Find poetry and verse in the Library, online and print indexes, and the Internet.
Specific poems won't be listed individually on the Library Catalogue. The rare exceptions are very long book length poems such as Paradise lost.
To find books of poetry by a particular poet, select the 'as author/creator' option from the drop down menu on the catalogue, then type in the name of the poet, for example, John Donne.
If you are searching for a specific book of poems by an author, just enter the title of the book. For example, to find the poem For the Union Dead, go to the catalogue, select the Title option and type in the title of the poem. You could also search using keywords from the book's title and the author's name, for example; union dead lowell.
To find all the published poems of a particular poet, see if an edition of poems called "complete works" has been published. Try a keyword search with the poet's name and the term complete. For instance "complete whitman".
Often a selected or collected works for a specific poet is published. This will include a selection of poetry from across a poet's career.
You can search by subject or keyword to find lists of poetry books of different types. Often these collections will be referred to as 'anthologies'.
Subject headings use specific terms to describe a subject. The term poetry is a major subject heading on the catalogue, with subheadings which define the type of poetry more exactly. There are thousands of poetry books on all sorts of poetry, so you will need to narrow down your search to the type of poetry you want. When you do a subject search using the term poetry, the screen will show suggested subheadings, dates and resource types.
To find poetry from different nations, use the name of the language followed by the word poetry, for example, Australian poetry, French poetry, American poetry.
Here are some examples of poetry subject headings:
If you are looking for a specific type of poetry or poetry criticism of a particular poet, keyword searching can be easier than the more structured subject searching. You can combine different terms with the word poetry.
If you are looking for poetry criticism, use the poet's name and the term criticism, for example "William Blake criticism". This gives literary criticism of Blake's works.
Etching of Thomas Hardy, British poet and novelist, by William Strang. From The art of Thomas Hardy by Lionel Johnson.
