Thanks for Noticing -- Thanks for helping!
You can download the latest PDF draft of the 2nd Edition here.
You can review suggestions for Comments here.
Here you can find Comments already posted here.
Extensive material from the sold-out 1st Edition is posted here
such as a proto-theological concordance, interviews, videos, etc.
Five Suggestions
1. If you want to comment on the book, please know that I am grateful for whatever you might say -- positive, hostile, questioning, auguring, reframing. You will help draw attention to -- help others notice -- the revised book by whatever you say. Length is entirely up to you, from a sentence to a long-form essay.
If you don't want to comment, please know that I am grateful for whatever attention you care to give to the book, and I hope you find some interest and maybe pleasure from it.
2. If you write without the chance to review the whole book and are cautious about the more scandalous/blasphemous/profane sonnets, they are indicated in the revision by a dash on either side of the page number in the Contents (pages 6-7); the page numbers are 50 + the sonnet numbers. These sonnets might be considered problematical:
GLORIA -- 25, 43, 55,
CONFITEOR -- 90, 101
SANCTUS ET BENEDICTUS -- 113-115, 118-125, 127-135
AGNUS DEI -- 139, 143, 146, 148.
3. You can write about a particular sonnet, or a pair, or group of them, or about any part of the book, or the book as a whole. If you want a suggestion from me, I'll probably have one, if I haven't already offered an idea or two!
4. Here are some possibilities for other themes and approaches --
* the organization of the book by parts of the Mass
* comparisons with Shakespeare (and/or other sonnet writers)
* sexuality and/or spirituality
* use of world religions
or a particular tradition such as Christianity, Buddhism, or Islam.
* musical references (or just opera references)
* the musicality of the sonnets as a technical achievement or failure
* use of, and variations in, the sonnet form
* aids included in the book, such as
the Foreword, the Introduction, the Collect for Purity
the guide to reading sonnets (pages 220-221)
suggested reading schedules (page 48)
and other appendices.
5. Feel free to contact me if you have questions. For example, if you want me to identify all the sonnets that employ carpentry metaphors, or all referring to T S Eliot, or all the sonnets in Petrarchan form, just let me know.
Gratefully,
Vern
Vern
Sonnets in the book
Variations in sonnet form Shakespearean, Petrarchan, 15 line, 16 line, 18 line; riming quatrains, stanza lengths of 5+4+3+2=14; sonnet with many dactyls; Shakespearan with 3 end-rimes; Shakespearan with 5 end-rimes; Shakespearan with 6 end-rimes; Petrarchan withg 3 end-rimes;
herein 52 sonnets are Shakespearean; sonnets 93 and 149 are Petrarchan; sonnet 125 has an alexandrine; 102 and 111 run 15 lines; 45 runs 16 lines; and 57, a form of “heroic sonnet,” runs 18 lines. Rime variations occur at least in sonnets 9, 21, 58, 70, 73, 82, 93, and 153.