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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 August 2024, we have identified and tagged about 118 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. James D. Corrothers, "Paul Laurence Dunbar" (1906)
  8. James D. Corrothers, "The Negro Singer" (1913)
  9. Countee Cullen, "Yet Do I Marvel" (1925)
  10. Countee Cullen, "Brown Boy to Brown Girl (Remembrance on a hill) (For Yolanda)" (1924)
  11. Carrie Williams Clifford, "The New Year" (1920)
  12. Angelina Weld Grimke, "To the Dunbar High School (A Sonnet)" (1917)
  13. Claude McKay, "Baptism" (1921)
  14. Alice Dunbar-Nelson, "Sonnet"/Violets" (1922)
  15. Arthur Tunnell, "On Segregation" (1914)
  16. Benjamin Griffith Brawley, "Shakespeare" (1915)
  17. Alice Dunbar-Nelson, "Sonnet" (1919)
  18. Claude McKay, "If We Must Die" (1919)
  19. Claude McKay, "On the Road" (1922)
  20. Carrie Williams Clifford, "Lincoln" (1922)
  21. Claude McKay, "In Bondage" (1921)
  22. Claude McKay, "Africa" (1921)
  23. Claude McKay, "America" (1921)
  24. James D. Corrothers, "In a Southland Vale" (1904)
  25. Claude McKay, "The White City" (1921)
  26. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Sonnet to Those Who See But Darkly" (1922)
  27. Claude McKay, "Negro Dancers" (1922)
  28. Claude McKay, "A Capitalist at Dinner" (1919)
  29. Lewis Alexander, "The Dark Brother" (1927)
  30. Claude McKay, "Enslaved" (1921)
  31. Countee Cullen, "Oh, for a Little While Be Kind (For Ruth Marie)" (1925)
  32. Carrie Williams Clifford, "To Phyllis Wheatley (First African Poetess)" (1922)
  33. Countee Cullen, "The Dance of Love (After reading René Maran's 'Batouala')" (1923)
  34. Countee Cullen, "To My Friends" (1925)
  35. Carrie Williams Clifford, "Mothers of America" (1922)
  36. Claude McKay, "Roman Holiday" (1919)
  37. Claude McKay, "Wild May" (1922)
  38. Nellie R. Bright (Nellie Rathbone Bright), "To One Who Might Have Been My Friend" (1927)
  39. Joseph S. Cotter, Jr. "Band of Gideon: and Other Poems" (Full text) (1918)
  40. Claude McKay, "The Tired Worker" (1919)
  41. Three Sonnets by Carrie Williams Clifford (1922)
  42. Angelina W. Grimke (Angelina Weld Grimke), "Trees" (1928)
  43. Claude McKay, "Through Agony" (1921)
  44. James D. Corrothers, "Up! Sing the Song" (1913)
  45. Claude McKay, "Harlem Dancer" (1917)
  46. Claude McKay, "Outcast" (1922)
  47. Carrie Williams Clifford, "Tercentenary of the Landing of Slaves at Jamestown 1619-1919" (1922)
  48. Helene Johnson, "Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem" (1927)
  49. Joseph S. Cotter, "The Prophet" (1920)
  50. Claude McKay, "Dawn in New York" (1922)
  51. Leslie Pinckney Hill, "Father Love" (1919)
  52. Claude McKay, "On a Primitive Canoe" (1922)
  53. Claude McKay, "I Shall Return" (1922)
  54. Lucian B. Watkins, "The Black Madonna And Her Babe" (1918)
  55. Joseph S. Cotter, Sr., "Shakespeare's Sonnet" (1923)
  56. Countee Cullen, "From the Dark Tower" (1926)
  57. Poems by Leslie Pinckney Hill in "The Book of American Negro Poetry" (1922)
  58. Claude McKay, "To Winter" (1922)
