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Poem Locator Guide

  1. Search the POEM FINDER database, listed under DATABASES/LITERATURE on the LAPL Home Page.
    • This database now includes the full text of 100,000 poems, plus 800,000 references to poems in collections and in periodicals. Most of the full-text poems are in public domain (pre-1923), but there are also some more recent poems included. In addition to searches for specific authors, titles, first lines, last lines, or words in the text, subject searches can also be performed (for example, you can print out a number of poems about butterflies).
    • WARNING regarding PRINTING: After you've found your poem, if you don't click on the "text only" link before printing, you'll get a list of all the author's poems in the database, which can go on for pages.
  2. Search the GRANGER'S WORLD OF POETRY database, listed under DATABASES / LITERATURE on the LAPL Home Page.
    • The online version of Granger's now includes 13,000 full-text poems and 250,000 references to poems in collections. As with Poem Finder, most of the full-text poems are in public domain. While this database is not as large, in some ways the search capability is more sophisticated. The subject indexing also seems to be superior in Granger's.
  3. Do an Internet search on GOOGLE (or whatever search engine you prefer).
    • People LOVE to post their favorite poems on their websites, whether in public domain or not. If the patron remembers a few lines of the poem, it's generally best to search (in quotes) for one or two distinctive phrases, perhaps two or three words each, rather than typing in a whole line of verse. Chances are that one or more of the words the patron recalls is wrong-but which words? Try a few different combinations of words and phrases, and you may get lucky! The Internet is a particularly good source for "Ann Landers" - type poems that are hard to locate elsewhere.
  4. Call the LITERATURE/FICTION DEPARTMENT at (213)228-7345, and we will be glad to check:
    • Older print editions of Granger's back to 1904.
    • Concordances to the complete works of most major poets (in order to verify that a poem is NOT by T. S. Eliot, for example).
    • Our in-house collection of "popular" poetry and recitations compiled over the years (example: three versions of Rudyard Kipling's "If" rewritten for girls).
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