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Archive FAQ

Frequently asked questions about the Poetry Foundation’s online archive, including permissions, biographies, and suggestions.

Permissions

The Poetry Foundation online archive is one of the world’s largest online English-language poetry resources. The archive serves as a free database of more than 46,000 poems, 6,300 author biographies, the catalogue of Poetry magazine since 1912, hundreds of articles and educational resources, audio and video, and more. Poems are available for free for you to read, discuss, and share with friends. Please note we do not hold the rights to these poems and cannot offer licenses for commercial use.

Can I share this poem with friends, family, or students?

Yes! Please share poems via social media, linking to our site, or printing poems for personal use. Note that our poems may be protected by copyright law and you are responsible for ascertaining fair use of our content.

Can I print this poem in a newsletter or in my book?

The Poetry Foundation does not own the rights to most poems on our site. Please consult with the rightsholder to obtain permission to reprint any poems found in our archive.

What is a rightsholder?

A rightsholder is the person or organization who owns the copyright on intellectual property such as books, films, photographs, and poems. Rightsholders decide who can use their property and how they can use it. Publishers hold the rights to most poems, but sometimes other agencies or estates (such as a deceased poet’s family) hold rights. The Poetry Foundation credits publishers under each poem when available.

Why can’t I find a poem on your site?

The Poetry Foundation acquires permission to reprint poems on our site. For a variety of reasons, we are not able to obtain permissions to every published poem. People work the archive, meaning poems expire and licenses are renewed based on human discretion. If we are missing a poem you expected to see, please read more in our suggestions FAQ on this page.

Suggestions

The Poetry Foundation archive is curated and developed collaboratively by our team of writers and editors in consideration of your needs as a reader. If you would like to suggest content for the archive, please find more information below based on the content type. For original content submissions, please see the Poetry magazine FAQ.

Need More Help?

Can I suggest a poem for the archive?

We reprint selected previously published work based on a variety of factors. Please contact us through the general information form with your suggestion and it will be routed to the digital archive editor. Suggestions will be read as time allows, and you will not receive a response to your suggestion unless the editor requires more information.

Can I suggest a poet biography page?

We are always looking to include more poets in the archive. Please contact us through the general information form and your suggestion will be routed to the digital archive editor, who evaluates suggestions as time allows.

I found a typo or a formatting error in a poem. Can I suggest a correction?

Poems exist in many iterations and forms that change from publication to publication. For example, Walt Whitman re-published Leaves of Grass in six different print editions during his lifetime with one “deathbed edition” released after his death, making every version of those poems different. You can read more about poem versioning in this blog post. Please verify the poem’s text by consulting a print or digital copy of the publication from which our version is copied before suggesting a correction; you can find the poem’s source listed at the bottom of the poem’s page. Please submit confirmed corrections through our contact form.

Can you help me with a research question?

The Poetry Foundation is unable to respond to individual research questions, including requests for help with citations. Please consult our web resources, including collections and articles, for information that may help answer your question. Ask your local librarian and consult other researched and verifiable online resources, such as poets.org, for further information.

How can I learn more about Poetry magazine?

You can read about the history of the magazine on our website. To read primary sources from the archives of Poetry magazine, please visit the University of Chicago Special Collections and Indiana University Lilly Library.

For Authors

I’m a poet. Can I have a poet biography page?

Poets may submit their author biography for review. Do not submit more than once per year, including revision requests. Please submit your biography via this form. Submission is not a guarantee of publication. We are unable to respond to individual requests, and your bio will be reviewed in the order received based on the capacity of our editors. All biographies are edited for house style and fact-checked to ensure accuracy. In order to maintain accuracy and reduce revisions to existing biographies, we are unable to include self-publications or forthcoming materials in biographies.

How do I submit my poem to be published on your website?

Works in the digital archive are previously published and we do not own the rights to these works; please see our permissions FAQ on this page. If you are a poet and would like to recommend previously published work for archive acquisition, please make a note as such when requesting revisions to your author biography page. Additionally, while we don’t accept submissions for publication on the website, Poetry magazine has open submission periods throughout the year. All poems that appear in the magazine also appear in the digital archive. Find instructions for submitting your poems to Poetry here.

Can you update my existing poet biography page?

Though we update biographies routinely, we cannot update biographies after every individual publication. Please submit revised biographies only after significant biographical revisions have been made or the biography on our website is more than five years out of date.

Can I submit an idea for a collection, poem guide, or other resource?

Please submit your idea for new archive content through our contact form. Suggestions will be routed to the digital archive editor. We encourage you to review our existing collections and poem guides for ideas.

How do I submit books for review, or submit a blog or featured article pitch?

Please note that Harriet Books does not accept unsolicited review copies. If you would like to submit a book for consideration, please see the Poetry magazine FAQ.

How do I apply for funding opportunities?

Please visit our Grants FAQ for information on funding from the Poetry Foundation.

Need More Help? Other FAQ

Here are links to other FAQ at the Poetry Foundation to help answer any remaining questions. If you are unable to find the answer to your question here, please contact us.