The Nature of the Sonnet Sequence

The sonnet sequence contains an "inexhaustible supply of fresh scenes" (Vendler, 152).

"The aesthetic of the sonnet sequence itself must be...[a world of] very few personages--the lover, his beloved, the rivals" (Vender, 548).

Some way out there bullshit from Vendler: "The advantage of writing a sequence arises from the creation of [an] energetic force-field, in which not only individual sonnets, but individual quatrains and couplets, and even individual lines, float free, collide, combine with, and repel each other. One can even mentally 'create' entire false combinatory octaves and sestets which sometimes seem almost as real as the true ones" (217).