Bender, Robert M., and Charles L. Squier, eds., The Sonnet: A Comprehensive Anthology of British and American Sonnets from the Renaissance to the Present, Washington Square Press, 1965.

This extensive anthology features headnotes describing
the lives and careers of the poets as well as an
essay about the history of the sonnet form.

Fuller, John, The Oxford Book of Sonnets, Oxford University Press, 2001.

This collection features the work of over one hundred
poets, arranged in chronological order so a
reader can trace the development of the sonnet form.
The collection begins with Sir Thomas Wyatt and
ends with Alice Oswald.

Leighton, Angela, and Margaret Reynolds, Victorian Women Poets: An Anthology, Blackwell Publishers, 1995.

This collection arranges the work of fifty poets in
chronological order, beginning with Felicia Hemans
and ending with Charlotte Mew. The work of wellknown
poets is featured along with work by their
lesser-known colleagues; in...