Finding lyric poems
Does your class assignment require you to find a lyric poem in the library?
Flip through a poetry anthology or collection and look for poems that fit your understanding of a lyric poem. Look for poems with rhythm, just like song lyrics have rhythm. Sonnets and ballads are types of lyric poetry.
Try these collections:
- American Lyric Poems, From Colonial Times to the Present byCall Number: PS593.L8O53Publication Date: 1964
- 100 American poems : masterpieces of lyric, epic and ballad from colonial times to the present byCall Number: PS586.R67Publication Date: 1948
- English lyric poetry, 1500-1700 byCall Number: online
- Oxford book of English verse of the Romantic period byCall Number: PR1221 .O8 1958Publication Date: 1958
The Performer's Anthology: An International Collection of Drama, Prose and Poetry by Call Number: PN4201 .P387 2008ISBN: 9781857566437Publication Date: 2008
The New Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1950 by Call Number: PR1174.G3ISBN: 9780198121367Publication Date: 1972
101 Famous Poems with a Prose Supplement: An Anthology by Call Number: PR1175 .A14 1985ISBN: 9780809250967Publication Date: 1985
The Oxford Book of Latin American Poetry by Call Number: PQ7087.E5 O897 2009ISBN: 9780195124545Publication Date: 2009
Poetry: A Pocket Anthology by Call Number: PN6101 .P52 2007ISBN: 9780321366313Publication Date: 2006
Victorian Women Poets: An Anthology by Call Number: PR1177 .V53 1995ISBN: 9780631176091Publication Date: 1999
The Concise Columbia Book of Poetry by Call Number: PR1175 .C6443 1990ISBN: 9780231072403Publication Date: 1990
The Oxford Book of American Poetry by Call Number: PS583 .O82 2006ISBN: 9780195162516Publication Date: 2006- Poetry and its conventions : an anthology examining poetic forms and themes byCall Number: PR1175.L355Publication Date: 1972
You can also browse the works of particular poets. Good ones to try are:
- Robert or Elizabeth Barrett Browning: PR4182.F67 1988, PR4203.D39 1991
- Lord Byron: PR4353 .L68 1995
- Robert Taylor Coleridge: PR4472 .J3 1994
- John Donne: PR2246 .C52 1988b
- John Keats: PR4832.C66 1990
- D. H. Lawrence: PR6023.A93 A17 1986
- Andrew Marvell: PR3546 .A1 1976
- Shakespeare PR2841.A1 1958b
- Emily Dickinson: PS1541 .A17 1997
- Robert Frost: PS3511.R94 A6 1995
- Edgar Allen Poe: PS2605 .A1 1965
Also: Sappho, Wordsworth, Tennyson, or Longfellow.
Poetry Full Text databases
For the full text of thousands of poems in English, start with these resources.
- 20th Century African-American PoetryContains works by more than 100 poets, including Audre Lorde, Langston Hughes, and Rita Dove. Biographical profiles accompany each poet's work. For earlier African-American poetry, see African American Poetry, 1760-1900, which includes allegories, broadsides, children's poems, elegiac poems, epics, hymns, odes, patriotic poems, and sonnets.
- Bartelby VerseThousand of poems by hundreds of authors are collected in Bartleby Verse, one of the largest free collections of verse in the public domain. Includes anthologies as well as works by individual poets.
- Online Corpus of Old English PoetryFind full text of many old English poems here, including The Dream of the Rood and The Wife's Lament; this version of Beowulf hyperlinks each word in the text to a glossary, and hopes to do so so each poem over time.
Recommended Reference Books in Jerome Library
The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics by Call Number: PN1021 .N39 2012ISBN: 9780691154916Publication Date: 2012The most comprehensive and authoritative reference for students, scholars, and poets on all aspects of poetry: history, movements, genres, prosody, rhetorical devices, critical terms, and more.
Critical Survey of Poetry by Call Number: REF PN1021 .C7 2003ISBN: 9781587650710Publication Date: 2002Presents alphabetized profiles of nearly seven hundred significant poets from around the world, providing biographies, primary and secondary bibliographies, and analysis of their works.
The Columbia Granger's Index to African-American Poetry by Call Number: PS153.N5 C648 1999ISBN: 9780231112345Publication Date: 2000-02-09indexes thousands of poems in 33 anthologies and 32 volumes of collected or selected works. The poems are listed by title or first line.
Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Poets and Poetry by Call Number: REF PS303 .G74 2006ISBN: 031332381XPublication Date: 2005a five volume work, is a comprehensive reference on American poetry from colonial era to present. It includes more than 900 alphabetically arranged and cross-referenced entries by roughly 350 scholars.
The Poetry Dictionary by Call Number: REF PN1021 .D78 2006ISBN: 1582973296Publication Date: 2005is a comprehensive and concise collection of poetry terms. This dictionary includes all the terms needed to effectively discuss poetry and lists examples from classic and contemporary poetry to illustrate the terms.
The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry in English by Call Number: onlineISBN: 9780198661474Publication Date: 1994provides a globally comprehensive guide to modern poetry in English. Celebrated poets offer views on their fellow poets. 1,500 poets are covered from W.H. Auden to Benjamin Zephaniah.- Index of American Periodical VerseCall Number: PN1021 .I53ISBN: 00909130Publication Date: Library has 1971-2004serves as a guide to contemporary poets; the index alphabetically lists poets with each entry containing the name of the translator (if necessary), first line of the poem, and the periodical containing the poem.
Biographical information about poets
Contemporary American Ethnic Poets by Call Number: PS153.M56 C66 2004ISBN: 9780313324840Publication Date: 2004Presents the lives and literary contributions of famous poets and unfamiliar poets with multicultural backgrounds. Full bibliographic information following each entry will help users locate the collections and anthologies.
Contemporary PoetsCall Number: REF PR603 .C6 2001ISBN: 9781558623491Publication Date: 2000Provides biographical and bibliographic information as well as brief critical essays on 787 poets.
Contemporary Women Poets by Call Number: PS151 .C67 1998ISBN: 9781558623569Publication Date: 1997Provides biographical, bibliographic, and critical entries on nearly 250 of the most prominent women poets currently writing and or publishing in the English language.
Highlighted Journals
Name that poem!
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Know how a poem begins but can't remember the author? Know the poet's name but can't remember the poem? When trying to match a line with an author, begin with a Columbia Granger's Index. |
The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry in Anthologies by Call Number: REF PN1022 .H39 2007ISBN: 9780231139885Publication Date: 2007First published in 1918 and now in its 13th edition, Granger's is a standard source for locating poems by poet, title, first line or subject in about 250 poetry anthologies.
The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry by Call Number: REF PN1022 .C63 2004ISBN: 9780231125284Publication Date: 2004Indexes by major poets. Locate poems by poet, title, first line, and subject. Click on the link to find the record of the second edition in Jerome Library.
Also see Lost Ties, Forgotton Rhymes: How to Find a Novel, Short Story, or Poem Without Knowing its Title or Author from the Library of Congress.
Anthologies
I just need a poem. Any poem will do.
Again, a poetry anthology might be just the ticket. An alternative is to search within the library catalog, using keywords such as "victorian poetry" or "slam poets" to find collections by time period or genre. Or, try browsing the journals highlighted on this guide.
For collections of poetry, search the library catalog for the Subject: Poetry--Collections or try these titles:
Recommended Databases and Websites about poetry
- Modern American Poetry Site (MAPS)A scholarly, comprehensive site created by the Department of English, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, filled with commentary and criticism on many poems and poets.
- Poetry FoundationHas a variety of poetry-related information, including poems organized by categories such as Weddings, Love, Pets, Funerals. Brief biographical sketches, literary criticism of poems, poetry podcasts, and Poetry magazine are found here.
Spoken Word
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Poetry is meant to be experienced aloud, much like plays are meant to be performed. The Poetry Archive is an online collection of poets, of the 20th century onwards, reading their work; it includes some historic recordings from the late 19th century. Poems are browsable by title, theme, and form. Requires Real Player download to hear poetry; link from site. Jerome Library also has many recordings of poets reading their works; search the BGSU Library Catalog by choosing Material Type > Spoken Word Recording. |
Finding a poem
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I have a poem, now I need to find scholarly articles about the poem. Response, analysis, and interpretation of literature, such as poems, fall under the category of Literary Criticism. To find resources on criticism of poetry, see the information within the Literary Criticism tab. |