Poets: A B . C D . E F . G H . I J . K L . M N . O P . Q R . S T . U V . W X . Y Z | Other

Introduction

Welcome to Poets' Corner, one of the largest and oldest text resources on the web. The goal of this project is to maintain a user-friendly library that is both a useful reference and an appealing place to browse and explore - and there is plenty of material here to explore. The collection covers over 7,300 works by about 800 poets - including some of the best known-works in the English language - and many obscure and forgotten works that are well worth reading.

Since its inception in 1994, this site has grown through thousands of hours of transcription, editing and coding, through the efforts of the site editors, and through the contributions of volunteers from around the world. The collection contains items ranging from sundial inscriptions to book-length works. A major overhaul was completed in June 2020 upgrade all site contents to secure HTTPS compliance and to correct links that have changed with time. The format remains very simplistic to ensure ease of access across all platforms, and all geographies. I have also tried to keep away from advertising (I cannot guarantee that forever). These two things make the site very fast to load and to scroll through, despite the large size of some of the scripted text files.

Please not that the majority of ongoing activity - including most Q&A - has moved onto social media sites. The most comprehensive is The Other Pages on Facebook, which is the most consistently updated and the best place for questions. The best organized is The Other Pages on Tumblr, which has an Archive with a thumbnail index organized by year, month, and day of posting, as well as a search function. Note that these pages share photography, quotations, and other topics in addition to poetry.

Searching for Content

The current Search Tool (mostly) works, but has some quirks and limitations. The FAQ has more comments on searching. The most comprehensive catalog is the Author Index. (This is the series of letters across the top of the page). There are 13 detailed files containing a great deal of additional annotated information about each poet and their works. There is also a Condensed Version, which provides a quicker way of scanning through names. We previously had a Title and Frist Line index, but those have become difficult to maintain.

Additional Features

As mentioned above, this site has few bells and whistles to ensure universal access. For browsing and exploration, there is a Quick Sampler of shorter works, and a list of Longer Works. And, if anyone is curious, there is a listing of some of Our Favorite Poems. There is an image collection, Faces of the Poets, which is a work-in-process, but has a significicant number of entries. The essays written for National Poetry Month each year also make for good reading. Most of these, at least in the last two years, have focused on more recent works. If you're not sure what you'd like to read, wander through the Author Indexes - there are 800-ish poets to choose from.

This collection is limited to works that are in the Public Domain in the United States. There is a partial list of suggested readings from more recent poets. That, like the updated Subject Index, is a work-in-progress.

Background

Why does this site exist? That is a surprisingly hard question to answer. It started in 1994 as an experiment, grew into a pastime (a certain very patient spouse would surely say an obsession), and became a collaborative project that has grown into a substantial resource for those who enjoy or study poetry of all types, and appreciate the accessibility provided by the Web.

This site has been recognized by numerous aggregation sites and search engines, (Britannica, Magellan, WebCrawler, Point, and many others that no longer exist), publications (New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Yahoo Internet Life), broadcasters (the BBC, Oxygen) numerous university programs, and many of its users around the world.

Poet's Corner (singular possessive), by the way, is a section of Westminster Abbey in London, England where Geoffrey Chaucer (the original Poet of Poet's Corner) is buried, along with 28 additional poets, playwrights and authors.

This is one of several collections at The Other Pages (theotherpages.org), a voluminous arts and humanities site spanning poetry, photography, quotations, music, literature, and other subjects.

Content & Copyright

(1) If your own favorite poem is missing understand that: it may still be under copyright, which makes us unable to include it. This is a non-commercial site (i.e. no annoying pop-up advertisements) so there is no budget for licensing works still under restrictions. If a poem is past copyright, and you would like it included, please E-mail the poem, poet, and publishing information to Steve.

(2) All poems presented here, unless indicated otherwise, are believed to be past copyright restrictions in the U.S.. If you live outside the U.S., please check local copyright rules to understand what you may, or may not do with the text or images posted here.

(3) Because of the broad audience this site serves, we tend to steer away from certain material because of strong sexual or prejudicial content.

(4) You are welcome to link to any part of the collection. Every author and every poem has a unique URL and anchor tag. Please note that our index files, graphic content, and hypertext formatting are copyrighted, and may not be duplicated without permission.

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