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Sonnets may well be the most studied and practiced poetic forms in the English language. The Academy of American Poets defines a sonnet as: “a fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter, employing one of several rhyme schemes, and adhering to a tightly structured thematic organization. … The name is taken from the Italian sonetto, which means ‘a little sound or song.'” Poets like those below have been experimenting with the form for hundreds of years.

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“Sonnet,” Cathy Park Hong

“White, White Collars,” Denis Johnson

“First Alzheimer’s Sonnet,” Marilyn Nelson

“Durian Sonnet from ‘A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure’,” Hoa Nguyen

“Cha-ching,” Zakia Henderson-Brown

“Sonnet,” W. S. Merwin

“The Mariner’s Progress.” Ishion Hutchinson

“Legendary #1: New York City, 1987,” Nicole Sealey

“from ‘The Lichtenberg Figures’,” Ben Lerner

“The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America or Something like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatley,” June Jordan

“Sonnet: The History of Puerto Rico,” Jack Agüeros

National Poetry Monthpoems and poetryAfrican American Reviewboundary 2CallalooHanging LooseHarvard ReviewObsidian IIIPloughsharesPoetryThe American Poetry ReviewThe Hudson ReviewThe Massachusetts Review

Resources

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Sonnet
By: Cathy Park Hong
Harvard Review, No. 39 (2010), p. 122
Harvard Review
White, White Collars
By: Denis Johnson
The American Poetry Review, Vol. 9, No. 1 (JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1980), p. 40
Old City Publishing, Inc.
First Alzheimer's Sonnet
By: Marilyn Nelson
Obsidian III, Vol. 5, No. 1, Special Issue: Black Poetry and the Politics of Black Writing (Spring/Summer 2004), p. 40
Board of Trustees of Illinois State University
Durian Sonnet from "A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure"
By: Hoa Nguyen
boundary 2, Vol. 42, No. 4 (November 2015), p. 38
Duke University Press
Cha-ching
By: zakia henderson-brown
African American Review, Vol. 49, No. 1 (Spring 2016), p. 59
The Johns Hopkins University Press on behalf of African American Review (St. Louis University)
Sonnet
By: W. S. Merwin
The Hudson Review, Vol. 52, No. 2 (Summer, 1999), p. 269
The Hudson Review, Inc
The Mariner's Progress
By: ISHION HUTCHINSON
Poetry, Vol. 211, No. 1 (OCTOBER 2017), pp. 20-23
Poetry Foundation
Legendary #1: New York City, 1987
By: Nicole Sealey
Callaloo, Vol. 32, No. 4, Middle Eastern & North African Writers (Winter, 2009), p. 1075
The Johns Hopkins University Press
from "The Lichtenberg Figures"
By: Ben Lerner
Ploughshares, Vol. 28, No. 4 (Winter, 2002/2003), pp. 129-133
Ploughshares
The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America or Something like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatley
By: June Jordan
The Massachusetts Review, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Summer, 1986), pp. 252-262
The Massachusetts Review, Inc.
Sonnet: The History of Puerto Rico
By: Jack Agüeros
Hanging Loose, pp. 5
Hanging Loose