I recently downloaded the Poemhunter app to my iphone, https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/poemhunter/id918149865.
The app is described on Apple’s website as follows:
“Poemhunter app is the poetry library in your phone with a huge archive of poems and poets of the world literature.
Whenever you feel like reading a poem, tap on Random Poem or swipe right, and see what this brings you. You will find the best poems for your mother or for your valentine.
Poemhunter has over 1.4 million poems from over 100,000 professional and amateur poets. We also keep adding a lot of new poems and poets to our archive every day. Continue to discover new poems and poets with Poemhunter app forever.”
My experience of using the Poemhunter app has been a generally positive one. For example my first use of the app brought up Edna St Vincent Millay’s beautiful poem “What Lips My Lips Have Kissed”, https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/what-lips-my-lips-have-kissed-and-where-and-why/. Having read this beautiful poem, I downloaded the collected poems of Vincent Millay from the Amazon Kindle store, and I’m currently enjoying reading the work of this fine poet.
Poemhunter is a good way of finding new poets and poems and I would recommend the app to poetry lovers.
On the less positive side, I found as a blind user of Apple’s Voiceover screenreader that the tabs within the app are not properly labelled to enable them to work with Voiceover. In addition the sharing buttons appear to be labelled in a language other than English, which makes it difficult to share content.
For anyone who does not own an Apple device, you can access Poemhunter on the web at https://www.poemhunter.com/.
Never tried the Poemhunter app. I have used the desktop version, and I’m not too crazy about it. Though, it’s how I discovered “Moonrise” by Sylvia Plath, so I’m grateful about that.
I also enjoyed the poem you shared. It’s very sensual, but evocative to loneliness. I will need to give it more reads in the future. It’s thought-provoking and I thank you for sharing it, along with your thoughts on the app.
Many thanks for your comments, Lucy. I’m delighted you enjoyed Vincent Millay’s poem and that I was able to introduce you to it. I shall check out Moonrise. What is it you dislike about the desktop version of Poemhunter? I find the advertisements are irritating. You can remove them in the app (for a fee), but I guess you cant do anything about them in the online set-up (other than use an ad-blocker). Best, Kevin
Hi Kevin. 🙂
I honestly dislike the advertisements on the desktop version. They’re constant and just aggravating to deal with, which is why I’m not a big fan of Poemhunter. Hahaha. I just usually stick with All Poetry or Poetry Foundation, but I will resort to Poemhunter for poetry that is less common or harder to find.
Hi Lucy. I agree with you that both the Poetry Foundation and All Poetry are good ways of finding poems. I am a particular fan of the Poetry Foundation. You and I are singing from the same hymn sheet as regards advertising. I am not a fan whether it be on Poemhunter or, indeed on other sites! Best, Kevin
Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog.
Many thanks for sharing, Chris.
Welcome, Kevin