Skip to main content

Online poetry

Discover new poets through this free online collection of brilliant, moving, funny and groundbreaking poems curated by our specialist poetry librarians.

Search the poems by type or by topic, or use your own search terms.

 

Filter poems

More details for December
 A simple art postcard: an abstract, dark, textured painting next to a short poem by Dick Pettit about hawthorn berries.

December

Dick Pettit

Image
Tagged with topic: Nature Weather & seasons
More details for The book of thought-clouds
 A minimal black-and-white drawing featuring two cloud shapes with the handwritten words cloud and thought.

The book of thought-clouds

Alec Finlay

Image
Tagged with topic: Art Arts & sciences
More details for What I Did on my Holidays
A card featuring Steve Waling\'s poem, What I did on my Holidays, over a photo split between a cloudy sky and a brown, textured landscape.

What I Did on my Holidays

Steve Waling

Image
Tagged with topic: Animals & pets Nature Society Travel & places
More details for Moonwise
 A black poster with the poem Moonwise by Jean Binta Breeze. The title, M O O N W I S E, is spelled out with moon phases between the letters.

Moonwise

Jean 'Binta' Breeze

Image
Tagged with topic: Birth & birthdays Emotions & feelings Family & relationships Nature
More details for Herbal Alpha.bet
A faded page with a green border lists an Herbal Alphabet from A to Z, giving herb names and uses in a cursive-like font.

Herbal Alpha.bet

Dennis Gould

Image
Tagged with topic: Art Arts & sciences Nature Plants & trees
More details for from Diary of a Miu Miu Salesgirl
A page with red handwritten text that reads girls from my class next to a poem printed in a smaller black serif font on a light pink background.

from Diary of a Miu Miu Salesgirl

Jennifer Wong

Image
Tagged with topic: Human experience Identity Languages Society Travel & places
More details for Inferno Canto XXIX : The Valley of Disease
An abstract print features a dense, vertical cluster of blue and gray blocks that seem to disintegrate downward.

Inferno Canto XXIX : The Valley of Disease

Brenda Dermody and Barrie Tullett

Image
Tagged with topic: Art
More details for Art Censorship
A page titled Art Censorship showing a history of events in a dense typewriter font, with large sections of the text blacked out by a marker.

Art Censorship

Robert Richardson

Image
Tagged with topic: Art Arts & sciences
More details for La Suite De L'Historie : metaphysique 90
A black and white abstract graphic composed entirely of the section symbol (§) creating an optical illusion of a receding grid, with French text at the bottom.

La Suite De L'Historie : metaphysique 90

Henri Chopin

Image
Tagged with topic: Arts & sciences Music
More details for Flamingo Watching

Flamingo Watching

Kay Ryan

Video
Tagged with topic: Animals & pets Nature
More details for When the barbarians arrive

When the barbarians arrive

Alvin Pang

Video
Tagged with topic: Death Human experience
More details for The House on Jubilee Street

The House on Jubilee Street

Malika Booker

Audio
Tagged with topic: Ageing Death Family & relationships Home Human experience Time

For your visit

National Poetry Library Southbank Centre

The National Poetry Library is open six days a week.

Tuesday, 12 noon – 6pm
Wednesday – Sunday, 12 noon – 8pm
Monday, closed.

Saturday 2 May,  Saturday 9 May  – The Royal Festival Hall is closed for an event, but the library remains open  – access via the Royal Festival Hall Artists Entrance.
Sunday 3 May,  Sunday 10 May – The National Poetry Library is closed.