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With tens of thousands of poems by thousands of authors, Bartleby.com offers one of the largest and oldest free full-text collections of verse on the web.
Anthologies
Quiller-Couch, Arthur, ed.
1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse. Six centuries of the best poetry in the English language constitute the 883 poems of this unsurpassed anthology.
1922. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 779 poems from 273 authors span the 19th and early 20th centuries.
1910. The Oxford Book of Ballads. 176 works from the epic ballads of the Middle Ages to familiar lyrics.
Braithwaite, William Stanley, ed.
1907. The Book of Elizabethan Verse.
1910. The Book of Restoration Verse.
1909. The Book of Georgian Verse. These three monumental volumes with extensive notes contain 1,796 selections.
1920. Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1920.
1922. Anthology of Massachusetts Poets.
Monroe, Harriet, ed.
1912–22. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. The massive database of all 2,822 poems from the first decade of the seminal journal of verse.
1917. The New Poetry: An Anthology. A collection of 424 poems by 101 authors.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, ed. 1876–79. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Longfellow’s anthology of anthologies comprises 4,242 selections traced to every corner of the planet.
Carman, Bliss, et al., eds. 1904. The World’s Best Poetry.
Nine volumes with 2,287 selections classified and subcategorized.
Ward, Thomas Humphry, ed. 1880–1918. The English Poets.
These five volumes contain 1,446 selections by over 200 authors and feature lengthy critical introductions.
Ford, James and Mary, eds. 1902. Every Day in the Year: A Poetical Epitome of the World’s History.
718 annotated selections illustrate the great happenings and major authors of every age.
Nicholson & Lee, eds. 1917. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse.
From Donne and Traherne to Whitman and Yeats, this unique anthology spans 5 centuries with 390 selections by 162 authors.
Stedman, Edmund Clarence, ed.
1900. An American Anthology. 1740 selections by 573 authors represent a century of poetic culture.
1891. Index to Verse. Over 1200 works from Library of American Literature.
1895. A Victorian Anthology. 1274 works by 343 authors represent the great literary age.
Farr, Edward, ed.
1845. Select Poetry, Chiefly Devotional, of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth.
1847. Select Poetry, Chiefly Sacred, of the Reign of King James the First.
Miles, Alfred H., ed.
1907. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. Nearly 500 selections by over 100 authors–each with a critical biography–illustrate a flowering of devotional Christian verse.
1907. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. Critical biographies of 47 women are illustrated by 403 expertly chosen verse selections.
Squire, J. C., ed. 1921. A Book of Women’s Verse.
179 expertly selected poems from the best women poets in English.
Teasdale, Sara, comp. 1917. The Answering Voice.
A centenary of women’s poems selected by a great woman poet.
Hunt, Leigh and Lee, S.A., eds. 1867. The Book of the Sonnet.
The 530 selections by 136 authors.
Waddington, Samuel, ed. 1888. The Sonnets of Europe.
225 selections from 95 authors from the major European poets.
Higginson, T.W., and Bigelow, E.H., eds. 1891. American Sonnets.
A wide-ranging expertly selected 250 selections by 152 authors.
Seccombe and Arber, eds. 1904. Elizabethan Sonnets.
Seventeen sonnet-cycles comprising 1,121 selections.
Macphail, Andrew, ed. 1916. The Book of Sorrow.
These 528 poetic selections represent the dark side.
Smith, T.R., ed. 1921–22. Poetica Erotica: A Collection of Rare and Curious Amatory Verse.
Three volumes with 765 modernized selections sing the body and soul combined.
Johnson, James Weldon, ed. 1922. The Book of American Negro Poetry.
This volume inspired the Harlem Renaissance generation to establish firmly an African-American literary tradition.
Lounsbury, Thomas, ed. 1919. Yale Book of American Verse.
Selections from the Pantheon of American poets, including Bryant, Emerson, Longfellow and Lowell.
Kettell, Samuel, ed. 1829. Specimens of American Poetry.
These 454 selections from 188 authors form the first major verse anthology in the United States.
McCarty, William, ed. 1842. The American National Song-Book.
786 selections record in song early American martial pride.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, ed. 1880. Parnassus.
Some 700 complete poems, excerpts and verse quotations.
Cooke, George Willis, ed. 1903. The Poets of Transcendentalism.
186 poems by the 42 major and minor authors.
Kreymborg, Alfred, ed. 1920. Others for 1919: An Anthology of the New Verse.
Clarke, George Herbert, ed. 1917. A Treasury of War Poetry.
The 106 authors of these 151 poems represent the many perspectives of those engulfed in the first “Great War.”
Rittenhouse, Jessie B., ed.
1917. The Little Book of Modern Verse.
1920. The Second Book of Modern Verse.
Untermeyer, Louis, ed.
1919. Modern American Poetry. Over 130 poems from such American masters as Ezra Pound, Sara Teasdale, Stephen Vincent Benét and Emily Dickinson.
