The Book of the Sonnet

Edited by Leigh Hunt and S. Adams Lee

The 530 selections by 136 authors span English and American literature up to the late Nineteenth Century, with an extensive list of women sonneteers.

Bibliographic Record

Contents

Introductory Letter

BOSTON: ROBERTS BROTHERS, 1867
NEW YORK: BARTLEBY.COM, 2012

An Essay on the Cultivation, History, and Varieties of the Species of Poem called the Sonnet
I.		On the Desirableness of Cultivating the Sonnet
II.		Of the Nature and Properties of the Sonnet, particularly the Sonnet called Legitimate
III.		Of Guittone d’ Arezzo, and of the Sonnets of Dante and Petrarca
IV.		Of the other Principal Sonnet-Writers of Italy
V.		Of Other Legitimate but Obsolete Forms of the Sonnet, particularly the Comic Sonnet
VI.		Of English Sonnets, and of the Sonnet Illegitimate, or Quatorzen
American Sonnets and Sonneteers

English Sonnets
Sir Thomas Wyatt. 1503–1542.	Brunet and Phyllis
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. 1517–1547.	Description of Spring and Summer
	Recollections of the Time He Spent in Windsor Castle
	Epitaph on His Squire, Thomas Clere
	On the Life and Death of Sardanapalus
Sir Philip Sidney. 1554–1586.	On His Having Obtained a Prize at a Tournament
	Death an Ordinance of Nature, and Therefore Good
	Sonnet to the Moon
	Sonnet to Sleep
Sir Walter Raleigh. 1554?–1618.	On Spenser’s “Faery Queen”
Edmund Spenser. 1552?–1599.	To His Sonnets, on Sending Them to His Mistress
	To One Who Objected to Pride in His Mistress
	Spring Sent to His Mistress Like a Herald
	Absence Lamented, Dove-like
William Shakespeare. 1564–1616.	The Poet Laments to a Friend His Profession as an Actor
	The Consciousness of Being Loved by a Noble Nature a Triumph over All Troubles
	To His Lady upon Her Playing on the Virginals
	What Singing Birds and Flowers Are in the Absence of the Beloved Person
	True Love Not at the Mercy of Time and Circumstance
	He Laments That the Countenance of Some Great and Worthy Patron Seems to Be Diverted from Him
	Affection Most Loving When It Most Fears to Lose
	True Self-Sacrifice of Love
Ben Jonson. 1572–1637.	To the King’s Household on Their Withholding His Allowance of Sack
William Drummond, of Hawthornden. 1585–1649.	Youth Unexpectedly Smitten by Love
	Sense of the Fragility of All Things and of the Unseasonableness of Passion in Love, No Preventive of Love or Poetry
	He Mourns the Loss of His Mistress
	Recollections of His Lost Bride
	To a Bird Singing
	The Praise of a Solitary Life
John Milton. 1608–1674.	When the Assault Was Intended to the City
	On the Detraction Which Followed upon the Writing of Certain Treatises
	On the Late Massacre in Piedmont
	On His Blindness
	On the Same
	To the Nightingale
	Invitation to an Attic Feast
	A Dream of His Lost Wife
Thomas Gray. 1716–1771.	On the Death of His Friend West
Thomas Warton. 1728–1790.	Written on a Blank Leaf of Dugdale’s Monasticon
	After Seeing the Collection of Pictures at Wilton House
	On Revisiting the River Loddon
Samuel Jackson Pratt. 1749–1814.	Revisiting a Birthplace Which Was Not Happy
Charlotte Smith. 1749–1806.	Poetry and Sorrow
	Written at the Close of Spring
	On Children at Play
	To the Moon
	On the Departure of the Nightingale
	“Out of Doors While the Hamlet Is Sleeping”
Anna Seward. 1747–1809.	Rising Early to Read, on a Winter’s Morning
	Consolatory Power of a Love of Nature
	No Barrenness in Nature without Beauty
	A Stormy November Evening, Gradually Clearing up in a Mountainous Country
Helen Maria Williams. 1761?–1827.	To Hope
Mrs. Mary Darby Robinson. 1757?–1800.	The Temple of Chastity
Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges. 1762–1837.	Echo and Silence
William Lisle Bowles. 1762–1850.	Church Bells
	A Grave in a Convent
	To Time
	A Landscape
	Winter Evening at Home
	Hope
Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 1772–1834.	On Leaving School
	“With Fielding’s Amelia”
	On Seeing a Youth Affectionately Welcomed by a Sister
	To Bowles
	Thoughts During the Singing of a Beautiful Song
	To the Author of “The Robbers”
	On the Last Failure of Kosciusko
	News of the Birth of a Child
	A New-born Child and Its Parent
	Farewell to Love
	Fancy in Nubibus
	To the River Otter
Charles Lamb. 1775–1834.	To Miss Kelly, the Actress
	Craving for Leisure
	In the Album of Edith S——.
