To find poetry, try searching the resources below:
We have a selection of recordings of poets reading their own works, on vinyl. Click on the links above to see what is available.
This collection is reference only and can't be borrowed, but we have a listening booth and record player available for you to use at the Old Library on the Streatham campus.
Just let us know if you'd like to arrange to listen to any of the recordings; email library@exeter.ac.uk or use Library chat to get in touch.
Listen to some radio programmes discussing form in poetry
2021 BBC Radio 4 series On Form.
In this series, free verse poet Andrew McMillan meets a diverse group of contemporary British poets who are re-framing traditional techniques to write about the modern world, exploring why form is fashionable again.
2016 BBC Radio 3 programme The Verb: On Form
Ian McMillan looks at form with guests Claudia Rankine, Don Paterson and AL Kennedy.
How to Read a Poem by
Lucid, entertaining and full of insight, How To Read A Poem is designed to banish the intimidation that too often attends the subject of poetry, and in doing so to bring it into the personal possession of the students and the general reader. Offers a detailed examination of poetic form and its relation to content. Takes a wide range of poems from the Renaissance to the present day and submits them to brilliantly illuminating closes analysis. Discusses the work of major poets, including John Milton, Alexander Pope, John Keats, Christina Rossetti, Emily Dickinson, W.B. Yeats, Robert Frost, W.H.Auden, Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, and many more. Includes a helpful glossary of poetic terms.
The Poetry Handbook by
This volume is a lucid and entertaining guide to the poet's craft, and an invaluable introduction to practical criticism for students. Chapters on each element of poetry offer a wide-ranging general account and end by looking at different poems, to build up sustained analytical readings. The second edition--fully revised, expanded, updated, and supported by a new companion website--confirm The Poetry Handbook as the best guide to poetry available in English.
Poetry: the Basics by
Now in its third edition Poetry: The Basics remains an engaging exploration of the world of poetry. Drawing on examples ranging from Chaucer to children's rhymes, Cole Porter to Carol Ann Duffy, and from around the English-speaking world, it shows how any reader can understand and gain more pleasure from poetry. Exploring poetry's relationship to everyday language and introducing major genres and technical aspects in an accessible way, it is a clear introduction to how different types of poetry work through the study of details and of whole poems. With a revised chapter on the different practices and ideas in the writing of poetry now, including sections on film poetry and digital poetics, this is a must read for all students of English Literature.
The Poetry Toolkit by
Now thoroughly revamped with a diverse selection of poetic voices from the last fifty years, this third edition of Rhian Williams's bestselling book, The Poetry Toolkit guides readers through key terms, genres and concepts that help them to develop a richer, more sophisticated approach to reading, thinking and writing about poetry. Combining an easy-to-use reference format with in-depth practice readings and further exercises, the book helps students master the study of poetry for themselves. As well as featuring more contemporary voices, the 3rd edition of The Poetry Toolkit includes an expanded practical section giving guidance on close reading, comparative reading and advice on writing critically about poetry. In addition, the book is accompanied by a companion website offering audio recordings of poetry readings, weblinks and overviews of key theoretical approaches to support advanced study. Head to bloomsbury.com/Williams-the-poetry-toolkit for a host of additional resources.
Making of a Poem by
"Concise, learned, revisionary... should enrich the passionate conversation about poetic forms for years to come."-- Edward Hirsch, author of How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry Two of our foremost poets provide here a lucid, straightforward primer that "looks squarely at some of the headaches and mysteries of poetic form": a book for readers who have always felt that an understanding of form (sonnet, ballad, villanelle, sestina, among others) would enhance their appreciation of poetry. Tracing "the exuberant history of forms," they devote one chapter to each form, offering explanation, close reading, and a rich selection of examplars that amply demonstrate the power and possibility of that form.
Poetry: the Basics by
Now in its third edition Poetry: The Basics remains an engaging exploration of the world of poetry. Drawing on examples ranging from Chaucer to children's rhymes, Cole Porter to Carol Ann Duffy, and from around the English-speaking world, it shows how any reader can understand and gain more pleasure from poetry. Exploring poetry's relationship to everyday language and introducing major genres and technical aspects in an accessible way, it is a clear introduction to how different types of poetry work through the study of details and of whole poems. With a revised chapter on the different practices and ideas in the writing of poetry now, including sections on film poetry and digital poetics, this is a must read for all students of English Literature.
Find out more about this resource via: Adam Matthew Research Collection: Romanticism: Life literature and landscape
Find out more about this resource via: Adam Matthew Research Collection: Literary Manuscripts Berg
Find out more about this resource via: Adam Matthew Research Collection: Literary Manuscripts Leeds
Keep up to date with the work of the most recent award-winning poets, and look back on previous winners of these prizes.
These are just a few contemporary collections of poetry that you may be interested in reading:
Staying Alive by
An anthology of 500 brilliant poems, that presents a totally new view of contemporary poetry.
How to Disappear by
How to Disappear shines a torch into the dark corners and finds a world inhabited by the missing and the dead, by monsters and wounded beasts, discarded dreams and the memories of strangers - a trawl through the apparently empty spaces and what might be found there. At its heart is the narrative sequence Room of Leaves. It is 1959. Grace, at last, falls in love. Jilted at the altar, she sets up home in the garden of her mother's bungalow and waits, for thirty years, in a world of birds and bright umbrellas, for Frank to return...
