Handbooks & Encyclopedias

The Longman Dictionary and Handbook of Poetry (Ref. PN1021.M94 1985)
The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (Ref. PN1021.N39 1993)
The Princeton Handbook of Poetic Terms (Ref. PN1042. P75 1986) 
The Handbook of Poetic Forms (Ref. PN1042.T43 2000)

Biographical Sources

Basic biographical information can be found in the following sources.  For more detailed biographies, use the MERLIN catalog to do a subject search on your person's name, putting last name first.  Scroll down the resulting list of subject headings to find biographies.

LION: Literature Online  
Click on "Find Authors" and type in your author's name, last name first. 

Dictionary of Literary Biography Ref. Alcove 9. 
Use the Literary Index or check the index in the last volume of this series to see which volume contains information on your author. The DLB also gives nice lists of the authors' works.

Contemporary Authors Ref. Alcove 10. 
This covers more recent authors than the DLB. Use the Literary Index or check the index in the last volume of this series to see which volume contains information on your author. Entries in CA also list reviews and interviews.
Critical Survey of Poetry (Ref. PN1111.C7)
Who's Who in Twentieth-Century World Poetry (Ref. PN1271.W46 2000)
The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry in English (Ref. PR601.O9 1994)
Contemporary Poets (Ref. PR603.C6)
Contemporary Women Poets (Ref. PS151.C67 1997)
Encyclopedia of American Poetry: the Nineteenth Century (Ref. PS316.E63 1998)

Criticism

Criticism may be published in books or as articles in journals. Finding criticism on a specific poem can be tricky since most catalogs and indexes are not this detailed.  The following specialized indexes identify criticism on specific poems. To find criticism using other databases or library catalogs, search the author's name as a subject and possibly general themes. You may not be able to tell if an article or book treats a specific poem until you have the publication in hand.

Index to Criticisms of British and American Poetry (Ref. PR89.C5)
American and British Poetry: A Guide to the Criticism (Ref. Z1231.P7 A44 1984)
Guide to American Poetry Explications (Ref. Alcove 9 Z1231.P7 G85 1989)
Poetry Explication: A Checklist of Interpretation since 1925 (Ref. Alcove 9 Z2014.P7 K8 1980)
Guide to British Poetry Explication (Ref. Z2014.P7 M34 1991)
The Literary Index indexes the print publication Poetry Criticism (Ref. Alcove 9 PN1010 .P499), which excerpts criticism of poems published in a variety of sources.

 The major literary databases are: 
MLA International Bibliography of Books and Articles on the Modern Languages and Literatures
1963-present online, 1921-1962 in print in Ref. Alcove 9.
ABELL: Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature
1892-present online.
Note that ABELL searches the full text of over 100 journals, which allows for more specific searching. 

Although the MLA  and ABELL specialize in literature, both suffer from a delay in publishing.  
Supplement these specialized indexes with searches in less specialized but more current databases:
Expanded Academic Index

Article1st
Expanded Academic Index contains the full-text of selected journals. 
 

A Guide to Serial Bibliographies for Modern Literature (Ref. PN695.W67 1995) lists many additional specialized bibliographies.

Indexes of Poetry Publications

Use the following indexes to locate poems published in anthologies, collections, and periodicals.

ABELL: Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature 
Limit to "literary works" to find poems published in the publications indexed by ABELL.

LION: Literature Online provides online texts of many English and American literary works with a search mechanism to facilitate text analysis. From the main LION menu, choose Search Texts to search for words and phrases within a specific work or group of works. The advanced search feature allows you to define a corpus by period, literary movement, author's gender or ethnicity, and other criteria.

Subject Index to Poetry (Ref. PN1021.B7)
Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry in Anthologies (Ref. Alcove 9 PN1022 .F73 1997)
Granger's Index to Poetry (Ref. Alcove 9 PN1022.H39, PN1022.G7)
Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry in Collected and Selected Works (Ref. Alcove 9 PN4784.W7 F58 1997)
 The main bibliography of poetry in English from all periods.  Indexes collections.  Check all editions for complete coverage.
Last lines : an index to the last lines of poetry (Ref. PN1022 .K55 1991)
Poetry Index Annual: A Title, Author, and Subject Index to Poetry in Anthologies. (Ref. PN1022.P63)
1989-1992  Reputedly more inclusive than Granger's
Chicorel Index to Poetry in Anthologies and Collections in Print (Ref. Alcove 9 PN1022.C5 and Ref. Alcove 9 PN1022. C54)
American Poetry Index: An Author and Title Index  to Poetry by Americans in Single-Author Collections (Ref. PS323.5.A43)
Roth's American Poetry Annual (Ref. PS580 .R68)
Index of American Periodical Verse (Ref. Z1231.P7 I47)
1971-1978  Indexes poems published in about 200 little magazines.
Chicorel Index to Poetry in Collections in Print, on Discs and Tapes (Ref. Z7155 .C48)
International Index to Recorded Poetry  PN1022 .H63 1983
Women's Poetry Index (Ref. PN1024 .G89 1985)
Index to Poetry by Black American Women  Z1229.N39 C45 1986
Index to Black Poetry (Ref. PS153.N5 C45)
Columbia Granger's Index to African-American Poetry (Ref. Alcove 9  PS153.N5 C628 1999)
A Bibliographical Catalogue and First-line Index of Printed Anthologies of English Poetry to 1640 (Ref. PR521 .B36 2002)
First-line Index of English poetry, 1500-1800, in Manuscripts of the Bodleian Library, Oxford Z2014.P7 F5
Bibliography and Index of English Verse Printed 1476-1558 (SPEC Rare Ref. Z2014.P7 R56 1988)
Index to Canadian Poetry in English Z1377.P7 M35 1984 
Index of Australian and New Zealand Poetry Z4024.P7 C8  
Hoffman's Index to poetry : European and Latin American Poetry in Anthologies  (Ref. PN1022 .H627 1985)
Twentieth-century Poetry from Spanish America : an Index to Spanish Language and Bilingual Anthologies (Ref. PQ7082.P7 S66 1998)

Internet Resources

Poetry Portal
The Electronic Poetry Center

LION: Literature Online contains a database of literary web sites. From the main LION menu, choose Search Criticism and Reference, then WWW.  For video clips of poets reading their works, see Poets on Screen at the foot of the LION main menu.

The Internet Public Library
Voice of the Shuttle

Guides to Research

James L. Harner. Literary Research Guide: An Annotated Listing of Reference Sources in English Literary Studies (Ref. Alcove 9, Z2011.H34 2002)

Michael J. Marcuse. A Reference Guide for English Studies. (Ref. Alcove 9, PR56.M37 1990)

James K. Bracken. Reference Works in British and American Literature (Ref. Alcove 9, Z2011.B74 1998)

Citation Guides
MLA style manuals are available on Index Table 11 in Ellis' Reference area in 1 South.
If you use articles you obtained in full-text version directly from a library database, the citation protocol will be different than if you had found the article in paper copy in the library.