The Making of a Sonnet: A Norton Anthology by Eavan Boland (Stanford University)
This illuminating anthology follows the sonnet through its various moments and makers over five and a half centuries. Edward Hirsch and Eavan Boland, two of our foremost poets, focus on vicissitudes, paying particular attention to how individual poets-from Shakespeare to Strand-have claimed these fourteen lines: lengthened them, shortened them, elaborated on them, and, in turn, been defined by them. Three sections-The Sonnet in the Mirror, The Sonnet Goes to Different Lengths, and The Sonnet extraordinary durability and its reinventions. The collection opens with personal introductions by the editors, and, in the appendix, they provide Ten Questions for a Sonnet Workshop to jump-start a conversation between students and teachers. With more than three hundred poems, The Making of a Sonnet guides readers through a vigorous adventures in craft and practice, right up to its extraordinary resurgence in contemporary poetry.