Poetry Site
	Lisbeth Cheever-Gessaman BellaOnline's Poetry Editor

America's First Poet - Anne Bradstreet
This article features an introduction to the poet who holds the distinction as America's first published poet, Anne Bradstreet.

America’s First African-American Poet - Phillis Wheatley
Two presidents held very different opinions about the former slave's poetic accomplishments, but America's first African-American poet has engendered a legacy that grows more sturdy as the centuries pass.

Classical European Poetry Forms to Try
Try this pair of poetry forms that originated in Europe to work your poetic muscles!

Dickinson’s Nuance
Sometimes editors make changes to poetry that alters meaning. That happened with one of Emily Dickson´s poems, and it also diminished her achievement as a artist.

Emily Dickinson – Transcending Pain
Auden's speaker said, "About suffering, they were never wrong." If the sufferer survives the suffering, the final relief comes, and the relief is in “letting go,” the time when the mind finds that it can finally relax and no longer concentrate on the terrible pain.

Harlem Renaissance Poets
February is Black History Month. To continue the celebration of that month, this article looks at the many important poets that thrived during the Harlem Renaissance.

Invocation of the Muse
Invoking the Muse was common practice among the classical poets to assuage writers block and lend inspiration to every creative endevour.

Is Haiku for You? Three Eastern Poetry Forms You’ll Love
Exploring new poetic forms can help to get the creative juices flowing. The haiku, tanaga, and sijo are Eastern poetry forms which can help you think about writing poetry in a different way. Also features tips on making each form even more 'creative.'

Lydia Sigourney – Prolific Writer and Poet

Rescuing Longfellow
In 2000, The Library of America released a collection of the most important and most beloved poems, novels, and essays of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Robert Frost – Poetry for Every Season
Robert Frost considered himself a lone wolf, because he was writing in a time when vagueness was becoming a poetic virtue in American poetry. Frost is a poet you can always trust to be putting his best words forward.

Sara Teasdale’s Legacy of Spiritual Joy
Sara Teasdale is a much neglected poet, whose work deserves more attention. Its optimistic tone and accessible style make it well worth the close reading all poetry needs.

Sometimes a Poetaster - Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau is most noted for his civil disobedience and as the writer of Walden or Life in the Woods, but he did also write poetry. But was he a good poet?

The Bay Psalm Book - America's First Book
The first printing press in America was specifically purchased and imported from England for the purpose of printing 'The Bay Psalm Book' in the Colonies. That makes this publication a very important part of American poetic history.

The Poem That Saved a Ship - “Old Ironsides”
Poems are seldom credited with making anything happen, but now and then a poem comes along does just that.

Whittier’s 'Snow-Bound' - A Winter Tradition
A great tradition never gets boring. Winter would not be winter with John Greenleaf Whittier's famous winter poem, Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyl.

Who Wrote 'The Night Before Christmas'?
This articles focuses on the controversy surrounding the authorship of the most famous Christmas poem,'The Night Before Christmas.'

William Cullen Bryant - October
Despite many shrill voices coming from some of today’s poets and political pundits who denigrate their country with their undisciplined art and polemics, Bryant’s hope for his country and the state of art has well been realized.