A Small Eternity: The shape of the sonnet through time
| Starts: | 25 Feb 2009 |
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| Ends: | 27 Jun 2009 |
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| What is it: | Exhibitions |
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| Organiser: | The John Rylands Library |
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Crossing time, continents and cultures the sonnet as a poetic form has always captured the imagination of poets. So, what kind of poem is a sonnet and where did they come from?
Using sumptuously illuminated books, rare and early printed editions, unique literary manuscripts and writers' letters, this exhibition traces some of the stories told by the sonnet and explores why poets have felt compelled to write them.It contains examples of the work of a diverse range of sonneteers from Petrarch to Vikram Seth and Wilfred Owen to Lorna Goodison who have employed the form to speak of love-lost, found and forbidden, solace in war, and the nature of being and belonging in a complex world.
The exhibition will pay special attention to the sonnets of William Shakespeare five hundred years after their first appearance in print and offers you the opportunity to contribute to this anniversary by writing sonnets of your own.
To accompany the exhibition, the Library has commissioned a souvenir anthology containing sonnets written by the poets from Manchester University's Centre for New Writing.
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Christie Gallery
The John Rylands Library
Manchester
