ENGL 4400: Studies in Verse Guide
Overview
The library has many resources that can help with your assignments for this and other classes. For a more complete list of resources, see the English Language and Literature subject guide. Ask a Librarian can answer quick questions by email. You can stop by or call the Central Reference desk at 387-5178.Finding Books
Use WMU's Library Catalog, to locate books by and about authors. If WMU Libraries do not have the book, you can borrow it from another library through Interlibrary Loan, though you must register first. Or borrow from a Michigan library through MeLCat.New Library Catalog In 2009 we added a new interface to our catalog. It still identifies books (including online books), journal titles, government documents, music, videos, maps, and other items in the University Libraries. It can still be searched by title, author, subject, but now you can choose the format and location in your first search. There are easy ways of narrowing your search in the left column, it offers "did you mean" spelling, favorite lists, and lets you tag items with your own labels.
Classic Library Catalog WMU's Classic library catalog (also known as WestCat), is used to identify books (including online books), government documents, journals, audio and video, slides and other items in the University Libraries' collections. The catalog can be searched by title, author, subject heading, keyword, call number, and more.
WorldCat Comprehensive catalog of books and other materials in libraries around the world. Contains millions of records in hundreds of languages. Nonbook materials include (among other publication formats) the titles of journals and magazines, manuscripts, maps, electronic resources, websites, computer programs, music scores, films, slides, sound recordings, conference proceedings, and videotapes. Items located through WorldCat must be requested through Interlibrary Loan unless they are also listed in the WMU Libraries catalog.
Biographical Information
Literature Resource Center Full-text biographies, critical essays and reviews, poems, short stories and plays of more than 130,000 international authors. This database contains the full content of the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Contemporary Authors, and selections from Children's Literature Review, Drama Criticism, Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, Poetry Criticism, Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism and 11 other literary criticism series. Database has export features for Refworks, Endotes and Procite.
Poems
If you want a book of poems by a specific poet look under his or her name as an author in the Library Catalog. If you want to find references to specific poems by author, title, first line, or subject, begin with these resources.LitFinder Contains over 125,000 full text poems, and a few short stories, essays, and plays. Biographies of the authors are included and over 800,000 more poems are cited.
Academy of American Poets A multi-media resource providing information on over 400 American poets, including biographical and bibliographical information, the full-text of selected poems, audio clips, and related web sites.
Chadwyck-Healy Literature Collections Full text of English and American poetry, drama, and fiction from different time periods. The Literature Online database organized by collections. This subscription is limited to four simultaneous users. Please logout when finished.
Electronic Poetry Center Provides easy access not only to poetry "published" electronically but to more conventional printed poetry and poet web pages.
Literature Online (LION) A full-text database of more than 350,000 works of English and American poetry, drama and prose, literary criticism from over 200 literature journals and various reference resources. Includes biographies, bibliographies, and links to Web sites. This database has a personal folder option where you can save articles. This database also has a citation export feature into Refworks, and Endnotes. This subscription is limited to four simultaneous users. Please logout when finished.
Columbia Granger's Dictionary of Poetry Quotations PN 6082 .C57 1992 (Ref - Desk Coll.)
Use the keyword index if you are trying to identify a specific poem, or the subject index if you're looking for a poem on a subject. The body of this book contains the most frequently quoted selections from famous poems. You will need to use a full text source like Lit Finder or the Electronic Poetry Center if you want to get a copy of the whole poem.
Granger's Index to Poetry PN 1022 .H39 (Ref - Most recent in Desk Coll.)
This source indexes anthologies or collections of poetry. You can look up a poem by its title, first line, last line, author, or subject. Once you've found the title of a collection containing your poem, check the Library Catalog to see if we own that book. The first edition of Granger's was published in 1904. Later editions often do not index poems that have already been listed in previous editions.
Index of American Periodical Verse
PN 1021 .I5x (Ref) 1971-present. An annual title and author index to poems published in periodicals in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. If you find a poem you're looking for in this index you need to search the Library catalog to see if we own the periodical in which that poem is printed.
Poetry Index Annual PN 1022.P63 (Ref)
This index systematically indexes all poetry anthologies as they are published. Thus these volumes cover anthologies Columbia Granger's Index misses, since that series is selective. Each annual edition of Poetry Index Annual complements and supplements the preceding editions. Poems are separately indexed by author, title, and subject. An alphabetical symbol stands for the name of the anthology in which the poems appear. 1982-1993.
Literary Criticism
Literature Resource Center Full-text biographies, critical essays and reviews, poems, short stories and plays of more than 130,000 international authors. This database contains the full content of the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Contemporary Authors, and selections from Children's Literature Review, Drama Criticism, Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, Poetry Criticism, Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism and 11 other literary criticism series. Database has export features for Refworks, Endotes and Procite.
MLA International Bibliography (Modern Language Association) Indexes periodicals and series, monographs, book collections, dissertation abstracts, Festschriften (books written to honor a particular scholar), and other sources. Areas covered include modern languages and literature, folklore, linguistics, literary themes, genres, and related topics across national literatures and other classified boundaries. Covers from 1963 to the present. Updated 9 times per year. Has citation tools for Refworks, Endotes and Procite. It also has a personal folder option to save articles and citations.
Z 7006 .M64 (Ref. Index Shelves) (1921-present)
Literature Online (LION) A full-text database of more than 350,000 works of English and American poetry, drama and prose, literary criticism from over 200 literature journals and various reference resources. Includes biographies, bibliographies, and links to Web sites. This database has a personal folder option where you can save articles. This database also has a citation export feature into Refworks, and Endnotes. This subscription is limited to four simultaneous users. Please logout when finished.
Poetry Criticism PN 1010 .P499 (Ref)
Multi-volume series with excerpts from criticisms of the most significant and widely studied poets of world literature. Now available online in Literature Resource Center.
Poetry Explication: A Checklist of Interpretations Since 1925 of British and American Poems Z 2014 .P7 K8 (Ref)
A handy volume selectively listing interpretations of some of the best known poems. The sources listed under article indexes in this guide will also be useful in locating explications of poetry.
Ask A Librarian
Kate Langan
kathleen.langan@wmich.edu
269-387-5823
Last updated: August 2009