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• Humdingers Index

Reference Humdinger #4

The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry in Anthologies

The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry in Collected and Selected Works

What are the Indexes good for?

The Index to Poetry in Anthologies helps you find (mostly British and American) poetry in major anthologies. You can look up poems by their first or last line, by author or title, or by subject. Last-line indexing is a new feature of the most recent editions of the Index, and only a selection of the most-anthologized poems have been indexed this way. KNIGHT REFERENCE PN1022 .F73

The Index to Poetry in Collected and Selected Works helps you find poems in collections of a single author's work. It provides a Title and First Line Index, a Subject Index, and an Author Index. KNIGHT REFERENCE PN1022 .C63

How do I use the Indexes?

• You can use The Index to Poetry in Anthologies to:
  • See where a poem has been anthologized. Check the Title... index and note down the abbreviations that follow your poem's title. (They'll be something like "OxBC" or "EBEV.") These are abbreviated anthology titles. You can find the full title of the anthology in the front of the Index. Then look up the anthology title in the UO Library Catalog to see if we own it, and write down its call number. Call number maps are available at the Reference Desk on the first floor of the Library.
  • Find poems on a particular topic or treating a particular image, via the Subject Index. You can also use the Subject Index to see if an author wrote any poems on a particular subject.
  • See where an author's poetry has been anthologized, via the Author Index.
• The Index to Poetry in Collected and Selected Works lets you:
  • Look for a particular poem in an author's collected works by finding the title of the poem in the Title... index. Generally the poem's title will be followed by an abbreviation like "SP-WillC" or "CP-MarvA." Use the List of Collected and Selected Works in the front of the book to find the full title of the collection, and then search for it in the UO Library Catalog.
  • Look to see where an author's poems are collected, by first finding her in the Author Index, then scanning the list of titles, and then flipping to the Title index to find the collection abbreviations.
  • Find out whether James Dickey wrote poetry about the moon, by checking the Subject index entry "Moon" under his name. Then flip to the Title index to find the collection abbreviation... You get the idea.

Is there anything else I should know?

• Each new edition of the Index jettisons some anthologies that were indexed in past editions, and replaces them with new anthologies. We keep older editions of the indexes on the same table in the Reference section of Knight Library.
• The Author Index in the Index to Poetry gives author's lifespan dates where they are known, and tells you if an author wrote under a pseudonym.
• Newer editions of the Index to Poetry in Anthologies include some anthologies of non-English poetry translated into English.
  

Final analysis:

• If all you remember is the last line "And I in my bed again," head for the Title, First Line, and Last Line Index in the Index to Poetry. (It's a lovely poem, and worth tracking down.)
• The next time it's your job to find "poems about love" for a third cousin's wedding, remember the Subject Index.
• If you want to know where you can find a copy of "A Black Patch on Lucasta's Face," stat, the Index to Poetry in Collected and Selected Works is your best friend.
  

If you have questions or comments, please get in touch!