Sonnets for Albert

Summary

This collection of sonnets meditates on the poet's relationship with his absentee father in Trinidad, using the formal container of the sonnet to hold grief, anger, love, and the rhythms of Calypso and jazz in productive tension. Joseph's poetry carries the musicality of the Caribbean lyric tradition—he is also a musician—and the sonnet form, stretched and syncopated, becomes a percussive instrument in his hands. The book made a compelling case for the ongoing vitality of the Caribbean voice in contemporary British poetry.