Jailbreaks: 99 Canadian Sonnets is one of
the best anthologies of poetry I know, and in my top five contemporary poetry
books ever. Zach Wells selects sonnets from across the country, across
generations, and across styles. For those who think sonnets all look the same,
there is much to learn here about the range of poetic possibility within a
single set of formal constraints. Among other clever things, Wells's
introduction argues that the fourteen lines of the Petrarchan and Shakespearean
sonnet forms are poetry's finest vehicle for introducing, developing, and
concluding a well-formed thought. These poems are thus phenomenological
jailbreaks, consciousness busting out -- in good order -- from the buzzing
prison-yard of our jumbled minds. A book to dip into or read cover to cover,
with delight on every page.
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