The Cambridge Companion to the Sonnetassets.cambridge.org/97805215/14675/frontmatter/9780521514675... · The Cambridge Companion to the Sonnet ... parody: the love sonnet in early

The Cambridge Companion to the Sonnet

Beginning with the early masters of the sonnet form, Dante and Petrarch, this Companion examines the reinvention of the sonnet across times and cultures, from Europe to America. In doing so, it considers sonnets as diverse as those by William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, George Herbert and E. E. Cummings. The chapters explore how we think of the sonnet as a ‘lyric’ and what is involved in actually trying to write one. The book includes a lively discussion between three distinguished contemporary poets – Paul Muldoon, Jeff Hilson, and Meg Tyler – on the experience of writing a sonnet, and a chapter which traces the sonnet’s diffusion across manuscript, print, screen and the internet. A fresh and authoritative overview of this major poetic form, the Companion expertly guides the reader through the sonnet’s history and development into the global multimedia phenomenon it is today.

a. d. cousins is Professor of English at Macquarie University.

peter howarth lectures in the Department of English, Queen Mary, University of London.

A complete list of books in the series is at the back of this book

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T H E C A M B R I D G E

C O M P A N I O N T O

THE SONNET

A. D. COUSINSMacquarie University

andPETER HOWARTH

Queen Mary, University of London

E D I T E D B Y






CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESSCambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore,

São Paulo, Delhi, Dubai, Tokyo, Mexico City

Cambridge University PressThe Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 8ru, UK

Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

www.cambridge.orgInformation on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521735537

© Cambridge University Press 2011

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written

permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2011

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication dataThe Cambridge companion to the sonnet / [edited by] A. D. Cousins, Peter Howarth.

p. cm. – (Cambridge companions to literature)Includes bibliographical references and index.

isbn 978-0-521-51467-5 (hardback) – isbn 978-0-521-73553-7 (paperback)1. Sonnets, English–History and criticism. 2. Sonnets, American–History and

criticism. 3. Sonnet–History and criticism. I. Cousins, A. D., 1950– II. Howarth, Peter, 1973– III. Title. IV. Series.

pr509.s7c36 2011821 .04209–dc22

2010040683

isbn 978-0-521-51467-5 hardbackisbn 978-0-521-73553-7 paperback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in

this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.






For David and Matthew






vii

CONTENTS

List of contributors page ixAcknowledgements x

Introduction 1a. d. cousins and peter howarth

1 Contemporary poets and the sonnet: a trialogue 6paul muldoon, meg tyler and jeff hilson, edited by peter howarth

2 The sonnet and the lyric mode 25heather dubrow

3 The sonnet, subjectivity and gender 46diana e. henderson

4 The English sonnet in manuscript, print and mass media 66arthur f. marotti and marcelle freiman

5 European beginnings and transmissions: Dante, Petrarch and the sonnet sequence 84william j. kennedy

6 Desire, discontent, parody: the love sonnet in early modern England 105catherine bates

7 Shakespeare’s Sonnets 125a. d. cousins






Contents

viii

8 Sacred desire, forms of belief: the religious sonnet in early modern Britain 145helen wilcox

9 Survival and change: the sonnet from Milton to the Romantics 166r. s. white

10 The Romantic sonnet 185michael o’neill

11 The Victorian sonnet 204matthew campbell

12 The modern sonnet 225peter howarth

13 The contemporary sonnet 245stephen burt

Further reading 267Index 271






ix

CONTRIBUTORS

catherine bates University of Warwick

stephen burt Harvard University

matthew campbell University of Sheffield

a. d. cousins Macquarie University

heather dubrow Fordham University

marcelle freiman Macquarie University

diana e. henderson Massachusetts Institute of Technology

jeff hilson Roehampton University

peter howarth Queen Mary, University of London

william j. kennedy Cornell University

arthur f. marotti Wayne State University

paul muldoon Princeton University

michael o’neill University of Durham

meg tyler Boston University

r. s . white University of Western Australia

helen wilcox University of Wales, Bangor






x

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

For advice and encouragement we should like to thank Stephen Burt, Helen and Neil Cadzow, Jim and Maureen Cahillane, Matthew Campbell, RobynCousins, Geoff Payne, Manfred Mackenzie, Marea Mitchell, Dani and Tony Napton, Mauro Di Nicola, Julie Sanders, Sarah Stanton of Cambridge University Press and colleagues at Queen Mary.

Copyright Acknowledgements

Extracts from “The Broken Home” from Collected Poems by James Merrill, edited by J. D. McClatchy and Stephen Yenser, copyright © 2001 by the Literary state of James Merrill at Washington University. Used by per-mission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. “Autumn Refrain” from The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens by Wallace Stevens, copyright 1954 by Wallace Stevens and renewed by Holly Stevens. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. “Sonnet V”, from THE SONNETS by Ted Berrigan, copyright © 2000 by Alice Notley, Literary Executrix of the Estate of Ted Berrigan. Used by permis-sion of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. “O It’s NiceTo Get Up In, the slipshod mucous kiss” is reprinted from Complete Poems 1904–1962, by E. E. Cummings, edited by George J Firmage, by permission of W. W. Norton & Company. Copyright © 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust and George James Firmage. ‘Protection’ from MotherLove by Rita Dove, copyright © 1995 by Rita Dove. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Co, Ltd. The editors are grateful to Carcanet Press and Georges Borchardt, Inc., to Professor Geoffrey Hill for permission to quote from ‘September Song’, to Michelle Leggott and Auckland University Press to use extracts from ‘a nautilus’, and to Robert Cornfield, Inc. for permis-sion to quote Edwin Denby’s ‘The Climate’. Every effort has been made to contact other rightsholders; in the event of any query, please contact the publisher.






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The Cambridge Companion to the Sonnetassets.cambridge.org/97805215/14675/frontmatter/9780521514675... · The Cambridge Companion to the Sonnet ... parody: the love sonnet in early