English - Poetry: Books

Use the Library Discovery system (see the link below) to search for books by keyword, title, author, or by using the subject search option. 

Example search terms:

Alliteration
Anapest
Assonance
Blank verse
Couplet
Iamb
Line
Meter
Octave
Octosyllable
Pentameter
Poem
Poetry
Rhyme
Stanza
Strophe
Trochee

• Elizabeth Bishop: Life and the Memory of It (for the eBook search by title in EBSCOhost eBook Collection)
• Shakespeare: A Life (PR2894.H65) print version, see NSU, John Vaughan Library, Main Collection
• The Life of W. B. Yeats: A Critical Biography (for the eBook search by title in EBSCOhost eBook Collection)

Use the Library Discovery system to search for books that provide biographical information, poetry collections, and criticisms about a poem. 

Biographical information:

Print books and eBooks are available that provide a brief biographical overview of individual poets. Full-length biographies may be found through the Library Discovery (link below) by doing a "subject" search on the person's last name or search in the EBSCOhost eBook Collection (link below). 

Here are some books from the library collection that could be useful:

• American Authors, 1600-1900:  A Biographical Dictionary (Ref. PS21.K8)
• British and Irish Poets: A Biographical Dictionary, 449-2006 (Ref. PR502.B67)
• British Authors Before 1800 (Ref. PR105.K9)
• British Authors of the Nineteenth Century (Ref. PR451.K8)
• Contemporary Poets (Ref. PR603.C6)
• Dictionary of Literary Biography (Ref. PN451.D32)
• The Historical Dictionary of the Beat Movement (PS228.B6 V37) eBook - search by title in the EBSCOhost eBook Collection
• Lives of the Poets (PR502.S35 - Main collection) Biography and history and criticism
• Notable Poets (eBook - search by title in the EBSCOhost eBook Collection)
• Something About the Author (Ref. PN451 .S6)The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (eBook - search by title in the EBSCOhost eBook Collection)
• Twentieth Century Authors (Ref. PN771.K86)

General criticisms can be located in books or journal articles. For contemporary (active from 1960 to the present) poets, try Contemporary Literary Criticism (Ref. PN 771.C59). For poets writing between 1900-1960, use Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism (Ref. PN 771.G27). For full-length criticisms in books, do a subject search on the poet’s last name in Library Discovery.

Here are some books that offer a quick overview to a poem or poetry criticisms/theory:

• American and British Poetry v 1-2 (Ref. PS 303.A44)
• The Comic Mode in English Literature: From the Middle Ages to Today (PR147.C65 R67) Literary history and criticism
• Guide to American Poetry Explication: Colonial and Nineteenth-Century (Ref. PS 201.R66)
• Guide to American Poetry Explication: Modern and Contemporary (Ref. PS 221.L46)
• Guide to British Poetry v.1-4 (Ref. PR 311.M34)
• Literary Criticism Index (Ref. PN 523.W44)
• Magill's Bibliography of Literary Criticism (Ref. PN 523.M25) includes criticism on all types of literature.
• Masterplots II:  Poetry Series (Ref. PN 1110.5.M37)
• Literature Resource Center (online database source for biographies, criticisms, reviews)
• The Resistance to Poetry (PS325 .L67) Poetry - History and criticism - theory
• The Virtues of Poetry (PN1042.L665) Poetry - History and criticism - theory

• The Poems of Emily Dickinson:  An Annotated Guide to Commentary in English, 1978-1989 (Ref. PS 1541.D83)
• Critical Insights: Sylvia Plath (PS3566.L27 Z915) Search for the eBook via Salem Press Titles
• Critical Insights: The Poetry of Edgar Allen Poe (PS2642. P63 P64) Search for the eBook via Salem Press Titles
• Critical Survey of Shakespeare's Sonnets (PR2848.A2 S35) Search for the eBook via Salem Press Titles