The Harbour Beyond the Movie by
Shortlisted for The Forward Poetry Prize 2007. Luke Kennard is an award-winning poet, critic and short-fiction writer. He works as a research student and assistant teacher at the University of Exeter. He is an award-winning man.His first award-winning collection of prose poems The Solex Brothers was published by Stride Books in 2005 and won an award. He has worked as regional editor for Succour, a biannual journal of poetry and short fiction based at the University of Sussex and as an associated reader for The Kenyon Review. He is currently reviews editor of Exultations and Difficulties. His award-winning poetry has appeared in numerous print and on-line journals. He exists in a permanent state of award-winning; he is like a giant magnet for awards or, if awards are moths, a giant light.His award-winning work for the stage has been written with and performed by the theatre company Pegabovine in Bristol, Birmingham, London, Scarborough (as part of the National Student Drama Festival, 2003 and 2004, wherein it won an award) and at the Edinburgh International Fringe (wherein it did not win an award). The Sunday Times described their work as "wit of a different order", but did not specify which one. Chortle magazine described it as "delightful" - which is probably less equivocal. He is constantly decorated for his achievements in the form of awards - which he has won, does win and will continue to win, because he is a winner. What a guy.Luke Kennard is tall, nervous, polite and frequently scorches the end of his nose. He was educated at Holyrood Community School and the University of Exeter. He is married and lives in Devon, birthplace of the memorial bench. Essentially a lower-middle class purist, his favourite canapé is the cocktail sausage roll. He will probably have rosettes and medals incorporated into his gravestone, somehow.Luke Kennard, award-winner, won an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors in 2005. This has been described as a travesty and a slap in the face for writers of genuine talent. Ever since he has been forced to travel under a false name and wear nose-moustache-glasses for fear of being assaulted by embittered poets, young and old. I suppose he could just smash them in the head with one of his awards. He was received by the Orthodox church in 2006 and is working on his humility.
The Kids by
Hannah Lowe taught for a decade in an inner-city London sixth form. At the heart of this book of compassionate and energetic sonnets are fictionalised portraits of 'The Kids', the students she nurtured. But the poems go further, meeting her own child self as she comes of age in the riotous 80s and 90s, later bearing witness to her small son learning to negotiate contemporary London. Across these deeply felt poems, Lowe interrogates the acts of teaching and learning with empathy and humour. Social class, gender and race - and their fundamental intersection with education - are investigated with an ever critical and introspective eye. These boisterous and musical poems explore the universal experience of what it is to be taught, to learn and to teach.
Surge by
**Winner of the 2020 Sunday Times/University of Warwick Young Writer of the Year Award** Jay Bernard's extraordinary debut is a fearless exploration of the New Cross Fire of 1981, a house fire at a birthday party in which thirteen young black people were killed. Dubbed the 'New Cross Massacre', the fire was initially believed to be a racist attack, and the indifference with which the tragedy was met by the state triggered a new era of race relations in Britain. Tracing a line from New Cross to the 'towers of blood' of the Grenfell fire, this urgent collection speaks with, in and of the voices of the past, brought back by the incantation of dancehall rhythms and the music of Jamaican patois, to form a living presence in the absence of justice. A ground-breaking work of excavation, memory and activism - both political and personal, witness and documentary - Surge shines a much-needed light on an unacknowledged chapter in British history, one that powerfully resonates in our present moment. 'The verse has anger and political purpose, but a rare lyrical precision, too. The combination is powerful' Sebastian Faulks, Spectator, Books of the Year 2020 *Winner of the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry* *Shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Award; T.S. Eliot Prize; Forward Prize for Best First Collection; Dylan Thomas Prize; RSL Ondaatje Prize; John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize* *Longlisted for the Jhalak Prize 2020*
You can refine your search just to poetry when using Literature Online. Go to Advanced Search and select Poetry under Primary Texts on the left. Limit your search as required using the options provided.
For example, you can refine your search to a particular genre of poetry by using the Poem Type Filter choosing from the list.
You can also look up poets, literary movements and literary periods, and add them to your search.
We have access to a range of poetry collections from Chadwyck Healey now available on the ProQuest platform. The search functionality is the same in each collection: for example, you can search by keyword, title or first line of the poem, poet, or browse the complete contents of the database.
Starting from the home screen select the Advanced Search option.
For example, if you were searching the English Poetry collection, you could enter sonnets OR sonnet* in the Publication Title search box.
Click search to retrieve the results and find the sonnet required.
Alternatively you can search for the first line or the title of a poem.
Enter the details in the first line / title search box. e.g. “Shall I compare thee to a summers day?”
Click search to retrieve the results.
To view the full item click on the link.
You can use the author lookup to find an author or you can also enter the name in the search box e.g. Shakespeare.
In the Additional Author details section, you can add nationality to your search.
To browse everything in the collection, click on the Publications tab:
Oxford Scholarly Editions Online gives access to primary texts from writers between 1485-1901.
Browse by Work, Edition or Author.
Once you are inside the full text of a work you can:
Move through the play with the arrows 
at the top of the page.
Shrink the left-hand navigation bar by clicking the little arrow at its top, if required.
Hide the notes if you prefer by unchecking the notes box on the title bar
Click on the note symbols at the ends of the lines to scroll the notes pane to the right place.
The three little tabs on the left help you navigate around the work or edition.
In the Location box, enter 3.3.57 if you want to go to Act III Scene iii line 57
At the top right of the tool bar you'll find pdf and printer icons for saving or printing.
If you highlight some text and choose ‘Copy and cite’ from the pop up menu, you’ll be able to automatically add a citation and the URL to the text you highlighted, so you can copy the lot: convenient for note-taking.
Run a 'Quick search' across works, titles, authors, and full text.
For example, search "to be or not to be"
You can refine your results using the options on the left hand side; for example, choose to refine where your keyword appears by checking the relevant box under 'Show Hits Within'. You can also refine by author, genre or date.
Jump to a precise location in a text, e.g. Shakespeare Sonnet 18, or Marlowe, Faustus, 12.81
University of Exeter LibGuide is licensed under CC BY 4.0
