Poetry Research Guide

Find a poem

1. Use the library catalog to find collections of poems by your writer. Often there will be a title: The Complete Works of Your Poet. Check the book's index for the page location of your poem.

For example, to find a poem by English poet John Donne, go to the library catalog. Fill in "donne,, john" as Author. The entries listed are both his poems and his sermons, so examine the right column for ways to narrow the search. Choose Classification P -- Language and literature. Several entries indicate poetical works of Donne.

2. Another great place to find the text of a poem is Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, listed on the Falvey home page under Databases A to Z or Subject Guides / English / Primary sources.

Some special features include the Poets Book of Days, Poetry Trivia questions and a featured poem, which right now is Byron's "She Walks in Beauty."

Search for elusive poems by title, poet, first line, last line, words in poem (puddle-wonderful), schools and movements (The Beats), gender of poet, era (Romantic Era), form (sonnet) and other defining features.

3. Use Literature Online to find a poem by searching Texts, on the left column. You can even search by a unique word: Who knew that both e. e. cummings and Lawrence Ferlinghetti use the riff "manunkind"?

Literature Online also features Poets on Screen, a YouTube of video clips of well-known poets reading their work and others'. One of my favorites is the late Robert Creeley reading John Milton's sonnet "On His Blindness," also entitled "When I Consider How My Light Was Spent."

Find poetry analysis

1. Literature Online (LION) contains critical interpretations of poems, published in journals or books.

Click on the left category Criticism and Reference and then Criticism.

Find out more about Milton's Sonnet XIX, "When I Consider How My Light Was Spent," which contains the famous last line, "They also serve who only stand and wait."

Fill in your poet's name in the Subject blank (Milton) and the poem title in the Keyword blank (Sonnet XIX). By including the Journal Article Full Text option in the search, we retrieved 15 articles, some of which are available in their entirety.

If not full text on the database, click on Find It    to link to other full text providers, the library catalog or obtain the journal article or book from Iliad (interlibrary loan).

2. Other recommended places to find poetry interpretations published in journals and/or books are the MLA Bibliography and Humanities Full Text, to name a few.

More literary database links can be found on the English Subject Page.

3. Books ABOUT poets and their works can also be found via the library catalog: Search the poet's name as a Subject, adding the key words: criticism  interpretation

keats criticism interpretation in the Subject field will pull up this book record, Critical Essays on John Keats, for example, as well as many others.

4. To find discussions of specific poems, use the Literature Criticism Online subset Poetry Criticism. Retrieve full text discussion and analysis of your poem.

5. Two reference book series will lead you to poetry interpretations printed in books and journals: the Guide to American poetry explication and the Guide to British poetry explication.  These are shelved in the first floor reference collection.

Most important, if you need help, contact the information desk (610.519.4270), a research librarian  or Judith Olsen, the English subject librarian liaison.