1920. Modern British Poetry. Nearly 180 poems exemplify the works of Britain’s most revered poets, including Bridges, Kipling, “A. E.,” Synge and De la Mare.
Friedlander, Joseph, comp. 1917. Standard Book of Jewish Verse.
731 selections by hundred of authors span three millenia.
Lucas, St. John, ed. 1920. Oxford Book of French Verse.
317 works in the French language spanning six centuries.
Garrod, Heathcote W., ed. 1912. Oxford Book of Latin Verse.
384 selections from 76 authors in their native tongue.
Murdoch, Walter, ed. 1918. Oxford Book of Australasian Verse.
National character and natural beauty in 205 poems by 80 authors.
Campbell, William W., ed. 1913. Oxford Book of Canadian Verse.
251 poems by 100 authors trace Canadian literary development.
Colum, Padraic, ed. 1922. Anthology of Irish Verse.
181 poems arranged along national themes.
Münsterberg, Margarete, ed., 1916. A Harvest of German Verse.
77 authors and 153 poems, with Goethe, Heine, and Rilke.
Deutsch and Yarmolinsky, comps. 1921. Modern Russian Poetry.
117 selections by 36 authors span a century of Russian verse.
Grierson, Herbert J.C., ed. 1921. Metaphysical Lyrics & Poems of the Seventeenth Century.
The verse “inspired by a philosophical conception of the universe.”
Beeching, H. C., ed. 1903. Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse.
272 selections from the greatest Christian poets.
Horder, W. Garrett, ed. 1895. The Poets’ Bible: New Testament.
328 selections map Gospel verses to their inspiration in verse.
Palgrave, Francis, ed. 1921. The Golden Treasury.
Nearly 300 lyrical pieces and songs.
Armstrong, Hamilton Fish, ed. 1917. The Book of New York Verse.
These 234 lovingly selected poems trace the history of the City.
Macdonald, Augustin S., ed. 1914. A Collection of Verse by California Poets.
These 105 selections represent the early Golden State poets.
Strachey, Lionel, et al., eds. 1906. Index to Humorous Poems.
361 selections from the 15-volume anthology.
Fuess and Stearns, comps. 1922. The Little Book of Society Verse.
147 selections of modern light verse.
English Poetry I: From Chaucer to Gray. 1909–14.
The 293 works in this first part of an extensive anthology include a glossary of over 1,000 footnotes.
English Poetry II: From Collins to Fitzgerald. 1909–14.
The 330 works by more than 60 authors survey the greatest works of the English Romantic poets.
English Poetry III: From Tennyson to Whitman. 1909–14.
The 200 poems in this last of a three-volume anthology span 40 nineteenth-century Britains and Americans.
Hymns of the Christian Church. 1909–14.
A collection of 39 works from the early Catholic Church to Protestantism.
Sinclair, Upton, ed. 1915. The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest.
With many verse selections, these 665 annotated entries show American Progressivism at its heyday.
Bridges, Robert, ed. 1916. The Spirit of Man: An Anthology.
Created in the darkness of the Great War, Bridges collects a book of lights from the literature of his nation and its allies.
Indexes to Six AnthologiesChronologicAuthorTitleFirst Line.
Hyperlinked indexes and anthology search.
Volumes
Arnold, Matthew. 1909. The Poems of Matthew Arnold, 1840–1867.
The bridge from the Victorian to the Modern era.
Blake, William. 1908. The Poetical Works.
The Oxford Blake is the highpoint of editions of the great mystical poet of the Romantic era
Brooke, Rupert. 1916. Collected Poems.
These 82 ecstatic poems form the heritage and chronicle of a handsome British youth who died in the Great War.
Burns, Robert. 1909–14. Poems and Songs.
557 works by the most lauded poet of Scotland, with a glossary of over 1,900 words and phrases.
Byron, Lord. 1881. Poetry of Byron.
Chapman, George, trans. 1857. The Odysseys of Homer, vol. 1.
Chapman’s elegant 1614–16 translation of Homer’s epic.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. 1894. Complete Poetical Works.
Skeat’s expert editorship reinvigorates the birth of the English language in his multivolume Chaucer.
Dante Alighieri. 1909–14. The Divine Comedy.
The height of the fall-and-redemption genre that would influence every generation of writer since.
Dickinson, Emily. 1924. Complete Poems.
Comprising 597 poems of the Belle of Amherst.
Donne, John. 1896. The Poems of John Donne.
The master of metaphysical poetry featuring modernized spellings.
Dryden, John. 1913. The Poems of John Dryden.
Includes songs from his plays and translations.
Eliot, T.S.
The great early works of the American poet who defined the early 20th century in verse. 1920. Prufrock and Other Observations. 1920. Poems.
1922. The Waste Land.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. 1904. The Poems of Emerson.
From the twelve-volume Concord edition of his Complete Works features voluminous footnotes painstakingly compiled by his son.