	Written at Cambridge
Charles Lloyd. 1775–1839.	To November
Bernard Barton. 1784–1849.	To My Wife
	To a Grandmother
William Wordsworth. 1770–1850.	Pleasant, Voluntary Prison of the Sonnet
	Placid Objects of Contemplation
	Wanting Sleep
	Landscape Painting
	A Light in a Distant Window among Mountains
	Personal Talk
	Personal Talk (continued)
	Personal Talk and Books
	Personal Talk (concluded)
	“Composed upon Westminster Bridge, Sept. 3, 1803”
	A Parsonage in Oxfordshire
	London, 1802
	Sonnet: “It is a beauteous evening, calm and free”
	To the Planet Venus,—An Evening Star
	After Visiting the Field of Waterloo
	The Worst Pangs of Sorrow
	Death Conquering and Death Conquered
Robert Southey. 1774–1843.	To a Lark
	The Ship Setting out
	The Ship in a Storm
	The Ship Returning
Edward Hovell-Thurlow, Lord Thurlow. 1781–1829.	Summer
	The Harvest Moon
Professor John Wilson. 1785–1854.	The Evening Cloud
	The Lake in Storm
	The Lake in Calm
	Nature’s Organ-Music in the Mountains
Charles Mackay. 1814–1889.	Angelic Visitants
	Love and Beauty
William Sotheby. 1757–1833.	The Winter’s Morn
Henry Kirke White. 1785–1806.	On Hearing the Sounds of an Æolian Harp
	Retirement
Joseph Blanco White. 1775–1841.	To Night
George Gordon Noel, Lord Byron. 1788–1824.	The Prisoner of Chillon
	Heavenly and Earthly Beauty Combined
Percy Bysshe Shelley. 1792–1822.	To Wordsworth
	Political Greatness
	Ozymandias
	Sonnet: “Ye hasten to the dead!”
John Keats. 1795–1821.	“On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer”
	On the Grasshopper and Cricket
	On Reading “The Flower and the Leaf” of Chaucer
	“On Leigh Hunt’s Poem, the ‘Story of Rimini’”
	The Lover Left by His Love at Evening
	On Fame
	To Sleep
	To J. H. Reynolds
	Answer to a Sonnet Ending Thus
	His Last Sonnet
James Henry Leigh Hunt. 1784–1859.	Quiet Evenings
	To the Grasshopper and the Cricket
	To My Wife
	To Kosciusko
	On a Lock of Milton’s Hair
	The Nile
Vincent Leigh Hunt. 1823–1852.	The Deformed Child
Laman Blanchard. 1803–1845.	Creativeness of a Loving Eye
	A Wish for the Unfadingness of the Loving Eye
Hartley Coleridge. 1796–1849.	First Words of Adam
	Sonnet to a Friend
	“Long time a child”
	May-time in England
	Second Nuptials
	A Premature Old Bachelor, He Congratulates a Bridegroom
Mrs. Felicia Dorothea Hemans. 1793–1835.	The Lilies of the Field
	A Vernal Thought
	Flowers
	The Twilight Hour
	Sabbath Sonnet
Thomas Hood. 1799–1845.	Written in a Volume of Shakespeare
	To Fancy
	To a Sleeping Child (I.)
	To a Sleeping Child (II.)
