ABSTRACT
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz wrote very few sonnets with moral and philosophical content. In his edition of the Obras Completas (Complete Works), Méndez Plancarte includes a total of eight in this category. In a more recent edition, González Boixo selects six of those sonnets, but adds four others not chosen by Méndez Plancarte, for a total of ten. These new additions, however, remain highly debatable, since they can be logically inserted into other categories. The nun’s restricted use of sonnets as a vehicle for deeper reflection is surprising, considering that many critics agree that these compositions, despite being so few, are some of the best poems that Sor Juana ever wrote and are among the best-known. Octavio Paz states, “Some of Sor Juana’s moral sonnets are among her finest work” (Traps 299), a critical assessment that, unfortunately, did not translate into an expanded commentary by the Mexican poet and critic, who devoted scarcely two pages to the eight sonnets selected as philosophical by Méndez Plancarte.