Frost, Robert
Frost’s poems are concerned with human tragedies and fears, his reaction to the complexities of life and ultimate acceptance. 1915. A Boy’s Will. 1915. North of Boston. 1920. Mountain Interval. 1920. Miscellaneous Poems.
Graves, Robert. 1918. Fairies and Fusiliers.
Much of Graves’s poetry focuses on his experiences in World War I—as evidenced in these forty-six collected poems.
Hardy, Thomas. 1898. Wessex Poems & Other Verses.
Like many of Hardy’s novels, these fifty-one poems are all set against the bleak and forbidding Dorset landscape.
Hopkins, G.M. 1918. Poems.
Considered an early Modern poet ahead of his Victorian time, G.M. Hopkins’s verse is notable for his use of sprung rhythm.
Housman, A.E. 1896. A Shropshire Lad.
This collection of verse is Housman’s signature work reflecting on passing of youth in the English countryside.
Howard, Henry, Earl of Surrey. 1880. The Poetical Works.
Sixty selections from the Tudor poet who was the first practitioner of blank verse in English.
Hutchinson, Lucy. 1679. Order and Disorder.
The greatest epic rarely read.
Keats, John. 1884. Poetical Works.
A master of blank and lyrical verse, this collection includes all of Keats’s major and minor works.
Kipling, Rudyard. 1922. Verse: 1885–1918.
These 416 selections represent the best of the Nobel prize–winning poet—from Gunga Din to If.
Lawrence, D.H.
These two collections of verse were written as D.H. Lawrence’s career began its climb towards fame and controversy. 1916. Amores. 1916. New Poems.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. 1893. Complete Poetical Works.
The 600 selections contain all the verse and dramas of the quintessential nineteenth-century American poet.
Masters, Edgar Lee. 1916. Spoon River Anthology.
In these post-mortem autobiographical “epitaphs,” 244 former citizens reveal the truth about their lives.
Millay, Edna St. Vincent. 1917. Renascence and Other Poems.
Her first volume praised for its freshness and vitality.
Milton, John. 1909–14. Complete Poems Written in English.
Paradise Lost and Regained—among the greatest epic poems of any age—combined with the full array of Milton’s English works.
Pope, Alexander. 1903. Complete Poetical Works.
The verse and famous translations from Homer and others.
Raleigh, Sir Walter. 1892. Poems.
Thirty selections from the Elizabethan adventurer.
Robinson, Edwin Arlington. 1921. Collected Poems.
Pulitzer Prize–winning collection of 166 poems, which includes the best examples of his work in both long and short verse forms.
Russell, George William. 1913. Collected Poems by A.E.
Selected and edited by the author, these 173 works epitomize the best of the Irish Renaissance poet.
Sandburg, Carl
Early collections celebrating his romance with America. 1916. Chicago Poems. 1918. Cornhuskers. 1920. Smoke and Steel.
Sassoon, Siegfried
Expressing the brutality and waste of war in forceful, realistic verse. 1918. The Old Huntsman and Other Poems. 1918. Counter-Attack and Other Poems. 1920. Picture-Show.
Shakespeare, William. 1914. The Oxford Shakespeare.
The 37 plays, 154 sonnets and miscellaneous verse that constitute the unrivaled literary cornerstone of Western civilization.
Shelley, Percy Bysshe. 1901. Complete Poetical Works.
Partial collection.
Spenser, Edmund. 1908. Complete Poetical Works.
This Student’s Cambridge Edition of the great Elizabethan poet features critical introductions of the major works.
Stein, Gertrude. 1914. Tender Buttons.
A poetic series of “cubist” verbal portraits.
Stevenson, Robert Louis. 1913. A Child’s Garden of Verses and Underwoods, with Life of Robert Louis Stevenson by Alexander Harvey.
Two best-loved verse collections comprising 121 poems.
Vergil. 1909–14. Æneid.
The greatest of Latin epics, concerning the mythic founder of Rome.
Wheatley, Phillis. 1773. Poems on Various Subjects.
The first book of verse by an African-American.
Whitman, Walt. 1900. Leaves of Grass.
In 1855 Whitman published Leaves of Grass in which he proclaims himself the symbolic representative of common people.
Whittier, John Greenleaf. 1892. The Poetical Works.
Four volumes, containing 500 selections.
Wilde, Oscar. 1881. Poems.
First published verse.
Wordsworth, William. 1888. Complete Poetical Works.
This 1888 complete collection contains nearly 900 poems.
Wyatt, Sir Thomas. 1880. The Poetical Works.
One hundred ninety selections from the Henrician courtier and herald of the sonnet in English.
Yeats, William Butler
Collections by one of the greatest lyric poets of the 20th century. 1899. The Wind Among the Reeds. 1916. Responsibilities and Other Poems. 1919. The Wild Swans at Coole.