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Sonnet

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The sonnet was an important poetic form used by many Black writers during this period, including writers from the older generation (i.e., James Weldon Johnson, Carrie Williams Clifford) as well as younger writers like Claude McKay. 

As of January 2024, we have identified and tagged about 63 poems in the 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. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "A Sonnet in Memory of John Brown" (1922)
  3. Joseph S. Cotter, Jr., "A Sonnet to the Negro Soldiers" (1918)
  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. Countee Cullen, "Brown Boy to Brown Girl (Remembrance on a hill) (For Yolanda)" (1924)
  9. Carrie Williams Clifford, "The New Year" (1920)
  10. Claude McKay, "In Bondage" (1921)
  11. James D. Corrothers, "The Negro Singer" (1913)
  12. Alice Dunbar-Nelson, "Sonnet" (1919)
  13. Claude McKay, "Africa" (1921)
  14. Arthur Tunnell, "On Segregation" (1914)
  15. Benjamin Griffith Brawley, "Shakespeare" (1915)
  16. James D. Corrothers, "Paul Laurence Dunbar" (1906)
  17. Claude McKay, "America" (1921)
  18. Carrie Williams Clifford, "Lincoln" (1922)
  19. Claude McKay, "On the Road" (1922)
  20. Claude McKay, "Baptism" (1921)
  21. Claude McKay, "If We Must Die" (1919)
  22. Countee Cullen, "Yet Do I Marvel" (1925)
  23. Alice Dunbar-Nelson, "Sonnet"/Violets" (1922)
  24. Claude McKay, "The Tired Worker" (1919)
  25. Helene Johnson, "Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem" (1927)
  26. Carrie Williams Clifford, "Mothers of America" (1922)
  27. Countee Cullen, "Oh, for a Little While Be Kind (For Ruth Marie)" (1925)
  28. Joseph S. Cotter, "The Prophet" (1920)
  29. Countee Cullen, "To My Friends" (1925)
  30. Lucian B. Watkins, "The Black Madonna And Her Babe" (1918)
  31. Claude McKay, "I Shall Return" (1922)
  32. Lewis Alexander, "The Dark Brother" (1927)
  33. Claude McKay, "Through Agony" (1921)
  34. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Sonnet to Those Who See But Darkly" (1922)
  35. Claude McKay, "Wild May" (1922)
  36. Claude McKay, "To Winter" (1922)
  37. Carrie Williams Clifford, "To Phyllis Wheatley (First African Poetess)" (1922)
  38. Countee Cullen, "The Dance of Love (After reading René Maran's 'Batouala')" (1923)
  39. James D. Corrothers, "In a Southland Vale" (1904)
  40. Nellie R. Bright (Nellie Rathbone Bright), "To One Who Might Have Been My Friend" (1927)
  41. Carrie Williams Clifford, "Tercentenary of the Landing of Slaves at Jamestown 1619-1919" (1922)
  42. Claude McKay, "Outcast" (1922)
  43. Claude McKay, "Negro Dancers" (1922)
  44. Angelina W. Grimke (Angelina Weld Grimke), "Trees" (1928)
  45. Leslie Pinckney Hill, "Father Love" (1919)
  46. Claude McKay, "Dawn in New York" (1922)
  47. Poems by Leslie Pinckney Hill in "The Book of American Negro Poetry" (1922)
  48. Claude McKay, "A Capitalist at Dinner" (1919)
  49. Claude McKay, "The White City" (1921)
  50. Claude McKay, "Harlem Dancer" (1917)
  51. Joseph S. Cotter, Jr. "Band of Gideon: and Other Poems" (Full text) (1918)
  52. Claude McKay, "Roman Holiday" (1919)
  53. Claude McKay, "Enslaved" (1921)
