National Poetry Month

Updated February 21, 2017 | Factmonster Staff
National Poetry Month  

Features, raves, and an Election Haiku Contest



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

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



 

 

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