A Historically Rich Collection of Poems, Short Stories and More

Poetry & Short Story Reference Source includes plays and speeches, classic books, biographies, critical analyses, contextual essays and explications for important works, and essays on poetic forms, literary terms, techniques and movements.

The database provides contemporary content from the finest publishers including Knopf, Houghton Mifflin, New Directions, Copper Canyon Press and dozens of authors and estates.

Poetry showcases from The Paris Review highlight current and emerging poets and their works. Each showcase includes the poet’s biography, two to six poems, and an interview with the poet. Audio recordings of these interviews, as well as poets reciting their works, are also available.

Poetry & Short Story Reference Source also contains selected works of major and minor American and English poets, along with international poetry representing each continent (accompanied by English translations, when available).

Additional Content Highlights

  • More than 2,800 audio recordings of poets reading their own works from the Academy of American Poets, poets reading works of other poets and podcasts from The Poetry Foundation
  • High-quality videos provided by the Academy of American Poets
  • More than 430 full-text explications of both classic and contemporary poems

Intuitive User Experience

Available through Explora, Poetry & Short Story Reference Source offers a variety of features and functionality to support research success and productivity. In addition to simple and advanced search options and powerful filters, researchers have the ability to explore topics by category, including authors, works, literary periods and movements and literary forms, styles and techniques.

Each category breaks down into popular, colloquial or curriculum-based subtopics that are logical for all users and friendlier to younger or novice researchers. Clicking on the subtopic brings the user to a page with a topic overview, related subtopics and overview articles, sample search results (with the option to view all results) and a carousel of relevant e-books (if available).

Visit the Explora page to learn about additional features, functionality and integrations.

School Curriculum Support

Poetry & Short Story Reference Source offers supplemental teaching and learning guides featuring lesson plans and assignments specifically crafted for use with this database. "Poetry Off the Page" lesson plans align with NCTE and Common Core curriculum standards.

The database also contains proprietary infographics to support teaching and learning. These include literary timelines, poetry word clouds, and short story plot points.

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Users can browse by author name, by poem or short-story title, by poem forms or techniques, by periods and movements, and by themes. The advanced search functionality and the browsability of the collection are high-quality features. Recommended for academic institutions.

Bonnie J. M. Swoger, Library Journal