	Death
	Love
Bryan Waller Procter. 1787–1874.	Spring
	A Still Place
	To Adelaide
	To Edith—1845
William Henry Whitworth	The Pyramids
	Nipped Buds Better Than Later Disappointments
Thomas Doubleday. 1790–1870.	The Poet’s Solitude
	Life
William Green	A Sultry Summer Afternoon
	Melody and Harmony
	Gentle Greatness Undervalued, till Lost
Charles Strong	“My window’s open to the evening sky”
	Sunrise at Sea, on a Southern Misty Morning
	A Moment of Dread in Modern Pompeii
	Lovely Companionship
Richard Chenevix Trench. 1807–1886.	Enjoy the Present
	To Nicholas, Emperor of Russia
	To Silvio Pellico
Sir John Hanmer. 1809–1881.	America
	Petrarca
	The Steamboat
	The Pine Woods
	Singing-Birds
	Art
	Chaucer
	The Merchant
Henry Alford. 1810–1871.	“Rise, said the Master, come unto the feast”
Arthur Brooke	Resignation
Edmund Peel	To the River Tees
	Zeal without Knowledge
	To Winter
Sir Aubrey de Vere. 1788–1846.	Time Misspent
	Origin of the Soul
	The Opening of the Tomb of Charlemagne
	Diocletian at Salona
	Queen Elizabeth
David Lester Richardson. 1801–1865.	To My Twin Boys
	Fine Weather at Sea
	A Calm after a Gale
	Evening at Sea
Henry Ellison. 1811–1880.	On the Arrival of the Vessel Announcing the Settlement of Differences with America
	Poetry a Daily Bread
	By the Sea-shore
	Against Pride of Intellect
	A Privilege Worth a Hard Earning
	A Music Yet Unknown, Remaining to Be Heard on Earth
Egerton Webbe. 1810–1840.	To a Fog
Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton. 1809–1885.	Happiness
	After Revisiting Cambridge after a Long Absence
	To Charles Lamb
	The Forest
Thomas Wade. 1805–1875.	Shelley and Keats, and Their “Reviewer”
	Shelley
	A Prophecy
	Calvus
Thomas James Judkin	Special Pleading
	“Eureka!”
	A Character, Drawn from the Life
	Picking and Stealing
George Powell Thomas	To Constance, in Absence
	The Same Subject
	To Fame
	The First Railway Train in India
	Jumnotree
George James De Wilde	The Water-Mill
	Wheathamstead
	Eydon Hall
	On the Arrival of Spring
John Watson Dalby	At Berkhamstead
	The Subject Continued
	A Wayside Adventure
	Same Subject Continued
	A Sleepless Night
	At the Aust Ferry Hotel
	A Rencontre at Tytherington
Alfred Tennyson. 1809–1892.	The Polish Insurrection
	A Soldier-Priest
	Sonnet: “O, were I loved as I desire to be”
Charles Tennyson. 1808–1879.	The Delights of Intellect Unperturbing
	On Seeing a Child Blush on His First View of a Corpse
	The Rainbow
	The Ringlet
	On Startling Some Pigeons
	Silkworms and Spiders
Frederick Tennyson. 1807–1898.	The Village Benefactress
	Her Visits to Her Mother’s Grave
	Her Secret Grief
	Her Sickness and Recovery
	Her Exemption from the Common Aspects of Decay
	A Wish for Her During the Remainder of Her Life
Aubrey Thomas de Vere. 1814–1902.	Reasons for Being Beloved
	Requesting to Be Judged by the Desire, and Not by the Desert
	Love Self-Sacrificed
	Love Vindicating Its Rejecter
	Venice by Day
	Venice in the Evening
	Independence
	Correggio’s Cupolas at Parma
	Written While Sailing on the Gulf of Lepanto
Edmund Ollier. 1827–1886.	On Wilson’s Picture of Solitude
	A Dream
	A Vision of Old Babylon
	The Subject of Babylon Continued (I.)
	The Subject of Babylon Continued (II.)
Caroline Elizabeth Sarah (Sheridan) Norton. 1808–1877.	Sonnet: “Like an enfranchised bird, that wildly springs”
	To My Books
Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 1806–1861.	Expressionless
	Tears
	Perplexed Music
	Futurity with the Departed
	The Poet
	Hugh Stuart Boyd: His Blindness
	Hugh Stuart Boyd: Legacies
	Flush or Faunus
	“The face of all the world is changed”
	“What can I give thee back”
	“Can it be right to give what I can give?”
