PoetryDB

Overview

PoetryDB serves a curated collection of ~4,000 classic poems — title, author, lines, and linecount — as JSON. Keyless and CORS-enabled (verified live), it’s a lovely source for poetry widgets, writing apps, and literary projects.

Quick Start

Random poem (verified live):

curl "https://poetrydb.org/random/1"

[
  {
    "title": "To Ianthe",
    "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley",
    "lines": ["I love thee, Baby! for thine own sweet sake;", "Those azure eyes, that faintly dimpled cheek,"],
    "linecount": "26"
  }
]

By author / title:

curl "https://poetrydb.org/author/Emily Dickinson"
curl "https://poetrydb.org/title/Ozymandias"

List authors / titles:

curl "https://poetrydb.org/author"
curl "https://poetrydb.org/title"

Search text:

curl "https://poetrydb.org/lines/sea"

Authentication

None — keyless.

Rate Limits & Notes

• Free; no documented hard limit — be polite.
• Path patterns: /random/{n}, /author/{name}, /title/{name}, /lines/{text}, plus list endpoints (/author, /title).
• Poems are public-domain classics (Shakespeare, Dickinson, Shelley, Frost…) — safe for reuse.
• Responses are JSON arrays; linecount is a string.

FAQ

Is PoetryDB free? Yes — free, keyless, CORS-enabled.

How do I get a poem by title? /title/Ozymandias.

Can I browse authors? Yes — /author lists all authors.