How to Find Poetry on the Web

You may need to find that perfect line of verse to recite at a special occasion or you recall a beautiful poem you once shared with a loved one. How do you find these treasured rhymes? Well, you could go to the library and spend hours spilling over volumes. You could go to the bookstore and search the shelves. However, your search does not have to be that hard, because the world wide web offers you a solution. You can find popular and classical poems easily on the Internet if you know how and where to look for them.

Beginning Your Search

In looking for poetry verses on the web, you need to start with some information about the verse. Some folks may only know the authors name. Others may know a line of verse. Still others may know an obscure phrase or word that the poem contains. With the wonderful web, this is more than enough information to begin a search.

Casting In the Net

When fishing for verses, you need to "cast" wide. In doing this, you may simply take the information you know and use a popular search engine. Yahoo, Google, Altavista, AOL, ASK, and Excite are very good choices.

In the standard search box enter your information. If you are uncertain about spelling, don't worry. These search options will offer suggestions for alternatives. If you know a line, place the words in quotes to create a more effective search. If you are fortunate enough to know the title or author, either will help narrow your options.

Once the search is initiated, you may be successful and find your poem. If not, you may find hints on streamlining or specifying your search.

Poetry Specific WebsitesThere are a number of websites geared toward poets and poetry. There are some that draw newly created, but many focus on classical poetic verses. Some of these sites are:

1. Poetry Foundation - www.poetryfoundation.org/The Poetry Foundation, which publishes Poetry magazine, is a large non-profit literary organization which promotes excellence in poetry. On this web page, the Poetry Foundation offers a search engine. This site has a useful resource named "The Poetry Tools." With this resource allows a person to search by category, lines, authors, titles, popularity, and glossary terms.

2. Poetry.org - www.poets.orgPoetry.org is a poetry and poet resource site f and offers everything from history of poerty and information on various schools of poetry. The site has a resource page which or poetry and poets. This webpage is great when a person needs foundations in poetry and a comprehensive guide to many of the masters in poetry.

3. Lulu Poetry - www.poetry.,com

The International Library of Poetry had once served a large number of poetry fans, but has been taken over by Lulu, which intends to revamp the site. Still, this site offers great resources for those interested in poetry or looking for poetry related information. The site offers tag as well as category searches.

4. Poetry for Kids - http://www.poetry4kids.com

Kids love poetry, too. And as such, kids need poetry resources as well. The best site for kid related poems is Poetry for Kids. The page is very kid friendly and has categories as well as search options.

Poetry and Literature Forums

Other than using search engines and poetry specific websites, you can rely on a little help from your poetry friends. For those interesting in finding a bit of verse, you can rely on the kindness and knowledge of others who frequent poetry forums. Posting a query on a forum or notice boards will often elicit helpful information and guidance from literature buffs. Good forum sites include about.com, netpoets.com or piptalks.com

The Internet has proven to be a great resource for finding information Searching volumes of verses or bookstore shelves is no longer necessary. The Internet provides people the means of finding favorite poetry verses or obscure rhymes for all purposes. The trick is knowing that help is available.