Wholesale Emily Sonnets, The

Acclaimed writer Jane Yolen employs 15 sonnets, accompanied by brief biographical notes, to tell of the reclusive life and literary innovations of 19th-century American poet Emily Dickinson. Reviews A sonnet sequence encapsulates the biography of one of America's most intriguing poets, Emily Dickinson. Loosely following Shakespearean and the occasional Petrarchan rhyme schemes, Yolen cleverly adopts personae of important figures in Dickinson's life–including the voice of the poet herself–to reveal key elements of her biography. Aiming to "tell the truth" of Dickinson's life, Yolen effectively conveys the importance of family and nature, privacy, imagination and independence in Dickinson's famously unconventional existence.