African-American Poetry: Search Fields

You can search African-American Poetry by the following fields:

• Keyword
• First Line/Title Keyword
• Poet
• Period
• Gender

You can also use Search Options to refine your search further.

Keyword

From the Search page, you can use the Keyword field to search for any word or phrase contained within a document. To enter terms into the search box:

• browse a list of keywords from which you can select terms to transfer back to the search box;

  or

• type your search terms directly into the Keyword search box. Search terms may consist of either single words or phrases.

For example:

When searching in the Keyword field, you can use truncation to retrieve documents containing variations on a term. If you choose to search for more than one term, you can also combine them using Boolean and proximity searching.

First Line/Title Keyword

From the Search page, you can use the First Line/Title Keyword field to search for any word or phrase contained in the title of a document or in its first line. To enter items into the search box:

• browse a list of first line/title keywords from which you can select terms to transfer back to the search box;

  or

• type your search terms directly into the First Line/Title Keyword search box. Search terms may consist of either single words or phrases.

For example:

When searching in the First Line/Title Keyword field, you can use truncation to retrieve documents containing variations on a term. If you choose to search for more than one term, you can also combine them using Boolean and proximity searching.

Poet

From the Search page, you can limit a search to poems written by a particular poet or poets. To enter terms in the Poet search box:

• browse a list of poets from which you can select items to transfer back to the search box;

  or

• type your poet names directly into the Poet search box.

For example:

When searching in the Poet field, you can use truncation to retrieve poems written by authors with a common or similar name. If you choose to search for more than one poet, you can also combine them using Boolean searching.

Period

You may wish to limit a search to a particular period ranging from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century. The periods are divided into whole or half century blocks from which you may select one.

To restrict your search to a period, select the required term from the Period drop-down list. The default setting is All.

Gender

You can limit a search to poems written by either female or male poets.

To restrict your search to a gender, select the required term from the Gender drop-down list. The default setting is Female or Male Poets.

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(AAP version 96:1)