reading list for study on what makes a canon, what is excluded, and why inclusivity is important.

I would recommend this to anyone with an interest in poetry. Whether you want to work your way through it steadily or just have it handy for when you're in the mood, it is designed to be effective either way. It would also be well worth considering for adoption in some courses.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Courtney Bernard · Rating 3 out of 5]

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This year I have been on a mission to broaden my poetry knowledge and I think I hit the jackpot when I found this anthology. Before starting this, I had no idea there was a difference between Sonnets and thought all of them were the same. After reading this I now know that is not the case and appreciate the work that the collaborators put into this to put together a great selection of sonnets that really capture the American spritit and the diversity that comes with poems.

The amount and variety of the sonnets offered in this anthology was appreciated. It provided a great diversity of poets in one single space, both new and old, current and past, many generations and races. The selections are great for those who want to start their poetry collection and knowledge.

The issue I had was with the essays, the both went into way to much detail and also not enough at the same time. My favorite essay was Deafing the Sonnet by Meg Day where she described her experience as a deaf poet and the compared it to other poets who were disabled that were included in the anthology. The shared experiences brought them to life of what the mindset must have been brining the poet to life in a whole new way. I loved that personalization and wished there were more essays that had a similar feel, it took a 200 year old poem I was not interested in and gave it new life.

Final Thoughts: I enjoyed the wide variety of sonnet options collected but, did not enjoy the essays as much. Great for a beginner who wants to get into American sonnets and to have a great reference looking back on for research purposes.

Disclaimer: Thank you Netgalley and University Of Iowa Press for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

[Burgi Zenhaeusern · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wonderful anthology, half exhibit of American sonnets from the beginnings of the US to the present day, half a plethora of essays, is not only informative but also an invitation to build on what's been exposed, to go on a search of one's own. Among many aspects, I was fascinated by the vastly varying viewpoints on the form itself by the essays' authors, their priorities and analyses. It was a good idea to read the anthology very slowly over many weeks in order to fully appreciate its wealth. It is definitely going into my library for reference and further reading. The editors also created a website for The American Sonnet: https://www.theamericansonnet.com/com...

[Brendon Gallacher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really fruitful read, full of interesting poetry and essays that challenge the meaning of 'poet'. Within these, I found "Deafing the Sonnet" by Meg Day to be very intricately put.