101 Sonnets is a collection of sonnets from hundred and one different poets, with an informative introduction and interesting piece of commentary. In the introduction part Paterson describes the history of sonnet and some of its commonly known structures, metres, and rhyme schemes: most familiarly a "turn" between an eight line octet and a six line sestet, iambic pentameter, and Italian (ABBAABBA CDCDCD) or English (ABAB CDCD EFEF GG) rhymes. There are many alternatives to these, however, and Paterson argues that strict definitions of a sonnet are unworkable — "the only qualification for entry in this book is that the poem should have fourteen lines" (and one fails even that).
Many of the selections he has considred are unsurprising — poets such as Donne, Keats, Yeats and Dickinson as well as Shakespeare and Heaney — but many less familiar ones are also included. The sonnets themselves are arranged thematically rather than chronologically or alphabetically. All are properly organized by indices.
Eighteen pages of endnotes offer short paragraph comments on each poem, providing snippets of background and context and touching on issues of form or style. These are thought-provoking — just enough to make one stop and think without ever being obscure or pretentious. End note this book is a very good collection and a must read.
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