	“Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed”
	“And therefore, if to love can be desert”
	“Indeed this very love which is my boast”
	“And wilt thou have me fashion into speech”
David Gray. 1838–1861.	To the Mavis
	To a Brooklet
	To the Moon
	Morphia
	The Moon
	Maidenhood
	The Luggie
Alexander Smith. 1830–1867.	Solitary at Christmas, but Not Sad
	The Christmas Solitude Varied with the Christmas Streets
	Prophetical Self-reflected Words
William Allingham. 1824–1889.	One’s Own Mood Reflected in a Day-dream
	Autumnal Twilight, with Friends
	One’s Own Tombstone
James Dodds. 1813–1874.	Craigcrook
John Hunter	A Replication of Rhymes
	Elia
	Autumn Twilight
	Day-dawn
John Stuart Blackie. 1809–1895.	To James Dodds and John Hunter
	Highland Solitude
	At Loch Ericht
	Ben Muichdhui
	The Statue of Albert Dürer at Nürnberg
	Weimar
	Berlin
	Loch Ericht
American Sonnets
Colonel David Humphreys. 1753–1818.	The Soul
	Addressed to His Royal Highness, the Prince of Brazil
Richard Bingham Davis. 1771–1799.	To Music
	To the Setting Moon
	To Felicia, on Her Return to New York
Robert Treat Paine. 1773–1811.	To Belinda
	To the Country Girl
	To Anna Louisa, on Her Ode to Fancy
	Elegiac Sonnet
	To Philenia, on a Stanza in Her Address to Myra
Washington Allston. 1779–1843.	On a Falling Group, in the Last Judgment of Michael Angelo
	On Rembrandt, Occasioned by His Picture of Jacob’s Dream
	On Seeing the Picture of Æolus, by Pellegrino Tibaldi
	On the Death of Coleridge
	On a Statue of an Angel, by Benaimé, of Rome
William Cullen Bryant. 1794–1878.	October
	Midsummer
	November
	Consumption
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 1807–1882.	Autumn
	Dante
	The Good Shepherd
	The Brook
James Gates Percival. 1795–1856.	The Poet
	Night
	“Winter is now around me”
	“The blue heaven spreads before me”
Jones Very. 1813–1880.	The Robin
	Morning
	Thy Beauty Fades
	The Spirit-land
George Hill. 1796–1871.	Liberty
	Spring
Park Benjamin. 1809–1864.	Flowers Love’s Truest Language
	The Stars
	Spring
	Twilight
	“Is this a painting?”
	A Storm in Autumn
	Domestic Love
	The Same
	Snow
	To a Lady
Henry Theodore Tuckerman. 1813–1871.	Freedom
	On a Landscape, by Backhuysen
	To Jenny Lind
	Desolation
	To One Deceived
	“O for a castle on a woodland height!”
	“The rain-drops patter on the casement still”
	“The buds have opened, and in leafy pride”
	“What though our dream is broken?”
William Gilmore Simms. 1806–1870.	Trophies—How Planted
	Where Planted
	The Triumph
	Glory and Enduring Fame
William Henry Burleigh. 1812–1871.	The Brook
	Rain
James Dixon. 1814–1873.	To a Robin
	Connecticut River
	Sunset after a Storm
	Moonlight in June
	To Mrs. Sigourney
Rev. Norman Pinney. 1800–1862.	“Calm Twilight! in thy wild and stilly time”
	“Still unto thee, my brightest, fairest, best”
Hugh Peters. 1807–1831.	Ad Poetas
	To the Moon
George Henry Boker. 1823–1890.	“I do assure thee, love, each kiss of thine”
	“I shall be faithful, though the weary years”
	The Awaking of the Poetic Faculty
	“Love is that orbit of the restless soul”
	“Where lags my mistress while the drowsy year”
	“No gentle touches of your timid hand”
	“I have been mounted on life’s topmost wave”
	To the Memory of M. A. R.
	To J. M. B.
	“No hope is mine, no comfort mine”
	“Absence from thee is something worse than death”
	To England
James Russell Lowell. 1819–1891.	“I ask not for those thoughts, that sudden leap”
	To M. W., on Her Birthday
	“Beloved! in the noisy city here”
	To A. C. L.
Richard Henry Wilde. 1789–1847.	To Lord Byron
	To the Mocking-bird
John Howard Bryant. 1807–1902.	“There is a magic in the moon’s mild ray”
	“’T is Autumn, and my steps have led me far”
George Henry Calvert. 1803–1889.	On the Fifty-fifth Sonnet of Shakespeare
	To the Statue of Eve, by Powers
Nathaniel Parker Willis. 1806–1867.	“Storm had been on the hills”
	Acrostic Sonnet
William Henry Cuyler Hosmer. 1814–1877.	On a Cascade near Wyoming
	Night
Epes Sargent. 1813–1880.	The Departure
	The Awakening
	Tropical Weather
Bayard Taylor. 1825–1878.	From the North
	To G. H. B.
	To E. C. S.
	To R. H. S.
	To J. L. G.
Richard Henry Stoddard. 1825–1903.	To Bayard Taylor
	To Edmund Clarence Stedman
	To James Lorimer Graham, Jr.
	Florence Nightingale
	Colonel Frederick Taylor
	To Jervis McEntee, Artist
Edmund Clarence Stedman. 1833–1908.	A Mother’s Picture
	Hope Deferred
	The Swallow
	To B. T.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich. 1836–1907.	Euterpe
	Pursuit and Possession
	Accomplices
	Egypt
Paul Hamilton Hayne. 1830–1886.	Ancient Fables
	“Pent in this common sphere of sensual shows”
	“Now, while the Rear-Guard of the flying Year”
	October
	Poets of the Olden Time
	“O God! what glorious seasons bless thy world!”
