iv

The Collected Sonnets bring together about one hundred and sixty sonnets, selected by Millay herself from her works from 'Renascence' to 'Make Bright The Arrows'. They are the finest expression, in this poetic form, of the genius and spirit of a great American poet. Included is the first sonnet Miss Millay ever wrote, hitherto unpublished, and three others never published before. William Rose Benet wrote of them, "In the field of the sonnet Miss Millay has particularly come to excel, having achieved an almost complete mastery over that difficult form. Her sonnets speak with a human voice, and yet often rise to great rhetoric. She has written some of the finest of our time . . . few will deny her gift of gallantry and fearless beauty to our poetry which should make many of her sonnets a treasured national heritage." Enjoy hearing them recited by The Devil.