Advanced Search

The Advanced Search allows for very precise searching, and can also be a powerful tool to guide you through the content of The Columbia Granger’s World of Poetry. Your search can be as quick and easy, or as detailed and specific, as you’d like to make it: you can input a term in only one box, or several.

The first part of the Advanced Search page gives you the option to search by title, first line, last line, full text, author, and subject. As with Quick Search, if you remember only part of a title or a line you can enter those words you remember.

Example:

Words in First Line: my sinful earth.

Author name: Shakespeare. Click on “Submit.”

Your search result is Shakespeare’s Sonnet 146, “Poor soul, the center of my sinful earth.”

You can enter just part of a title or line and then choose many different ways to refine the search in Advanced Search.

Example:

Words in Full Text: Sinful. Era: Romantic.

In the search results, you can see that Lord Byron is one of the poets listed, with the line: “With all its sinful doings, I must say” from Beppo.

You may decide that you want to search for American women poets in the 19th century. Beside “Author gender” click on “Female.” Then, under “Nationality,” select “American Poetry: 19th Century.” Click on “Submit” to see the results.

If you wanted to see American women poets from the 17th century through to the 21st, you should press down the control key on your keyboard as you select “American Poetry: 17th and 18th Centuries”; “America Poetry: 19th Century”; and “American Poetry: 20th and 21st Centuries.” Use the control key on your keyboard whenever you want to select multiple categories within the same selection box. If you wish to see only poems with full text in your search results, click on “Only Poems with Text” at the bottom of the page.

Between searches in Advanced Search, click on “clear” before you begin your next search. If you wish to read the work of a poet in the original language, here is a good place to search for it.

Example:

Author name: Miguel de Unamuno. Language: Spanish.

Click on “Submit,” or push the Enter key on your keyboard and you will see that there are 2,513 results for Unamuno’s poems in Spanish.

Searching in Languages, Schools and Movements, Forms, and Eras will give you an example of the poets and poems that can be found in these areas. The Columbia Granger’s World of Poetry is frequently updated, and these areas will continue to expand.

 

Search Results Page in Advanced Search

Results are organized by relevance. The box on the left describes the search you have performed, and displays the number of results.

If an entry has full text, there will be an indicator directly below the entry: [text]. Click on the poem title to read the text. If there is commentary, a critical essay in History and Criticism, or audio, these are also indicated below the entry. To read a commentary or critical essay, click on the poem title and then click on the “Commentary” or “History and Criticism” link at the top right of the page. To hear audio, click on the poem title and then click on “Audio” at the top right of the page.

Poet biographies are indicated near the poet name [bio]. Click on [bio] for the biography. Click on the poet name for a list of all the poems by that author indexed in Granger’s.