My selection of poems is a personal one. While I have tried to include many of the best known sonnets of these poets, I'm sure there are many that do not appear. I have also tried to include some sonnets that are not as well known, particularly satirical sonnets. I hope to be able to keep adding poems to this site --again, as time permits.

The translations:

Meter:I have chosen to translate each sonnet into iambic pentameter, because this is the closest one can come in English to the Spanish endecasílabo, and because this was the preferred metrical form for the sonnet in English during the same period.

Rhyme:I have chosen not to retain the rigorous rhyme scheme of the Golden Age sonnet, but rather to use rhyme wherever possible and appropriate -- and always give priority to the content of the original. I also make use of assonance (rima asonante) as well as the more familiar English rhyme (rima consonante).

Language and syntax:Spanish Golden Age sonnets seem more contemporary in their use of language than English sonnets of the same period, though some Golden Age poets seem more "old" than others. I have attempted to retain the flavor of the originals, and have avoided presenting these works as literary "antiquities." I have, however, tried to reproduce some of the extravagant syntactical flourishes that characterize the original sonnets, and hope that where these occur the translations will sound pretty much as "strange" as the originals.

E-mail submissions, questions, comments and suggestions to:

Alix Ingber
Professor Emerita of Spanish
Sweet Briar College
ingber@sbc.edu