Originally published in 1964, The Sonnets by Ted Berrigan is
considered by many to be his most important and influential book. This
new annotated edition, with an introduction by Alice Notley, includes
seven previously uncollected works. Like Shakespeare's sonnets,
Berrigan's poems involve friendship and love triangles, but while the
former happen chronologically, Berrigan's happen in the moment, with the
story buried beneath a surface of names, repetitions, and fragmented
experience. Reflecting the new American sensibilities of the 1960's as
well as timeless poetic themes, The Sonnets is both eclectic and
classical -- the poems are monumental riddles worth contemplating.