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African American Sonnets: A Collection

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Social Justice in Sonnet Form

The sonnet is one of the most persistent and popular European poetic forms. Traditionally, sonnets have fourteen lines, fixed meter (often ten syllables to a line in English sonnets and Iambic Pentameter), and a fixed rhyme scheme. Since the early modern period – and perhaps due in part to the popularity of Shakespeare’s sonnets, the sonnet form has also been associated with expressions of romantic love or desire. The most common English sonnet form has fourteen lines, grouped into three rhyming groups of four lines (quatrains) and a final two lines (couplet); this is also called the Elizabethan sonnet, as it was favored by Shakespeare. Alongside the Elizabethan sonnet, many poets use the Petrarchan sonnet format, which consists of a group of eight lines and six lines, with a somewhat different rhyme scheme. 

Some sonnets in the African American tradition do follow these patterns, but others break the pattern in various  ways. One important innovation in African American poetry is the frequent use of the sonnet form in poems focused on social justice and racial justice themes. Black poets from this period used this very conventional -- but also flexible -- European form to celebrate revolutionary and militant figures like Toussaint L'Ouverture or John Brown, or to condemn racialized violcence. 

The two most famous writers of sonnets from this period are probably Paul Laurence Dunbar and Claude McKay. McKay's most influential sonnet is "If We Must Die," widely interpreted as a response to the racialized violence of the "Red Summer" of 1919. With Dunbar, a good sonnet to start with might be "Slow Through the Dark," though others might be of interest as well. 

A good place to learn more about African American sonnets is Hollis Robbins' 2020 book Forms of Contention: Influence and the African American Sonnet Tradition. In her book, Robbins charts the emergence of the African American sonnet tradition, from early writers like Phillis Wheatley and George Moses Horton, to contemporary practitioners like Natasha Tretheway and June Jordan. Robbins has chapters that cover the primary period for this Digital Anthology, with close readings of Dunbar and McKay as well as a host of other writers, including Georgia Douglas Johnson, Leslie Pinckney Hill, H. Cordelia Ray, James Corrothers, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Lucian B. Watkins, and Joseph S. Cotter, Jr. 

As of October 2025, we have identified and tagged about 130 poems in the Digital Anthology as sonnets. There are likely more poems in the collection yet to be tagged. -AS 

This page has paths:

  1. Poetic Form in African American Poetry Amardeep Singh

Contents of this tag:

