A crown of sonnets or sonnet corona is a sequence of sonnets, usually addressed to some one person, and/or concerned with a single theme. Francesco Petrarca or Petrarch, one of the best-known of the early Italian sonnet writers For the Saab automobile, see Saab Sonett, for the Japanese communications company see So-net. ...

Each of the sonnets explores one aspect of the theme, and is linked to the preceding and succeeding sonnets by repeating the final line of the preceding sonnet as its first line, and by having its final line be the first line of the succeeding sonnet.

With seven sonnets, the first line of the first sonnet is repeated as the final line of the final sonnet, thereby bringing the sequence to a close. Famous examples include John Donne's Corona (It. "crown") and Lady Mary Wroth's A Crown of Sonnets Dedicated to Love. John Donne (pronounced Dun; 1572 – March 31, 1631) was a Jacobean poet and preacher, representative of the metaphysical poets of the period. ... Lady Mary Wroth (1586–1652) was an English poet of the Renaissance. ...

An advanced form of Crown or Corona of Sonnets is also called a sonnet redoublé, comprising fifteen sonnets, where the sonnets are linked as described above, but the final binding sonnet is made up of all the first lines of the preceding fourteen, in order. Jaroslav Seifert wrote a sentimental Wreath of Sonnets in this form, about Prague, an authorised translation of which exists, by Jan Křesadlo, who also composed his own emigre riposte in the same format, as well as writing several other sonnet cycles. Jaroslav Seifert Jaroslav Seifert (IPA: ) (born September 23, 1901 in Žižkov, a suburb of Prague in what was then part of Austria-Hungary, died January 10, 1986) was a Nobel prize winning Czech writer, poet and journalist. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Jan KÅ™esadlo Jan KÅ™esadlo was the primary pseudonym used by Václav Jaroslav Karel Pinkava (December 9, 1926 in Prague - August 13, 1995 in Colchester), a Czech psychologist who was also a prizewinning novelist and poet. ... In fencing, the riposte is an offensive action made by the fencer who has just parried an attack. ...

See also

• sonnet cycle

A group of sonnets, arranged to address a particular person or theme, and designed to be read both as a collection of fully-realized individual poems and as a single poetic work comprising all the individual sonnets. ...

External links

• Corona of sonnets described on Guide to Verse forms
• Jan Křesadlo translation of Seifert's Wreath of Sonnets with link to the translator's Countergarland, in Czech, and structured English translation.
• A sonnet redoublé On Women by Jan Křesadlo
• The Gift a sonnet redoublé by Seanan McGuire and Batya Wittenberg