Crown of sonnets

A crown of sonnets or sonnet corona is a sequence of sonnets, usually addressed to one person, and/or concerned with a single theme. Each of the sonnets explores one aspect of the theme, and is linked to the preceding and succeeding sonnets by repeating the final line of the preceding sonnet as its first line. The first line of the first sonnet is repeated as the final line of the final sonnet, thereby bringing the sequence to a close.

Heroic crown

An advanced form of crown of sonnets is also called a sonnet redoublé or heroic crown, comprising fifteen sonnets, in which the sonnets are linked as described above, but the final binding sonnet is made up of all the first lines of the preceding fourteen, in order. The fifteenth sonnet is called the Mastersonnet. This form was invented by the Siena Academy, which was formed in 1460, but there are no existing crowns of sonnets written by them. The form was first described by Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni in his work L'Istoria della volgar poesia (History of Vernacular Poetry), published in Venice, 1731 and later by P.G. Bisso in his Introduzione alla volgar poesia (Introduction to Vernacular Poetry), published in Venice, 1794. A variation on the form is sometimes used in which the binding sonnet is the first sonnet, and subsequent sonnets end with a line taken from it in order.

The format of crowns of sonnets crown was published in Brazil by the poet Paulo Camelo in 2002, whose title said of its content: "Coroas de uma coroa" (Crowns of a crown). In Europe, the first crown of sonnets of crowns of sonnets was published in the Netherlands in 2016: Een kruisweg van alledaags leed (ISBN 978-94-90855-15-4), edited by Bas Jongenelen and Martijn Neggers. 14 crowns made 14 Mastersonnets. These Mastersonnets are a crown on their own, generating another Mastersonnet, which is called the Grandmastersonnet.

A Wreath of Sonnets (Slovene: Sonetni venec) is a crown of sonnets by the Slovene Romantic poet France Prešeren. It was written in 1833 and was enriched with acrostic in the master sonnet. Prešeren's crown of sonnets was translated into Russian in 1889, which had great influence on many poets, including Valery Bryusov. Jaroslav Seifert wrote his sentimental Věnec sonetů (A Wreath of Sonnets) in this form about Prague, with an authorized translation by Jan Křesadlo, who also composed his own emigre riposte in the same format, as well as writing several other sonnet cycles. The poet Venko Markovski wrote and published more than 100 crowns of sonnets, which also contained acrostics dedicated to various historical figures. In 2007, the Russian poet Natalia Shamberova published "The Mists of August", a wreath of wreaths: 211 interlacing sonnets composed of 14 wreaths of sonnets to form the wreath of magistrals, and a final sonnet called the magistrals' magistral.

The children's book A Wreath for Emmett Till by Marilyn Nelson also follows the form of a heroic crown of sonnets. Another well-known and frequent author of contemporary crowns of sonnets is Marilyn Hacker. "Intertidal", a collaborative crown of sonnets by contemporary poets Judith Barrington, Annie Finch, Julie Kane, Julia Lisella, D'Arcy Randall, Kathrine Varnes, and Lesley Wheeler, was organized through discussion on the Wom-Po listserv and published in 2007. Examples also include John Donne's "Corona" (Crown) and Lady Mary Wroth's "A Crown of Sonnets Dedicated to Love". Notable crowns of sonnets have recently been published by Linda Bierds, Andrea Carter Brown, Robert Darling, Moira Egan, Jenny Factor, Andrei Krylov, Rachael Briggs, Julie Fay, Constance Merritt, Julie Sophia Paegle, Marie Ponsot, Patricia Smith, Marilyn Taylor, Natasha Trethewey, David Trinidad, John Murillo, John McDonough, Kathrine Varnes, Angela Alaimo O'Donnell, Laurie Ann Guerrero, and Robert Luis Rodriguez. John Patrick McDonough's "Heroic Crown of Heroic Crowns" is forthcoming in 2020.

See also

• Sonnet cycle