  1. T. Thomas Fortune, "Lincoln" (1902)
  2. Joseph S. Cotter, Jr., "A Sonnet to the Negro Soldiers" (1918)
  3. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "A Sonnet in Memory of John Brown" (1922)
  4. Leslie Pinckney Hill, "Jim Crow" (1910 / 1922)
  5. William Stanley Braithwaite, "The Negro in American Literature" (1925)
  6. Chapter 3a: Social Justice in Sonnet Form, 1910-1919
  7. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "A Sonnet: to the Mantled" (1917)
  8. James D. Corrothers, "Paul Laurence Dunbar" (1906)
  9. Countee Cullen, "Yet Do I Marvel" (1925)
  10. Angelina Weld Grimke, "To the Dunbar High School (A Sonnet)" (1917)
  11. Claude McKay, "Baptism" (1921)
  12. Countee Cullen, "Brown Boy to Brown Girl (Remembrance on a hill) (For Yolanda)" (1924)
  13. Alice Dunbar-Nelson, "Sonnet"/Violets" (1922)
  14. James D. Corrothers, "The Negro Singer" (1913)
  15. Arthur Tunnell, "On Segregation" (1914)
  16. Carrie Williams Clifford, "The New Year" (1920)
  17. Claude McKay, "If We Must Die" (1919)
  18. Benjamin Griffith Brawley, "Shakespeare" (1915)
  19. Claude McKay, "On the Road" (1922)
  20. Angelina Weld Grimke, "Trees" (1928)
  21. Alice Dunbar-Nelson, "Sonnet" (1919)
  22. Claude McKay, "In Bondage" (1921)
  23. Carrie Williams Clifford, "Lincoln" (1922)
  24. Claude McKay, "Africa" (1921)
  25. Claude McKay, "America" (1921)
  26. Countee Cullen, "From the Dark Tower" (1926)
  27. Helene Johnson, "Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem" (1927)
  28. Claude McKay, "Harlem Dancer" (1917)
  29. Leslie Pinckney Hill, "Father Love" (1919)
  30. Claude McKay, "I Shall Return" (1922)
  31. James D. Corrothers, "In a Southland Vale" (1904)
  32. Claude McKay, "The White City" (1921)
  33. Claude McKay, "To Winter" (1922)
  34. Claude McKay, "Negro Dancers" (1922)
  35. Joseph S. Cotter, Sr., "Shakespeare's Sonnet" (1923)
  36. Poems by Leslie Pinckney Hill in "The Book of American Negro Poetry" (1922)
  37. Claude McKay, "A Capitalist at Dinner" (1919)
  38. Claude McKay, "Enslaved" (1921)
  39. Countee Cullen, "Oh, for a Little While Be Kind (For Ruth Marie)" (1925)
  40. Carrie Williams Clifford, "To Phyllis Wheatley (First African Poetess)" (1922)
  41. Lewis Alexander, "The Dark Brother" (1927)
  42. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Sonnet to Those Who See But Darkly" (1922)
  43. Countee Cullen, "To My Friends" (1925)
  44. Claude McKay, "Roman Holiday" (1919)
  45. Claude McKay, "Wild May" (1922)
  46. Carrie Williams Clifford, "The Gift" (1922)
  47. Carrie Williams Clifford, "Mothers of America" (1922)
  48. Claude McKay, "The Tired Worker" (1919)
  49. Three Sonnets by Carrie Williams Clifford (1922)
  50. Nellie R. Bright (Nellie Rathbone Bright), "To One Who Might Have Been My Friend" (1927)
  51. Claude McKay, "Through Agony" (1921)
  52. James D. Corrothers, "Up! Sing the Song" (1913)
  53. Countee Cullen, "The Dance of Love (After reading René Maran's 'Batouala')" (1923)
  54. Claude McKay, "Outcast" (1922)
  55. Joseph S. Cotter, Jr. "Band of Gideon: and Other Poems" (Full text) (1918)
  56. Joseph S. Cotter, "The Prophet" (1920)
  57. Claude McKay, "Dawn in New York" (1922)
  58. Claude McKay, "On a Primitive Canoe" (1922)
  59. Charles Bertram Johnson, "A Shell" (1905)
  60. Lucian B. Watkins, "The Black Madonna And Her Babe" (1918)
  61. Carrie Williams Clifford, "Tercentenary of the Landing of Slaves at Jamestown 1619-1919" (1922)
  62. Charles Bertram Johnson, "Herbstgefuhl" (1905)
  63. George Marion McClellan, "A January Dandelion" (1895)
  64. T. Thomas Fortune, "The Elsmeres" (1906)
  65. Claude McKay, "Thirst" (1921)
