This is a small collection of sonnet’s greatest hits, sort of. About 25 of them, from Browning to Shakespeare and Petrarch.
Unfortunately, the poems appear in a handwritten font (calligraphy, the credits call it) and they have “illustrations” on the left page of each. The font hurt my eyes, and I ignored the illustrations totally.
Still, I enjoyed some of the poems (again, in many cases, as the major ones are anthologized everywhere else). A couple points:
- Translated poems, especially those in tight forms like sonnets, probably come through very garbled from the original.
- Based on these sonnets, I might have been one of the best sonneteers of the late 20th century before I retired. If I could get my two year old to illustrate the book, I could probably match this volume.
Overall, the volume probably isn’t worth your time unless you really dig eye-crossing simulated handwriting.
