LibGuides: English Language and Literature: Poetry

Call Numbers/Subject Headings

To find books by an author in the online catalogue, type the last name, first name and search in Author heading

To find books about an author in the online catalogue, type the last name, first name and search in Subject heading

To find audio-visual works of poetry, search by author, title, subject or keyword in advanced search and limit to CDs/Vinyl(Spoken) or Videos/DVDs as the Type or you can limit by location, Music and Audio, if you are searching for both types.

Poetry
Here are entered general works on poetry and works limited to the philosophy of poetry. Works discussing collectively the technique and philosophy of poetry and works limited to the technique of poetry are entered under Poetics.
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Search Also Under: subdivision Poetry under subjects; and headings for poetry qualified by linguistic, national or regional terms, e.g. Yiddish poetry; American poetry; West African poetry
Poetry History and Criticism
American Poetry
Canadian Poetry (English)
May be subdivided geographically for collections by authors from one particular area.
English Poetry

Select Web Resources

Anthologies and Miscellanies
This site's aim is to provide a historical and theoretical context for the still-contested canon of English poetry. Contains TOCs for anthologies, miscellanies, and beauties volumes of English poetry from the 18th century to the 20th century.

Reference Works

For more poetry reference works, search the catalogue for poetry as a keyword or subject keyword and limit to location, Reference

Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry in Collected and Selected Works
Print version also available in Reference
Call number: Z7155 G73
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The Columbia Granger’s World of Poetry contains 250,000 poems in full text and 450,000 citations, numbers that will continually expand with each update.
The poems in full text are the most widely-read in the English language, as well as in Spanish, French, German, and Italian. Included also is poetry in Portuguese, Polish, Yiddish, Welsh, Gaelic, and other Celtic languages, as well as poems in the ancient languages: Anglo-Saxon, Provencal and Latin.
Poetry Dictionary
Location: Reference
Call Number: PN1021 D78
Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century Poetry in English
This is the most comprehensive guide to modern poetry in English. Celebrated poets offer intriguing views on their fellow poets, such as Tom Paulin on Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney on Robert Lowell, and Anne Stevenson on Sylvia Plath. 1,500 poets are covered from W.H. Auden to Benjamin Zephaniah. There is worldwide coverage, including America, Britain and Ireland, New Zealand, Trinidad and Zimbabwe. There are also entries on magazines, movements, and critical terms.
Encyclopedia of American Poetry. The Nineteenth Century
Location: Reference
Call Number: PS316 E53
English Poetry: A Bibliography of the English Poetry Full-text Database
Location: Reference
Call Number: Z2014 P7E54
New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Location: Reference
Call Number: PN1021 E5 1993
New Princeton Handbook of Poetic Terms
Location: Reference
Call Number: PN1021 N39
Guide to American Poetry Explication
Location: Reference
Call Number: Z1231 P7G85
Guide to British Poetry Explication
Location: Reference
Call Number: Z2014 P7M34
Index to Poetry in Music: A Guide to the Poetry Set as Solo Songs by 125 Major Composers
Location: Music & Media Reference
Call number: ML128 S3B69

Databases

Here are a few key databases for journal articles about poetry and poets. For more article databases, see the subject guide for English Language and Literature--Find Articles page and the Databases by subject--Literature list on the Library web site.

Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature Contains >500,000 records covering monographs, periodical articles, critical editions of literary works, book reviews and more, published anywhere in the world on English literature. Also includes full text of over 60 journals.

Contemporary Literary Criticism
Contemporary Literary Criticism collects more than 11,000 critical essays on contemporary authors, with biographical, critical, principal works, and further study information.
Literature Criticism Online
Represents a range of modern and historical views on authors and their works across regions, eras and genres. Imagine centuries of analysis.
MLA International Bibliography
A bibliography of journal articles, books and dissertations produced by the Modern Language Association. It dates back to 1963 and contains citations from journals, series, and book publishers.

Select Books

Here are some titles to help you get started with your research.

Art of Poetry: How to Read a Poem by Wolosky, Shira
Call Number: PE1505 W55
A uniquely comprehensive, step-by-step introduction to poetic form, The Art of Poetry moves progressively from smaller units such as the word, line, and image, to larger features such as verse forms and voice.
Crediting poetry: the Nobel Lecture by Heaney, Seamus
Call Number: PR8899 H44C74
The Offense of Poetry by Adams, Hazard
Call Number: PN1031 A2824
Adams returns to the idea that poetry is challenging--not just in the sense of "difficult," but in that it continually "challenges us to confront and pass through offense to active mental involvement." The book ranges across the landscape of traditional literary criticism, from Plato and Aristotle to Blake, Yeats, and Seamus Heaney, ending on a light note to examine the "great bad poetry" of William McGonnagall.
On Burning Ground: Thirty Years of Thinking About Poetry by Sandra M. Gilbert
Call Number: PN1031 G49
The essays assembled in On Burning Ground display Gilbert's astonishing range and explore poetics, personal identity, feminism, and modern and contemporary literature.
The Well Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry by Cleanth Brooks
Call Number: PR502 B7 1960
The Force of Poetry by Christopher B. Ricks
Call Number: PR503 R55
Christopher Ricks is one of the best-known living critics of English, and was described by W. H. Auden as "the kind of critic every poet dreams of finding." Though published independently over many years, each of the essays in this collection asks how a poet's words reveal the "force of poetry,"