A quarter-century of American Poems

Our history

26 years of American poetry online

1. 2000

   American Poems goes online

   One independent site, built to put American poetry within reach of anyone with a browser.

2. 2001

   A server of its own

   The site moves to a dedicated server, drops its frames and opens a discussion forum for readers.

3. 2002

   29 poets, 2,866 poems

   Adrienne Rich joins the archive, and MIT’s Modern Poetry course sends students here for Pound, Sandburg and Williams.

4. 2004

   Readers get a voice

   On August 18, 2004, every poem opens for comments. More than 21,000 reader comments follow.

5. 2007

   Nearly 8,000 poems

   The archive reaches 236 poets and 7,984 poems, and a new design for the wider screens of the day.

6. 2018

   A new home, old links kept

   The archive moves platforms, and more than 10,000 old addresses are redirected to their new pages.

7. 2026

   Rebuilt as a reading room

   The same archive, redesigned for reading: fast, quiet pages and a quarter-century of readers.

Through the years

The front page, then

November 2018

The move to WordPress

• A flat flag icon replaces the photograph.
• A grid of favorite poets from Frost and Dickinson to Adrienne Rich and e. e. cummings.
• “234 poets … 8025 poems.”

June 11, 2007

The orange years

• The orange script logo, “…YOUR Poetry Site”, on a waving flag.
• “237 poets, 8034 poems and 15795 comments.”
• A Members section marked “New!”, where readers could publish their own poems.

August 27, 2004

Rebuilt on a database

• “The site contains 36 poets and 4616 poems.”
• Comments, launched nine days earlier, appear in the menu alongside Top 40 and Search.
• Boxed panels in a grey frame, the first design built from a database.

February 2, 2003

The flag arrives

• The waving-flag logo, with the name in a bevelled black box.
• Search across every poet, with the warning “Any Poet (takes a long time)”.
• News and Announcements joins the table of contents.

October 17, 2000

Four months online

• A brick-red serif wordmark over a black starfield sidebar.
• “Welcome to AmericanPoems.com, YOUR Poetry Site!” The tagline has survived every redesign since.
• Poem of the Day, a message board, a guestbook, links and a weekly newsletter “delivered every Tuesday”.
• A visitor counter running “since June 21, 2000”.

The flag

Five eras of the logo

The flag and “YOUR Poetry Site” have come through every redesign.

1. 2026–

   The classic flag, redrawn in the site’s brick red and navy.

2. 2018–26

   Flat flag icon, spaced capitals, “YOUR POETRY SITE”.

3. 2004–18

   Same flag, orange script, “…YOUR Poetry Site”.

4. 2002–03

   Photo of a waving flag, name in a black box.

5. 2000–01

   A brick-red serif wordmark, “AmericanPoems.com”, above “Welcome to AmericanPoems.com, YOUR Poetry Site!”

From the news page

Announcements, 2007–2001

1. March 19, 2007

   Made for bigger screens

   The design widens from 800 to 1024 pixels. The archive holds 236 poets, 7,984 poems and 14,456 comments.

2. August 18, 2004

   Readers get a voice

   Comments open on every poem: “Don’t forget to comment on or analyze some of your favorite poems for the whole world to see.” Shel Silverstein and Joyce Kilmer are added the same day.

3. February 28, 2004

   Rebuilt on a database

   A complete redesign. The site moves from static HTML pages to a database, with a far better search. Maya Angelou joins the archive.

4. March 5, 2003

   A sister site for the rest of the world

   Readers keep asking for poets from other countries, so a separate site, Poetry Connection, opens for them. American Poems stays American.

5. October 26, 2002

   Adrienne Rich, and a search across every poet

   A biography and poems by Adrienne Rich are added, and search now covers every poet at once. The archive stands at 2,866 poems by 29 poets.

6. November 11, 2001

   A recommended reference

   The news page recommends the new Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Twentieth Century (Fitzroy Dearborn, 866 pages): “a solid source of information on all famous and obscure poets of the 20th century.”

7. November 10, 2001

   A server of its own

   The site moves to a dedicated server so pages load faster, drops its frames and opens a discussion forum for readers.

By the numbers

How the archive grew

Counts as the site reported them at the time. Comment totals the old site showed after 2007 included unapproved spam and are left out.