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Italian

What is Italian? It is the language spoken
By a man from Italy.
Not all in words, in part in phrases,
Of brow, wrist, lightening
Of glance, glancing of touch,
More than the language can take in chance,
More than the man can take in language.
Breathing and sighing, some glides over him,
Sleek, sentential. Italian: that portion
He apprehends.

41,493

poems

4,155

poets

207

poetic terms

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01

By feeling

Grief, desire, revolt, wonder. Start where the poem meets your life.

Emotions →
02

By form

Follow the sonnet, ghazal, villanelle, ode, and every shape in between.

The glossary →
03

By constellation

Move between a poet, their influences, peers, translations, and afterlives.

Poets →

Selected

Poems worth returning to

It was in the moon shadow that we saw the sun. …

Katherine Garrison Chapin

Our clothes are still wet from wading …

Norman Dubie

—for Travis and Vaughan and all the St. Catherine’s Indian School kids …

Allison Adelle Hedge Coke

For my father …

Don Johnson

I …

Elsa Gidlow

A lady brought me a Least Bittern …

Andrew Hudgins

Judge not the owl as master, cause …

Catherine Eckrich

4TH CENTURY B.C. …

William Walden

The glossary

The language about poetry

From aubade to zuihitsu, 207 definitions of the forms, figures, and schools that shape the line.

Explore the glossary→
Accentual verseAccentual-syllabic verseAcmeismAlcaicAlexandrineAmbiguity