The Sonnet
Joseph Bottum
The sonnet was an alien form, an import from Renaissance Italian that demanded from English unlikely rhymes and unnatural structures. It’s improbable success in English poetry is one of the great stories of poetic change —with writers from Thomas Wyatt (1503–1542) down to the 21st century, with Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Keats, E.B. Browning, Millay, and innumerable others dedicating themselves to the form.
In this course, we will look at the history and the structure of the sonnet, and workshop our own sonnets. This course is designed for experienced sonneteers, as well as poets looking for an introduction to writing in this powerful form.
