Research Guides: Poetry: Library Resources

"For poems are not, as people think, simply emotions (one has emotions early enough)—they are experiences."

—Rainer Maria Rilke

National Poetry Month (April) is one of many programs of the Academy of American Poets created to encourage the year-round, life-long reading of poetry. The concept is to widen the attention of individuals and the media—to the art of poetry, to living poets, to our complex poetic heritage, and to poetry books and journals of wide aesthetic range and concern. (https://poets.org/)

Image: An Owl and Two Eastern Bullfinches, from an Album 'Birds Compared in Humorous Songs, Contest of Poetry of the 100 and 1000 Birds', 1791 (Color Woodblock Print ). Credo Reference.

Literature Databases

Poetry for Students This link opens in a new window
Poems of all time periods, nations, and cultures. Provides an overview of the poem and discussion of its principal themes, images, form and construction.
Gale Literature Criticism (Short Stories and Poetry) This link opens in a new window
Literary criticism for major U.S. and World authors and poets. Includes criticism for short stories and poetry only.
Bloom's Literary Reference Online This link opens in a new window
Examines writers, works, characters, movements and events in world literature. Provided by DISCUS, South Carolina's Virtual Library.
Gale Literature This link opens in a new window
Full text of literary works, journal articles, literature criticism, reviews, biographical information and overviews. Formerly Artemis Literary Sources.
Gale Literature: Twayne's Author Series This link opens in a new window
Critical introductions to the lives and works of major writers of the world within the context of the time period in which they lived.
Literary Reference Center This link opens in a new window
Information on thousands of authors and their works. Provided by DISCUS, South Carolina's Virtual Library.
Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
Literary criticism, biographical information, journal articles, reviews and more. Provided by PASCAL.

eBooks

Search any of the following collections for a poet's name, a poem's title, or a combination; for example:

Langston Hughes and "Montage of a Dream Deferred"

Ebook Central This link opens in a new window
Over 100,000 ebooks covering all academic disciplines.
EBSCO eBook Collection This link opens in a new window
Over 69,000 e-books on popular and academic subjects.
EBSCO Comprehensive Academic Ebook Collection This link opens in a new window
200,000+ e-books covering a large selection of academic subjects.

Streaming Videos

Antonio Gamoneda - in Spanish with English Subtitles
In this program, Gamoneda describes his genesis as a poet, shaped by a childhood of poverty and traumatization by the horrors of the Spanish Civil War; his perception of the radicalizing and revelatory nature and limited influence of poetry; and the relationship he perceives between poetry and music.
The Language of Life: A Festival of Poets
This eight-part series crosses the lines of race, gender, and culture to reveal, and revel in, the beauty and power of modern American poetry.
The Poetry Hall of Fame
This program showcases more than 130 of the world’s best-known poems cleverly performed and artistically interpreted. Featuring Claire Bloom, LeVar Burton, Robert Culp, Ruby Dee, Henry Fonda, Will Geer, Fred Gwynne, Valerie Harper, Jack Lemmon, Vincent Price, William Shatner, Irene Worth, and others.
In the Steps of William Shakespeare
Tour the England of Shakespeare from his early years in Stratford, through to his career as a playwright and an actor in London.

Journals

Poetry Magazine
The Poetry Foundation works to raise poetry to a more visible and influential position in American culture.
Poets & Writers
Nonprofit serving creative writers
Victorian Poetry
Essays, criticism and reviews, and thematic issues, on aspects of Victorian poetry.