  54. Claude McKay, "On a Primitive Canoe" (1922)
  55. Joseph S. Cotter, Sr., "Shakespeare's Sonnet" (1923)
  56. Countee Cullen, "From the Dark Tower" (1926)
  57. James D. Corrothers, "Up! Sing the Song" (1913)
  58. Claude McKay, "La Paloma in London" (1922)
  59. Countee Cullen, "The Love Tree" (1927)
  60. T. Thomas Fortune, "The Elsmeres" (1905)
  61. Carrie Williams Clifford, "Sorrow Songs" 1927)
  62. Claude McKay, "Futility" (1922)
  63. Claude McKay, "Like a Strong Tree" (1925)
  64. Countee Cullen, "And When I Think" (1927)
  65. Eloise A. Bibb, "Sonnet (To Dr. L.A. Martinet, editor of the New Orleans Crusader" (1895)
  66. The Gift by Carrie Williams Clifford
  67. Claude McKay, "The Lynching" (1920)
  68. Poems by Claude McKay in "The Book of American Negro Poetry" (1922)
  69. Claude McKay, "White Houses" (1925)
  70. Benjamin Griffith Brawley, "Chaucer" (1922)
  71. Carrie Williams Clifford (Carrie W. Clifford), "Appeal" (1928)
  72. Claude McKay, "The Tired Worker" (1922)
  73. Lois Augusta Cuglar, "Consecration" (1927)
  74. Gwendolyn B. Bennett, "Sonnet 1" (1927)
  75. Benjamin Griffith Brawley, "To One Untrue" (1906)
  76. Race-Hate by Carrie Williams Clifford
  77. Claude McKay, "Thirst" (1921)
  78. Carrie Williams Clifford (Carrie W. Clifford), "Warning" (1928)
  79. Claude McKay, "I Know My Soul" (1922)
  80. Paul Laurence Dunbar, "The Path" (1896)
  81. George Reginald Margetson, "Mary Evans Wilson (A Tribute)" (1928)
  82. Gwendolyn B. Bennett, "Sonnet 2" (1927)
  83. Benjamin Griffith Brawley, "First Sight" (1906)
  84. Claude McKay, "I Know My Soul" (1922)
  85. Lewis Alexander, "Africa" (1924)
  86. Claude McKay, "Birds of Prey" (1922 Version)
  87. H. Cordelia Ray, "Sonnets" (1893)
  88. Three Sonnets by Carrie Williams Clifford (1922)
  89. Claude McKay, "Birds of Prey" (1922)
  90. Thomas Millard Henry, "A Sonnet in Memory of Lucian B. Watkins" (1921)
  91. Claude McKay, "The Castaways" (1922)
  92. George Leonard Allen, "To a Negro Musician" (1927)
  93. Alice Dunbar-Nelson, "A Prayer" (1928)
  94. Claude McKay, "Baptism" (1922)
  95. Charles Bertram Johnson, "Herbstgefuhl" (1905)
  96. T. Thomas Fortune, "Diamond in the Clay" (1905)
  97. Charles Bertram Johnson, "The Cup of Knowledge" (1905)
  98. Claude McKay, "The Little Peoples" (1919)
  99. Countee Cullen, "A Thorn Forever In the Breast" (1927)
  100. Carrie Williams Clifford, "Frederick Douglass" (1917)
  101. Claude McKay, "Poetry" (1922)
  102. Claude McKay, "Invocation" (1917)
  103. Claude McKay, "The Night Fire" (1922)
  104. Charles Bertram Johnson, "The Dreamer" (1905)
  105. James D. Corrothers, "To -------- (A Sonnet)" (1901)
  106. Carrie Williams Clifford, "Mothers of America" (1922)
  107. T. Thomas Fortune, "The Elsmeres" (1906)
  108. Blanche Taylor Dickinson, "A Sonnet and a Rondeau" (1927)
  109. Countee Cullen, "Sonnet to Her" (1927)
  110. James Edward McCall, "The New Negro" (1927)
  111. T. H. Malone, "Constancy" (1905)
  112. T. Thomas Fortune, "Edgar Allen Poe" (1905)
  113. Benjamin Griffith Brawley, "The Bells of Notre Dame" (1901)
  114. Charles Bertram Johnson, "To an Oak" (1906)
  115. Claude McKay, "To the White Fiends" (1918)
  116. Claude McKay, "Russian Cathedral" (1925)
  117. T. Thomas Fortune, "Beyond the Veil" (1905)