20 pages • 40 minutes read
The Facebook Sonnet
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Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“Sonnet, without Salmon” by Sherman Alexie (2011)
This is a radical revisioning of the sonnet form. The poem has 14 lines, each of them numbered. Some of the lines are short; others consist of more than one sentence. The poem resembles prose rather than poetry. The speaker suggests that the building of dams on Indian reservations to create the electricity supply has led to the loss of salmon in the river. There are also many power outages. This comment leads to a segue to the topic of computers, and the last section, number 14, is a little story in itself. Like “The Facebook Sonnet,” it offers an amusing take on the absurdities of internet communication. The speaker is in a café in Seattle and watches a couple at the next table who are talking into their cell phones rather than to each other. One goes to the counter to get the other a coffee, and when he returns, his partner says she was texting him to get sugar and cream.
“Text“ by Carol Ann Duffy (2005)
As the title suggests, this poem is about communicating via text messages. The speaker, who has her mobile phone in her hand, and her partner communicate frequently by text, but she is aware of the limitations of texting and regrets that nothing she texts will ever be heard; there is something lacking in the way they exchange their “significant words.” Like Alexie’s “The Facebook Sonnet,” the poem offers a small critique of the practice of relying on electronic communication at the expense of in-person interaction.
“Surveillance” by Craig Kurtz (2018)
The internet, privacy, and surveillance are the themes of this light-hearted poem. Like “The Facebook Sonnet,” a discussion of a modern technological phenomenon is presented with a nod to a more traditional poetic format—in this case, rhyming couplets. The speaker in this poem also takes a point of view that is very different from that of Alexie: Facebook, Google, and internet life generally are to be welcomed because people want to have their online presence acknowledged.
Further Literary Resources
Understanding Sherman Alexie by Daniel Grassian, (2005)
Grassian offers a chronological survey of Alexie’s work in all genres—poetry, novels, short stories, and films. He compares Alexie with other Native American writers such as N. Scott Momaday and James Welch as well as with more recent writers. Grassian argues that Alexie’s work is equally the product of Native American culture and mainstream American culture.
Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other by Sherry Turkle (2012)
This book, which garnered stellar reviews, draws out at greater length and in more detail the critique of social media that Alexie makes in “The Facebook Sonnet.” Turkle, a professor at MIT, argues that social media offers only a false sense of companionship and actually leads to isolation and emotional deprivation.
When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry edited by Joe Harjo, LeAnne Howe, and Jennifer Elise Foerster (2020)
This anthology of Native American poetry includes the work of 160 poets, covering more than 300 years (1678-2019) and representing more than 90 Indigenous nations. There is an introduction by Jo Harjo, and the anthology is divided by region, each with its own introduction. The regions are Northeast and Midwest; Plains and Mountains; Southwest and West; Southeast; and Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and Pacific Islands. Poets represented include Paula Gunn Allen, Simon Ortiz, N. Scott Momaday, Louise Erdrich, Elise Paschen, Ray Young Bear, Leslie Marmon Silko, Linda Hogan, James Thomas Stevens, Janice Gould, and of course Sherman Alexie. Younger poets are also represented.
Listen to Poem
In this 2013 interview with Bill Moyers, Alexie reads “The Facebook Sonnet.” The interview runs for nearly 40 minutes; the poem can be heard starting at 12:19.
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By Sherman Alexie
