Sonnets

In 1893, Cordelia Ray staked her claim as a Black woman voice in American poetry. This slender volume of twelve sonnets arrives like quiet defiance: formal, musical, unafraid to inhabit the Western tradition while weaving in her own singular perspective. Ray's verses move through love, nature, and the spiritual with a precision that rewards patient reading. These are poems that know their worth - disciplined sonnets that crack open to reveal tenderness, longing, and hard-won wisdom. For readers who believe poetry matters, here is a forgotten voice worth rediscovering.