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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, 

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