"If learning's yours,--gifts God doth least esteem,-- / Beyond all gifts was his transcendent view"

Oh dear. Oh deary dear. I knew transcendentalist A. Bronson Alcott, now best known as being thinly veiled as the father in Little Women, was not considered a very good writer. I think, however, I've only ever encountered one thoroughly mediocre poem -- or rather, had. Now, thanks to Project Gutenberg for releasing his Sonnets and Canzonets (1882), I can report he was a terrible poet. Not so bad it's hilarious, let alone bad enough to be hard to read aloud -- just plain bad.

I have not delved into the introductory essay yet, but I have high hopes of a barely coherent defense of writing sonnets in this modern age of the late 19th century.

---L.

Subject quote from an incoherent Bronson Alcott sonnet.