The English sonneteers of the sixteenth century created some of the most haunting poetry in any language, their verses as beautifully crafted as they are intensely personal. The depth of their poetic passion is matched only by their love for the language itself: the longings of the heart have never found fuller, more perfect expression. From the virtuosity of Sidney's 'Astrophel and Stella' to the quiet solemnity of Spenser's 'Amoretti'; from the homoerotic muse of Barnfield to the feminine Petrarchanism of Lady Mary Wroth, this extraordinary anthology brings together works by some of the greatest poets of the Elizabethan age to show the astonishing possibilities of the sonnet form.