Greatest Sonnet Writer?

Question

Sorry about the two repeats. Yahoo! Answers was having problems.

Such as the fact that that last message isn't being shown as an additional detail.

Answer 1

"A remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he is really very good in spite of all the people who say he is very good." ~Robert Graves

Baudelaire was one of the greatest sonnet writers of all time! One cannot forget the French, who remained true to form, yet breathed new life into the old Italian / English standards. Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry proclaims that Baudelaire's sonnets are "A combination of mind and body, a blend of solemnity, warmth and bitterness, of the eternal and the intimate, an extremely rare alliance of will power and harmony." I couldn't say it better. Please read http://www.poetry-archive.com/b/sonnet_of_autumn.html

Answer 2

Greatest is a subjective term. Certainly Shakespeare is counted as a great sonnet writer because he pioneered the English or Shakespearean style sonnet, but he was not the most prolific sonnet writer. Even in the English style, William Wordsworth wrote three times more sonnets than Shakespeare.

John Donne and Elizabeth Barrett Browning are usually listed as great sonnet writers as well due to the immense popularity they enjoyed and continue to enjoy as poets. Again, this is limiting the field to English writers.

If you expand the field to Italian poets, you get great sonnet writers such as Petrarch and Dante Alighieri. Most people will give these names as answers because they are the most well known sonnet writers from the Italians.

Inn my humble opinion, however, the "greatest" sonnet writer should be somone who wrote something great with the sonnet, not just different, not just a lot of.

In my mind, that distinction goes to Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley was not the most prolific sonnet writer, but he wrote one of the most famous sonnets of all time: Ozymandias.

This sonnet alone eclipses many of the sonnets turned out by other poets.

Answer 3

William Shakespeare

Answer 4

Shakespeare.

Answer 5

Elizabeth Barret Browning...

Answer 6

I'd say Bill Shakespeare and John Donne, too

Answer 7

definitely Shakespeare

Answer 8

Shakespeare or Donne.

Answer 9

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Answer 10

Um..everyone will go to Shakespeare..but try..Rd Laing...there MUCH more entertaining...