American Lit

[Leanne]

I'm sure I can be excused my "forgetfulness" of American literature, since I'm sure you are "forgetful" of Australian literature to the same extent

I will consider my acquaintance made with the subject matter thanks to your "cliff notes"... and now I'll just speak to the structure of the sonnets.

"The Ambassadors"

Lambert Strether took a boat to France
in order to convince his nephew, Chad,
that the woman he was sleeping with was bad- -- for the sake of meter, and because we can get away with such things in a poem, I'd suggest taking "that" as read and just starting the line with "the" -- alternatively, you could drop "the" and go with "that woman"
that he should tend to business, not romance. -- depending on your choice for the line above, you might consider starting this line with "and" instead of "that"
But later, when he'd had a second glance
at the way Mme. de Vionnet was clad, -- the meter is again disrupted at the start of this line, and I'm generally ok with that, but if you wanted to render it into lovely neat and anal iambs, I'd suggest something like "at how Mme. de Vionnet was clad"
Strether thought anyone would be a cad -- the meter in these two lines is more problematic, to my reading, all different shaped feet -- I'm not entirely sure at this point what to suggest as a fix though
to let her get away under any circumstance.

The plot is structured like an hour-glass
turned on its side- the men just trade places. -- with a feminine ending, you should really have another syllable -- I'd suggest "the men just trading places"
Chad goes back to the states (the silly ass!),
while Strether enters a state of sexless stasis. -- a syllable over here, I'd suggest "while Strether ends up stuck in sexless stasis" or similar
The novel's theme is clear and unassailable-
never turn down pussy that's available. -- love the triple rhymes to close, that's a great change-up both in meter and in tone

I'll have a look at the others when I have another moment of silence in my house!