  66. James Edward McCall, "The New Negro" (1927)
  67. Paul Laurence Dunbar, "Sonnet: On An Old Book With Uncut Leaves" (1896)
  68. Blanche Taylor Dickinson, "A Sonnet and a Rondeau" (1927)
  69. Claude McKay, "Like a Strong Tree" (1925)
  70. Poems by Claude McKay in "The Book of American Negro Poetry" (1922)
  71. Charles Bertram Johnson, "The Dreamer" (1905)
  72. William Stanley Braithwaite, "On the Death of Thomas Bailey Aldrich" (1908)
  73. Claude McKay, "Invocation" (1917)
  74. Charles Bertram Johnson, "To an Oak" (1906)
  75. T. Thomas Fortune, "Diamond in the Clay" (1905)
  76. Claude McKay, "Russian Cathedral" (1925)
  77. Paul Laurence Dunbar, "Love" (1896)
  78. Claude McKay, "White Houses" (1925)
  79. Race-Hate by Carrie Williams Clifford
  80. T. H. Malone, "Constancy" (1905)
  81. Paul Laurence Dunbar, "Douglass" (1902)
  82. T. Thomas Fortune, "Edgar Allen Poe" (1905)
  83. Countee Cullen, "The Love Tree" (1927)
  84. Paul Laurence Dunbar, "Harriet Beecher Stowe" (1896)
  85. Lois Augusta Cuglar, "Consecration" (1927)
  86. Claude McKay, "I Know My Soul" (1922)
  87. Paul Laurence Dunbar, "Robert Gould Shaw" (1900)
  88. T. Thomas Fortune, "Beyond the Veil" (1905)
  89. Countee Cullen, "And When I Think" (1927)
  90. Paul Laurence Dunbar, "A Winter's Day" (1896)
  91. Carrie Williams Clifford, "Sorrow Songs" 1927)
  92. George Reginald Margetson, "Mary Evans Wilson (A Tribute)" (1928)
  93. Carrie Williams Clifford, "Frederick Douglass" (1917)
  94. Claude McKay, "Birds of Prey" (1922)
  95. Claude McKay, "The Little Peoples" (1919)
  96. Claude McKay, "The Lynching" (1920)
  97. Eloise A. Bibb, "Sonnet (To Dr. L.A. Martinet, editor of the New Orleans Crusader" (1895)
  98. Claude McKay, "To the White Fiends" (1918)
  99. Paul Laurence Dunbar, "Booker T. Washington" (1902)
  100. Charles Bertram Johnson, "The Cup of Knowledge" (1905)
  101. Claude McKay, "Poetry" (1922)
  102. Claude McKay, "The Tired Worker" (1922)
  103. Benjamin Griffith Brawley, "Chaucer" (1922)
  104. Carrie Williams Clifford (Carrie W. Clifford), "Appeal" (1928)
  105. Claude McKay, "La Paloma in London" (1922)
  106. Gwendolyn B. Bennett, "Sonnet 1" (1927)
  107. Paul Laurence Dunbar, "Slow Through the Dark" (1902)
  108. James D. Corrothers, "To -------- (A Sonnet)" (1901)
  109. Countee Cullen, "Sonnet to Her" (1927)
  110. Leslie Pinckney Hill, "Tuskegee" (1906)
  111. Claude McKay, "I Know My Soul" (1922)
  112. Placido, "Farewell to my mother" (translated by James Weldon Johnson) (1922)
  113. Benjamin Griffith Brawley, "To One Untrue" (1906)
  114. Carrie Williams Clifford (Carrie W. Clifford), "Warning" (1928)
  115. Claude McKay, "Futility" (1922)
  116. Gwendolyn B. Bennett, "Sonnet 2" (1927)
  117. Benjamin Griffith Brawley, "The Bells of Notre Dame" (1901)
  118. Claude McKay, "Birds of Prey" (1922 Version)
  119. Benjamin Griffith Brawley, "First Sight" (1906)
  120. Claude McKay, "The Castaways" (1922)
  121. Alice Dunbar-Nelson, "A Prayer" (1928)
  122. Paul Laurence Dunbar, "The Path" (1896)
  123. Leslie Pinkney Hill, "To a Caged Canary in a Negro Restaurant" (1921)
  124. Lewis Alexander, "Africa" (1924)
  125. Claude McKay, "Baptism" (1922)
  126. Paul Laurence Dunbar, "Nature and Art" (Two Sonnets) (1896)
  127. George Leonard Allen, "To a Negro Musician" (1927)
  128. H. Cordelia Ray, "Sonnets" (1893)
  129. Carrie Williams Clifford, "Mothers of America" (1922)
  130. Thomas Millard Henry, "A Sonnet in Memory of Lucian B. Watkins" (1921)
  131. Claude McKay, "The Night Fire" (1922)
  132. Paul Laurence Dunbar, "On the Receipt of a Familiar Poem" (1896)
  133. Countee Cullen, "A Thorn Forever In the Breast" (1927)