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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 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. 

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