Poetry Out Loud

Poems

FIND A POET
Use A-Z index >>
Random selection >>
Search poets


FIND A POEM
Pre-20th century poems >>
25-Lines and Fewer Poems >>
Newly added poems >>
Browse by title >>
Poems with audio recording >>
Browse by first line >>
Random selection >>
Search poems


FUN SEARCHES
Most viewed poems this week >>
Poets organized by year >>
Poems organized by form >>

Only poems currently in the print or online Poetry Out Loud anthologies are eligible for competition. If you have any questions about the eligibility of a particular poem please do not hesitate to contact mail@poetryoutloud.org.

Some poems do have variants, but for the sake of fairness and consistency, we ask students to memorize a poem as it appears in the Poetry Out Loud website or the Poetry Out Loud printed anthology. Teachers and accuracy judges use text from the official Poetry Out Loud anthologies in judging a student's performance.


 
TODAY'S FEATURED POET


Dudley Randall (1914-2000)

Dudley Randall (1914-2000) published his first poem in the Detroit Free Press when he was thirteen. After earning degrees in English and library science, Randall worked as a librarian until his 1974 retirement. He established Broadside Press in 1965, which became an important publisher of African-American poets and political writers. Randall translated Russian writers, and experimented with a variety of styles in his own poetry.

Poems
Booker T. and W.E.B.

Copyright (c)2009 Poetry Foundation and The National Endowment for the Arts
Contact Us    Privacy Policy / Terms of Use