Happy National Poetry Month! To celebrate, we pulled together our best stories about poetry with free links to poems from contemporary and classic American poets.
Poems by 10 Contemporary Black Poets
February 18, 2021
Poems by Black poets, including Morgan Parker, Hanif Abdurraqib, Simone White, Terrance Hayes, and more.
How Do We Know That Epic Poems Were Recited from Memory?
February 28, 2020
Scholars once doubted that pre-literate peoples could ever have composed and recited poems as long as the Odyssey. Milman Parry changed that.
The Poem That Inspired Radical Black Women to Organize
November 5, 2020
Beah Richards is best known as an actor, but in 1951 she wrote a sweeping poem that influenced the Civil Rights Movement.
Robert Hayden’s Relatable Fatigue
April 22, 2020
There’s a constant attention to the burdens of history in Robert Hayden’s poems. Even amid the beauties of life, the ghosts of the past linger.
Everyday Life, Revisited—with Bernadette Mayer’s Memory
April 15, 2020
In the poet’s work, the small and ordinary rise to the level of heroic adventures. If we value human life, then we should value what makes up a life.
“Mad Meg,” the Poet-Duchess of 17th Century England
March 10, 2019
Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, shocked the establishment by publishing poems and plays under her own name.
The Poet Who Wanted to Be Eaten by Vultures
July 10, 2018
One day in 1971, the hard-drinking Beat poet Lew Welch walked into the woods of Nevada County and disappeared, possibly angling to be eaten by vultures.
What This 19th-Century Poet Knew About the Future
May 4, 2018
The Anthropocene requires a new history to explain how humans transform the planet. The work of poet John Clare is a good place to start.
The Restoration’s Filthiest Poet (and Why We Need Him)
April 11, 2018
Creature of the court, royalist and fop, dandy and dilettante, John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, knew how to scandalize with verse.
What, Prithee, Is a Poetess?
April 4, 2018
The loss and recovery of a poetic genre shows how the canon of literary history treats women writers the moment they start to gain attention and approval.
Summertime Poems and Paintings
July 27, 2018
Summery poems by Mary Oliver, Matthew Zapruder, and other poets, along with seasonal paintings by Claude Monet and other artists.
Ten Poems By Sylvia Plath
October 27, 2016
Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932, and became in her short life one of the most influential poets of the era.
10 Poems by African-American Poets
February 2, 2018
Poems by African-American poets, including Gwendolyn Brooks, Kwame Dawes, Rita Dove, Langston Hughes, Tyehimba Jess, Kevin Young, and more.
The Snow That Never Drifts: Emily Dickinson’s Slant Winter
February 24, 2015
Like many of her poems, Emily Dickinson's "The Snow That Never Drifts" presents a riddle for the reader
A Belief in Ghosts: Poetry and the Shared Imagination
October 4, 2016
An essay from poet Dorothea Lasky on poetry, ghosts, and the shared imagination.
The Drag Aesthetic of Langston Hughes
July 6, 2016
Langston Hughes' poetry was influenced by the drag scene in 1920s Harlem.
10 Poems by Lucie Brock-Broido
March 7, 2018
Ten poems by the accomplished poet and teacher Lucie Brock-Broido.
MacArthur Genius Fellow Maggie Nelson Writes Poetry, Too. Here’s Some Of It.
September 22, 2016
She can pack a room with her prose, but Maggie Nelson's got a poet's ear.
The Privileged and Impoverished Life of Phillis Wheatley
March 30, 2018
The first African American of either gender to publish a book of poetry has remained a controversial figure in the black community.
Taylor Swift: 1989’s Confessional Poet
September 23, 2015
Since she first came to prominence, Taylor Swift's songs have been read autobiographically.
Walt Whitman the… Politician?
May 31, 2016
Before Walt Whitman was a famous poet, he was a scandalous poet, but before even all that he was in the thick of local and national politics.
