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One Book 2018-2019: Intersectionality - Citizen & Born Bright: Poetry

GRC's 18-19 One Book explores the experience of intersectionality in two titles: Born Bright: A Young Girl's Journey from Nothing to Something in American by C. Nicole Mason & Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

Poetry Resources

Use the resources on this page to find additional poetry and poetry criticism at Holman Library and beyond. 

Suggested subject terms for Holman Library One Search: 

Find Poetry

Poetry on the Web

The links below go to some websites where you can read and/or listen to poetry. 

Featured Sources: 

The Poetry Foundation

  • Read and listen to poetry online through the Poetry Foundation. Search for a poet or browse the website. 

(click on image to enlarge)

screenshot of the Poetry Foundation

The Library of Congress Poet Laureate

  • This is a great source of poetry and other works by and about poets. Consider this source if your poet was a poet laureate of the U.S.

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screenshot of library of congress poet laureate website showing how to search by year

Searching for Poetry in the Library

Did you know the library houses books, ebooks, and online content you can easily access? Use the link below to search for content. But first, be sure to look at the search strategies below.

Strategies - Search by: Author, Keyword, or Subject
 
Search by Author
  • In the Advanced Search box, change Contains to: is (exact) or enter the name in quotes.
  • And change Any Field to: Author/Creator.

(click on image to enlarge)search bar showing how to search for the author's exact name

  • You can limit to books immediately at Material Type or wait to see what you find and then limit by Source Type.
    • Note: Our books may be print or digital e-books you can read online or download.
    • Also Note: A Search by author will find everything the author has written (in our library), including poetry, essays, etc.
Search by Keyword:

Your poet's work may be included in an anthology.

  • To search more broadly for work by your author, do not change Any Field to Author. 
  • A keyword search returns, for example, works by Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey in a collection of poetry by US Poet Laureates.
Search by Subject:
  • Subject Headings return all the work we have on a given subject.
  • Look for Subjects associated with books by or about your poet.
    • Below is a screenshot of the subjects associated with a book I found with a keyword search of Natasha Trethewey

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search results showing a list of subjects you can use in the record to find related terms/topics/searches

  • Click on the Subjects linked in the record as shown above, or use the Advanced Search again to search by subject at Any Field.

Using Gale Literature

Gale Literature is one of the library's literary criticism databases

Most of the content is mainstream and scholarly criticism, but you will find some work by the poet in his or her own words.

  • While in the search results page, limit by document type, choosing: Primary Sources and Literary Works
     

Other library databases may have full text or excerpts of works by your poets. Try the following sources linked below.

Requesting things from other libraries

Can't find what you need? There may be an option to get it!

InterLibrary Loan (or ILL) is a service offered by Holman Library for borrowing books and articles from other libraries. 

  • Books and other items that require mailing may take 1-2 weeks.
  • Articles and other digital items may arrive within 2-5 days. Be sure to include your email as your contact info.

To request an item, use information you find in the tools below  to fill out the Student Interlibrary Loan form. If you need help filling out this form, call the library reference desk at (253) 931-6480.

InterLibrary Loan requests are free to students, faculty and staff.

Claudia Rankine

Other Works by Claudia Rankine

Analyze Poetry: from Reviews to Interviews to Scholarly Analysis

Gale Literature

Search and read key poetry criticism and more in the library database Gale Literature. 

  • You can search Gale Literature by keyword or browse by author, work title or topic.
  • Tip: You will gain insight into your poet's work by reading criticism even if the discussion doesn't address your specific poem.
Step 1:

Step 2:

In Print: You may also go to the print reference collection and search the purple Gale Literature Criticism book series: 

  • Use the Author Index at the back of each volume to see criticism across volumes and series.

  • Search the Cumulative Title Index (separate, small, slick volume on the shelf) for a title to see all criticism within that particular series.

Find Literary Criticism in Holman Library Multidisciplinary Databases

What should you type into a database to find scholarship?

Use Keywords that represent what you want to find, such as:

  • Author name, Poetry collection, Poem title, Theme, the word Criticism
  • Ex: "Langston Hughes" AND music OR jazz

Try Subject Terms, such as:

  • in ASP: LITERATURE -- History & criticism  
  • In ProQuest and JSTOR: Literary Criticism 
Academic Search Complete

Use the Holman Library database Academic Search Complete to find reviews, interviews, and scholarly literary criticism.

Note: To find scholarship, limit to Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals, though be aware not everything you find will be scholarship. Scholarly journals often contain book reviews and other writing that is not scholarship. 

ProQuest

Find key scholarly criticism and a wealth of mainstream criticism in the multidisciplinary database ProQuest.

JSTOR

Use the Holman Library database JSTOR to search for literary criticism.

  • Note that in JSTOR you cannot limit a search to only scholarly journals, but much of the content is scholarly.

  • Limit your search to articles for criticism. 

  • Limit to reviews for reviews of poetry collections.

  • You might also find poetry by your authors in JSTOR. 

The Explicator

The journal The Explicator provides a good model for how to explicate, or do a close analytical reading of, a text. Find The Explicator with One Search or use the link below:

Project Muse

Project Muse is a partially open access humanities research resource. If you find a great article on your topic with this tool, you may request it through InterLibrary Loan if the full text is not available.