Poetry Tool

I stumbled across a fabulous web page for those interested in poetry, or who teach using poetry. It's called Poetry Tool and it enables you to find a poem for almost any occasion, or on any topic. It also allows you to select a specific poet.

Since Thanksgiving is less than a week away, I clicked on "Occasion" and then "Thanksgiving," and was directed to nine different poems. Here's part of one by Paul Laurence Dunbar called "Signs of the Time."

Air a-gittin' cool an' coolah,
Frost a-comin' in de night,
Hicka' nuts an' wa'nuts fallin',
Possum keepin' out o' sight.
Tu'key struttin' in de ba'nya'd,
Nary a step so proud ez his;
Keep on struttin', Mistah Tu'key,
Yo' do' know whut time it is.

To read the whole poem, click here, or, better yet, borrow our copy of American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century, volume two [811 AME v. 2]. You'll find more poems by Dunbar, and his work sits alongside works by other poets of the time period.