The Heretical Origins of the Sonnet
The lyrical poetic form’s origins can be traced back earlier than Petrarch.
Reginald Dwayne Betts
A 2012 essay from the American Poetry Review on poetry and the architecture of anger.
Sonnets by 11 Contemporary Poets
The name of this fourteen-line poetic form comes from the Italian sonetto, meaning "a little sound or song."
There Once Was a Poem Called a Limerick
Whose history, they say, isn't quick. It's all such a muddle, it can leave you befuddled, whether you like the clean or the sick.
Celebrating National Poetry Month
Our best stories about poetry and poems offer free links to poems from contemporary and classic American poets.
Poems by 10 Contemporary Black Poets
Poems by Black poets, including Morgan Parker, Hanif Abdurraqib, Simone White, Terrance Hayes, and more.
The Poem That Inspired Radical Black Women to Organize
Beah Richards is best known as an actor, but in 1951 she wrote a sweeping poem that influenced the Civil Rights Movement.
The Linguistic Case for Sh*t Hitting the Fan
Idioms have a special power to draw people together in a way that plain speech doesn't.