National Poetry Month
| National Poetry Month |
APRIL is National Poetry Month! Celebrate this month-long holiday with a collection of features on poets and poetry on the Web, reviews of recent collections, and an election limerick and haiku contest.
A Campaign 2000 limerick and haiku from Infoplease's editors: |
| He’s the brand new Bush who’s younger and bigger/ His Dad may have been old, but he’s full of vigor/ He’ll cut taxes a ton/ And let you keep your gun/ But a "compassionate conservative" — how do you figure? Wooden and stiff Al Invented the internet? Who is he kidding Enter Infoplease's Campaign 2000 poetry contest! |
Poetry Features
Classic Love Poems on the Web
Love is only a click away
The Favorite Poem Project
Why are Americans mad for poetry?
Poets Laureate of the United States
Robert Penn Warren to Robert Pinsky
Poets Laureate of England
Edmund Spenser to Andrew Motion
Recent Raves
- Handwriting, by Michael Ondaatje
Selected Early Poems, by Charles Simic
The Mercy: Poems, by Philip Levine
Campaign 2000 Haikus
Al Gore and George Bush, Hillary and Rudy, campaign promises and propoganda: Campaign 2000 is in full election-year swing. In honor of National Poetry Month, Infoplease.com is asking our readers to compose haikus and limericks on the subject of elections and email it to us. We'll pick the best poems and post them on our site.
How Do I Enter?
Email your election haikus and limericks with your name, city, and state, to rsiasoco@infoplease.com.
How Many Syllables in a Haiku?
*To refresh your memory, here are the definitions of haiku and limerick, from our dictionary:
| hai·ku (hI' kOO) Noun. plural: haiku. a Japanese poem or verse form, consisting of 17 syllables divided into 3 lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, often about nature or a season. [1895-1900; Japan] lim·er·ick (lim'ur•ik), noun a kind of humorous poem in which lines one, two and five rhyme, and lines three and four form a rhymed couplet. [1895-1900; Limerick, Ireland] Random House Websters College Dictionary Copyright © 1997 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. |
Poetry Links
The Academy of American Poets
The organization which inaugurated National Poetry Month in 1996
Ploughshares
Widely regarded as one of the best literary magazines in the country
Atlantic Unbound Poetry Pages
Listen to great poets reading their poems aloud
