Poetry: A Magazine of Verse

Poetry: A Magazine of Verse was founded in 1912 by Chicago poet Harriet Monroe. Taking Whitman's line, "To have great poets there must be great audiences too" as her motto, Monroe sought to cultivate a wide readership for new writing and ideas. By insisting on paying all contributors and establishing an annual prize, Poetry magazine raised the visibility and status of poetry. The journal published and promoted the careers of a galaxy of poets who came to define twentieth century modernism, including T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Robert Frost, and Langston Hughes, among many others. Poetry transformed the way that poetry and poets are recognized and read worldwide, and it continues to flourish as a major cultural influence.

Monroe funded the early publication of Poetry with subscriptions and contributions from wealthy Chicago patrons. As editor, she shepherded the magazine through into its third decade. Following Monroe’s death in 1936, editorship passed to Morton Dauwen Zabel (1936-1937), followed by George Dillon (1937-1949), Hayden Carruth (acting editor, 1949), Karl Shapiro (1950-1954) and Henry Rago (1955-1969).

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