Many poets of the Harlem Renaissance made extensive use of the sonnet form; module 2 contains examples such as Countee Cullen’s “From the Dark Tower,” Helene Johnson’s “Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem,” and Claude McKay’s “If We Must Die.” Write an essay in which you compare some of the sonnets written during the Harlem Renaissance. How do different approaches to the sonnet form signal different thematic concerns?
