
“When a sonnet is mediocre it is bad, for it should be sublime.”
History of My Life (trans. Trask 1967), 1997 reprint, v. 7, chapter 7, p. 143
Referenced
Source: An Introduction to English Poetry (2002), Ch. 22: Poetic Drama and Opera (p. 125)
“When a sonnet is mediocre it is bad, for it should be sublime.”
History of My Life (trans. Trask 1967), 1997 reprint, v. 7, chapter 7, p. 143
Referenced
“Yes, there's love if you want it. Don't sound like no sonnet, my lord.”
Urban Hymns (1997)
“When my sonnet was rejected, I exclaimed, 'Damn the age; I will write for Antiquity!”
Letter to Proctor (January 22, 1829), in Oxford Dictionary of Quotations by Subject (2000), p. 526
“Cease from sonneting, my brothers; let us fashion songs from life.”
"Auctorial Induction"
The Certain Hour (1916)
Context: We are talking over telephones, as Shakespeare could not talk;
We are riding out in motor-cars where Homer had to walk;
And pictures Dante labored on of mediaeval Hell
The nearest cinematograph paints quicker, and as well. But ye copy, copy always; — and ye marvel when ye find
This new beauty, that new meaning, — while a model stands behind,
Waiting, young and fair as ever, till some singer turn and trace
Something of the deathless wonder of life lived in any place.
Hey, my masters, turn from piddling to the turmoil and the strife!
Cease from sonneting, my brothers; let us fashion songs from life.
Letter to His Mother (1609)
“Rafael made a century of sonnets.”
Stanza ii.
One Word More (1855)