This exquisite volume brings together some of the finest sonnets in American literature. Featuring work by Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, and many other luminaries, it is a celebration of the sonnet form and its enduring power. With helpful biographical notes and indexes, this book is perfect for scholars and lovers of poetry alike. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Excerpt from Representative Sonnets by American Poets: With an Essay on the Sonnet, Its Nature and History, Including Many Notable Sonnets of Other Literatures, Also Biographical Notes, Indexes, Etc The design of this work is to group as many of the best sonnets in American literature as can be included in a volume of convenient size, and to make the selection as widely representative as possible while giving to the most eminent sonnet-writers a proper prominence by more numerous examples of their work. The editor has endeavored to apply to every sonnet the test of merit: first, for genuine poetic thought; second, for melodious expression and a reasonable regard for the accepted forms. Sonnets of merit in imagination and structure have been rejected in some cases because they contained some repellent idea or discordant note. Again, it has seemed well to allow some subjects to be represented by several sonnets in order to secure the best work of each author, regardless of subject, as well as to give the additional interest of comparing the various views of the same theme. Generally it has been intended to place the finest of an author's sonnets at the head, but occasionally it has been put at the close or else-where, when the exceptional arrangement enhanced the general effect. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.