101 Sonnets from Shakespeare to Heaney
Edited by Don Paterson
Published Faber and Faber Limited,
129pp, paperback, £4.99
ISBN 0.571-19732-9

(This review appeared in the Summer 2000 number of Poetry Now.)

On my way home to Spain after my last brief visit to the UK, I had an hour to spare after checking in at Heathrow, so I dropped into Hatchards after passport control in Terminal 1.
It's only a small shop, but quite well stocked, so although I didn't really expect to find the reference book of poetic form I was looking for, I glanced through the minimal selection of poetry which was tucked away at the beginning of the fiction section. There I found a book which is proving to be the best buy I've made in years.

101 Sonnets (Faber & Faber, edited by Don Paterson) provides ample choice and variety for 'dipping' and yet is more than a simple anthology. In the 16 page introduction Paterson takes us on a whistlestop tour of the sonnet - its history, origins, techniques and structure - as well as offering us a theory of the naturalness of the form which includes references to superstition, the musical scale and the Fibonacci series. Paterson writes with enthusiasm and obvious expertise but his style is never boringly academic.

He explains the traditional 'rules' governing sonnets, but chooses to make his selection for the anthology based on the loosest possible definition: a poem with fourteen lines. This means that many entries in the book bear little resemblance to an orthodox sonnet, which might be infuriating for the pedant, but results in a charming and diverse selection of poetry. No poet has been allowed more than one entry, which leaves room for examples ranging from Philip Sidney, Shakespeare and John Donne through Milton, Blake and Keats and on into the present day with Larkin, R S Thomas and Wendy Cope. It is hard to think of any well-known English language poet missing from the collection, which demonstrates just how important a form the sonnet has been and still is.

As if a scholarly essay and 101 varied poems were not enough for less than £5, the book is completed by a final section of brief notes on all the poems. The comments range from two lines to nearly twenty, and again Paterson shows his love of the subject and eclectic vision. He takes the opportunity to point out technicalities such as details of rhyme schemes and turns, as well as explaining references the reader may have missed and giving his own personal reaction to the pieces.

When I bought this book as the only thing of any interest in a very limited selection, I chose it thinking that I didn't really like sonnets but ought to know more about them; Don Paterson's enthusiasm is so infectious that I have now started writing them!