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Best resources to learnPoetry

Study sheet

This subject explores the history, forms, and mechanics of poetic expression. Learners will analyze meter, rhyme, imagery, and figurative language to understand how poets convey complex emotions and ideas through compressed, rhythmic language.

Where to start

Start with Modern & Contemporary American Poetry, a free Coursera course that needs no prior experience. If you only use one resource, make it How to Read a Poem by Terry Eagleton, a paid book that gives you the vocabulary for metre, rhyme, syntax, tone and imagery. Then use The Making of a Poem by Mark Strand and Eavan Boland to study fixed forms such as the sonnet and villanelle.

15 resources · · How we curate

📺YouTube(1)

youtube

Poetry Foundation

Explore the world of poetry with insightful videos from the Poetry Foundation's YouTube channel. Learn about poets, poems, and literary techniques!

beginner🇬🇧

🎓Courses(4)

course

Poetry: What is Poetry?

Explore poetry with Patrick Crotty! This course unlocks the secrets of poetry: its forms, language, and enduring appeal.

beginner🇬🇧
course

Sharpened Visions: A Poetry Workshop

Why just write poems when you can write better ones? This course is built on the notion that the most exciting writing begins after the first draft. It is specifically for folks who believe that writing poems just to express oneself is like using the Internet just for email. After all, poetry can change the way you and your readers think of the world and its inhabitants; it can break new ground for language; turn a blank sheet of paper into a teeming concert of voices and music. Though any of us may have the potential to make that happen, having an understanding of how several tools of poetic composition can be used (and audaciously “mis-used”) gives you more ways to try (and if we do this right, we might surprise ourselves most of all). We'll cover key poetic terms and devices by studying poems by a handful of modern and contemporary poets and then get a chance to try our own hand at writing new poem drafts from a select number of prompts. Throughout the course you will have the opportunity to workshop your poem drafts and get feedback on your work, working towards a more polished poem.

intermediate🇬🇧
course

Modern Poetry (ENGL 310) — Open Yale Courses

Twenty-five recorded Yale lectures by Langdon Hammer working poem by poem through Yeats, Eliot, Pound, Stevens, Moore, Frost and Bishop. Free video, audio, transcripts and assignments show how a critic builds an interpretive argument from diction, image and form.

intermediate🇬🇧
course

Modern & Contemporary American Poetry

ModPo is a FREE (no fee, no charge) fast-paced introduction to modern and contemporary U.S. poetry, with an emphasis on experimental verse, from Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman to the present. Participants (who need no prior experience with poetry) will learn how to read poems that are supposedly "difficult." We encounter and discuss the poems one at a time. It's much easier than it seems! Join us and try it! ModPo is open all year, so you can enroll now, or any time, and join us. Each year we host a lively, interactive 10-week session, in which we move together through the ten-week syllabus. The next live 10-week session of ModPo will begin on August 31, 2025, and will conclude on November 10, 2025. Al Filreis will be in touch with you by email before the September 1 start of the course with all the information you'll need to participate. If you have questions, you can email the ModPo team any time at modpo@writing.upenn.edu. Much more information about ModPo can be found at modpo.org. During the 10 weeks of the course, you will be guided through poems, video discussions of each poem, and community discussions of each poem. And (unique among open online courses) we offer weekly, interactive live webcasts. Our famed TAs also offer office hours throughout the week. We help arrange meet-ups and in-site study groups. If you are curious about the ModPo team, type "ModPo YouTube introduction" into Google or your favorite search engine, and watch the 20-minute introductory video. You will get an overview of the course and will meet the brilliant TAs, who will be encountering the poems with you all the way to the end. If you use Facebook, join the always-thriving ModPo group: from inside Facebook, search for "Modern & Contemporary American Poetry" and then request to be added as a member. If you have any questions about ModPo, you can post a question to the FB group and you'll receive an almost instant reply. Much more information about ModPo can be found at modpo.org . ModPo is hosted by—and is housed at—the Kelly Writers House at 3805 Locust Walk on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia USA. All ModPo'ers are welcome to visit the Writers House when they are in our area. Our discussions are filmed there. Our live webcasts take place in the famed "Arts Cafe" of the House. To find out what's going on at the Writers House any time, just dial 215-746-POEM.