  59. T. Thomas Fortune, "The Elsmeres" (1906)
  60. T. Thomas Fortune, "Edgar Allen Poe" (1905)
  61. Claude McKay, "Thirst" (1921)
  62. Countee Cullen, "And When I Think" (1927)
  63. Claude McKay, "Like a Strong Tree" (1925)
  64. Carrie Williams Clifford, "Frederick Douglass" (1917)
  65. Charles Bertram Johnson, "The Dreamer" (1905)
  66. Claude McKay, "I Know My Soul" (1922)
  67. Claude McKay, "The Lynching" (1920)
  68. Charles Bertram Johnson, "To an Oak" (1906)
  69. T. Thomas Fortune, "Beyond the Veil" (1905)
  70. Claude McKay, "White Houses" (1925)
  71. T. H. Malone, "Constancy" (1905)
  72. Claude McKay, "Birds of Prey" (1922)
  73. Claude McKay, "The Tired Worker" (1922)
  74. T. Thomas Fortune, "The Elsmeres" (1905)
  75. Carrie Williams Clifford, "Sorrow Songs" 1927)
  76. Gwendolyn B. Bennett, "Sonnet 1" (1927)
  77. Lois Augusta Cuglar, "Consecration" (1927)
  78. Claude McKay, "Poetry" (1922)
  79. Claude McKay, "I Know My Soul" (1922)
  80. Eloise A. Bibb, "Sonnet (To Dr. L.A. Martinet, editor of the New Orleans Crusader" (1895)
  81. Gwendolyn B. Bennett, "Sonnet 2" (1927)
  82. George Reginald Margetson, "Mary Evans Wilson (A Tribute)" (1928)
  83. Countee Cullen, "Sonnet to Her" (1927)
  84. Claude McKay, "The Little Peoples" (1919)
  85. Claude McKay, "Birds of Prey" (1922 Version)
  86. Benjamin Griffith Brawley, "Chaucer" (1922)
  87. Carrie Williams Clifford (Carrie W. Clifford), "Appeal" (1928)
  88. Claude McKay, "To the White Fiends" (1918)
  89. Charles Bertram Johnson, "The Cup of Knowledge" (1905)
  90. Claude McKay, "The Castaways" (1922)
  91. Benjamin Griffith Brawley, "To One Untrue" (1906)
  92. Carrie Williams Clifford (Carrie W. Clifford), "Warning" (1928)
  93. Claude McKay, "La Paloma in London" (1922)
  94. James D. Corrothers, "To -------- (A Sonnet)" (1901)
  95. Lewis Alexander, "Africa" (1924)
  96. Claude McKay, "Baptism" (1922)
  97. Placido, "Farewell to my mother" (translated by James Weldon Johnson) (1922)
  98. Benjamin Griffith Brawley, "First Sight" (1906)
  99. Poems by Claude McKay in "The Book of American Negro Poetry" (1922)
  100. Claude McKay, "Futility" (1922)
  101. Benjamin Griffith Brawley, "The Bells of Notre Dame" (1901)
  102. Thomas Millard Henry, "A Sonnet in Memory of Lucian B. Watkins" (1921)
  103. Claude McKay, "The Night Fire" (1922)
  104. The Gift by Carrie Williams Clifford
  105. Carrie Williams Clifford, "Mothers of America" (1922)
  106. James Edward McCall, "The New Negro" (1927)
  107. George Leonard Allen, "To a Negro Musician" (1927)
  108. Alice Dunbar-Nelson, "A Prayer" (1928)
  109. Race-Hate by Carrie Williams Clifford
  110. Paul Laurence Dunbar, "The Path" (1896)
  111. Claude McKay, "Invocation" (1917)
  112. Countee Cullen, "A Thorn Forever In the Breast" (1927)
  113. Claude McKay, "Russian Cathedral" (1925)
  114. H. Cordelia Ray, "Sonnets" (1893)
  115. T. Thomas Fortune, "Diamond in the Clay" (1905)
  116. Blanche Taylor Dickinson, "A Sonnet and a Rondeau" (1927)
  117. Countee Cullen, "The Love Tree" (1927)
  118. Charles Bertram Johnson, "Herbstgefuhl" (1905)