	“O Faithful heart! on balmy nights like this”
	“An hour agone!—and prostrate Nature lay”
	“Between the sunken sun, and the new moon”
	“Spirits there are inwrought with vilest clay”
Thomas Buchanan Read. 1822–1872.	The Master Bards
	To Wordsworth
	Indian Summer
	Beatrice
John R. Thompson. 1823–1873.	Sonnets to Winter. I. Old Wine to Drink
John Esten Cooke. 1830–1886.	Sonnets to Winter. II. Old Wood to Burn
John R. Thompson. 1823–1873.	Sonnets to Winter. III. Old Books to Read
John Esten Cooke. 1830–1886.	Sonnets to Winter. IV. Old Friends to Love
Henry Timrod. 1828–1867.	“At last, beloved Nature, I have met”
	“Fate! seek me out some lake far off and lone”
	“Are these wild thoughts thus fettered in my rhymes”
	“Mary! I dare not call thy charms divine”
	“Which are the clouds, and which the mountains?”
	“Were I the Poet Laureate of the Fairies”
William H. Timrod. 1792–1838.	An Autumnal Day in Carolina
	The May Queen
John Godfrey Saxe. 1816–1887.	To a Clam
	Bereavement
John R. Tait. 1834–1909.	To a Poet, with a Copy of Verses
	Written at Vallombrosa
	To ———.
	“The years, swift waves upon the sea of Time”
	Poets
John James Piatt. 1835–1917.	Learning Prayers
C. E. Da Ponte	A Lover’s Sonnet
H.	“Now tripping forth, the fairy-footed Spring”
	“Nay, chide me not that I am jealous, love”
	“Come, dear one, smile consent!”
	“Come, dearest, to my heart”
Jedidiah Vincent Huntington. 1815–1862.	On Reading Bryant’s Poem of “The Winds”
George Lunt. 1803–1885.	“O friend! whose genial spirit”
	A Statesman
Henry Lynden Flash. 1835?–1914.	Adele
Albert Laighton. 1829–1887.	“Night and its dews come silently to earth”
Benjamin Penhallow Shillaber. 1814–1890.	On a Picture of Lillie
	Domestic
	Church Music
	The Snow
	Moonshine
	A Summer Night
Charles Fenno Hoffman. 1806–1884.	To an Autumn Rose
Anonymous	“O’er the far waters floats the boatman’s song”
	To Poesy
	To My Wife
	Sabbath Morning
	To a Cloud
Female Sonneteers
Mrs. Elizabeth Oakes Smith. 1806–1893.	Expressionless
	Regrets
	Poesy
	An Incident
	The Unattained
	The Wife
	The Dream
	Wayfarers
	To the Hudson
Frances Anne Kemble. 1809–1893.	To Shakespeare
	“What is my lady like?”
	To the Nightingale
	To Shakespeare
	“By jasper founts, whose falling waters make”
	“Spirit of all sweet sounds!”
	“Whene’er I recollect the happy time”
	“Like one who walketh in a plenteous land”
Anne Charlotte Lynch. 1815–1891.	On Seeing the Ivory Statue of Christ
	“The honey-bee, that wanders all day long”
	“Night closes round me, and wild threatening forms”
	“As some dark stream within a cavern’s breast”
	“The mountain lake, o’ershadowed by the hills”
Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale. 1788–1879.	Woman’s Empire Defined
	The Daughter
	The Sister
	The Wife
	The Mother
Mrs. Mary Noel McDonald	“Come with thy rose-wreaths, fair and laughing June!”
	“I would be with thee on the sunny hills”
	“Alas! it may not be”
	The First Snow
	The Frozen Stream
	Winter Twilight
	Night
Mrs. Elizabeth Clementine Kinney. 1810–1889.	Fading Autumn
	A Winter Night
	Cultivation
	Encouragement
	To a Violet Found in December
Mrs. Anna Maria Lowell	In Absence
Mrs. Elizabeth Jesup Eames. 1813–1856.	Twilight
	The Moon
	The Star
	A Cloud
Mrs. Elizabeth F. Swift	To Estelle
	“Moonlight upon the hills!”
Mrs. Emma Catharine Embury. 1806–1863.	Confidence in Heaven
	“He who has travelled through some weary day”
Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman. 1803–1878.	Faded Flowers
Mrs. Anna Maria Wells	To a Young Mother
Mrs. Elizabeth Fries Ellet. 1818–1877.	“Shepherd, with meek brow wreathed with blossoms sweet”
	“O weary heart, there is a rest for thee!”
Mrs. Alice Bradley Neal. 1828–1863.	Midnight
	Daybreak
Tranquilla	“If all the world had told me thou wert false”
	“I love thee yet!”
Sarah Gould	Pauline