The sonneteer is the wedding singer of modern poetry: a member of the bride’s party by way of technicality, he is never embraced and rarely photographed. More entertainer than poet, more trickster than artisan, he welcomes the casual onlooker and –in a supreme affront to the “vitality” of the art– will don a bright red nose and big floppy rhymes to provoke a laugh. Freed of the prerogatives of the tradition, he is the dumb, plodding beast laboring beneath critic Harold Bloom‘s?burden of belatedness.” —Norman Ball —Why I Write Sonnets: An Apologia (NormanBall.com)

This appears to be from the liner notes to a CD called “Return to One.”

I like the essay, but the site is a perfect example of why web designers should avoid HTML frames.