A Small Eternity

I went to the sonnet reading at John Rylands Deansgate on Thursday in celebration of Shakespeare's birthday. It featured some of the UoM students who have contributed sonnets to the small anthology that accompanies the beautiful exhibition in the Christie Gallery there at the moment.

The exhibition is called A Small Eternity: The shape of the sonnet through time, it's there until the 27th of June. You can pick up a copy of the anthology, which is very enjoyably and beautifully presented, and you can contribute your own sonnet to the exhibition. If that's not sold you on the exhibition, here's what the university has to say to tempt you to visit:

Crossing time, continents and cultures the sonnet as a poetic form has always captured the imagination of poets. So, what kind of poem is a sonnet and where did they come from?
Using sumptuously illuminated books, rare and early printed editions, unique literary manuscripts and writers' letters, this exhibition traces some of the stories told by the sonnet and explores why poets have felt compelled to write them.It contains examples of the work of a diverse range of sonneteers from Petrarch to Vikram Seth and Wilfred Owen to Lorna Goodison who have employed the form to speak of love-lost, found and forbidden, solace in war, and the nature of being and belonging in a complex world.
The exhibition will pay special attention to the sonnets of William Shakespeare five hundred years after their first appearance in print and offers you the opportunity to contribute to this anniversary by writing sonnets of your own.