Poets' Graves is an on-line database of the last
resting places of
poets.
The site is regularly
archived by the British
Library
so that it remains available to future
researchers.
History
This UK website was founded in
2003 by Cameron
Self and Nicola Bushell. Originally it listed only famous English
poets, but over the years has expanded to include US poets,
European poets and other poets from around the world.
Features
The web site lists the exact location of the poet's grave and
features photographs of the grave, epitaph (where applicable) and
biographical details of many of the poets included. The site
contains 299 entries at present. 119 are full page entries
containing: biographies, portraits of the poets and a selection of
poetry - while 180 are simply listings of burial sites.
The earliest burial record included on the site is that of the tomb
of
Homer - allegedly located on the Greek
island of Ios. Other early entries include
Virgil,
Dante and
Chaucer. The site also includes poets from all the
major poetic periods: the
Renaissance,
the Neo-Classical, US
Puritan poets,
Romantic poets and
Modernist poets.
More
recently deceased poets' entries include Sylvia Plath, Ted
Hughes, Philip
Larkin
, John Betjeman,
Charles Causley, Norman Nicholson and Allen Ginsberg.
The site is a work in progress and visitors are encouraged to
submit suggestions of poets not included together with photographs
of their graves. The aim is to capture details of as many
significant poets as possible.
Poets' Graves also contains an on-line glossary of poetic terms, a
library of out-of-copyright classic poems, lists of UK and US
Poets Laureate, lists of
Oxford Professors of Poetry, a
poets timeline, famous poetry quotations, and poetry book reviews.
The site also gives links to poet-based societies such as The
Wordsworth Trust, The Philip Larkin
Society and the Edward Thomas Fellowship.
There are also
burial records for other
writers and musicians.
Forum
The Poets' Graves Workshop is a
message
board where contributors can submit their own poetry, song
lyrics and short stories in order to receive constructive criticism
from other users. The aim of the forum is to help poets/writers to
improve their own creative work by taking on board feedback from
other writers.
There are regular featured poems and stories, selected by the site
admin team and the site moderators. Some of these featured poems
have been recorded by their authors and are now available for other
members or visitors to listen to.
The forum has regular contributors drawn from the UK, the USA,
Canada and Australia.
See also
External links
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search