beginner🇬🇧

📚Books(5)

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bookPaid

How to Read a Poem

Eagleton defends formal analysis, then applies it to poems from the Renaissance to the present, covering meter, rhyme, syntax, tone, ambiguity and imagery. Supplies the vocabulary for describing how a poem's form carries meaning instead of paraphrasing its content.

intermediate🇬🇧
bookPaid

The Making of a Poem

Norton anthology organized by poetic form: villanelle, sestina, sonnet, ballad, elegy, ode and others. Each section gives a short history of the form, its structural rules, and example poems, so readers can recognize and write in fixed forms.

intermediate🇬🇧
bookPaid

The Poet’s Companion

Craft guide from two working poets covering image, metaphor, voice, line breaks, and revision, with chapters on subject matter such as grief and family. Each chapter ends with writing exercises that produce draft poems.

intermediate🇬🇧
bookPaid

How to Read a Poem

Hirsch reads individual poems closely, from Keats to Celan, explaining how sound, form, and address create meaning. Readers finish with a method for approaching an unfamiliar poem and a wide reading list drawn from world poetry.

intermediate🇬🇧
bookPaid

A Poetry Handbook

Short introduction to writing verse: sound, meter, line, diction, imagery, and revision, illustrated with brief examples. Oliver treats poetry as a craft with rules worth learning, and closes on the discipline of daily reading and practice.

intermediate🇬🇧

🌐Websites(3)

website

Poetry Foundation Glossary

Roughly 250 entries covering literary devices, poetic forms and movements, each defined concisely and many linking to fuller pages with example poems and essays. Lets a reader check unfamiliar critical vocabulary against actual poems rather than abstract definitions.

beginner🇬🇧
website

poets.org

Poets.org is the official site of the Academy of American Poets. It features a large collection of poems and poet bios, plus audio readings, essays, and classroom resources for readers and educators.

intermediate🇬🇧
website

poetryarchive.org

Poetry Archive is an online library featuring an extensive audio collection of poets reading their own poems, with accompanying text, biographies, and learning resources. You can search and browse poets and poems by profile, era, or theme to study and enjoy poetry.

intermediate🇬🇧

🎙️Podcasts(2)

podcast

Poetry Off the Shelf

Producer Helena de Groot talks to poets about language, dreams, love and loss, identity, connection, anger, discomfort, the creative process, the state of the world and the world of the soul. Hard conversations are welcomed—laughter is, too.

beginner🌐
podcast

Poetry Unbound

Short podcast from On Being in which Irish poet Pádraig Ó Tuama reads one poem per episode and walks through it line by line, discussing imagery, form and meaning. Listeners build habits of close reading and meet a wide range of contemporary poets.

beginner🌐
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Frequently Asked Questions

Where should I start learning Poetry?

Start with Modern & Contemporary American Poetry, a free Coursera course that needs no prior experience. If you only use one resource, make it How to Read a Poem by Terry Eagleton, a paid book that gives you the vocabulary for metre, rhyme, syntax, tone and imagery. Then use The Making of a Poem by Mark Strand and Eavan Boland to study fixed forms such as the sonnet and villanelle.

What are the best free resources to learn Poetry?

Dantes has curated 15 resources for Poetry, including 1 YouTube videos, 5 books, 4 courses, 3 websites, 2 podcasts. All resources are hand-picked for quality — no algorithmic filler. Browse the full list above to find the format that works best for you.

Is Poetry hard to learn?

Poetry is approachable at the beginner level — there are resources here specifically for those starting from scratch. As you progress, intermediate and advanced material is also available to take your skills further.

What types of Poetry learning resources are available on Dantes?

For Poetry, Dantes has curated 1 YouTube videos, 5 books, 4 courses, 3 websites, 2 podcasts. Each resource type serves a different learning style: videos and YouTube for visual learners, books for depth, courses for structured progression, and websites for quick reference.

How does Dantes select Poetry resources?

Dantes is an algorithm-free learning directory. Resources are hand-curated based on quality, accuracy, and usefulness — not engagement metrics or paid placements. The goal is to surface the best learning material for Poetry, whether it's a free YouTube series, a classic textbook, or an open courseware from a top university.

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