Subject Indexing: To classify or not to classify?

If there is anything that I have learned thus far in my examination of poetry in cataloging, it is that it may not be feasible (or even desirable) to utilize LCSH in any real and useful way. As a means to satisfy the basics - mainly that poetry is itself the subject - it certainly serves a purpose. But I wonder, has anyone else before me ever looked for serious subject cataloging or indexing in poetry? Obviously, the answer is yes. One example that I found was an author named Hazel K. Bell who wrote an article in the Journal of Scholarly Publishing in April 2007 entitled, "Subject Indexes to Poetry: Historical: (See Patriotism.)" In this article, Ms. Bell laments the limited use of the author/first line format of index. She has, however, found a serious attempt at subject indexing in poetry in a work called The Pageant of English Poetry which was compiled by R.M. Leonard and printed by Oxford University Press in 1924. Spurred on by this finding, I sought to locate a copy of this book, only to find that it was not available in my library system. Sadly I was therefore limited to the excerpt given by Ms. Bell in her article.

What I took away from this article was a renewed belief that the effort to give subject headings to poetry may be a losing battle. After all, so much of poetry is linked to imagery, imagination and interpretation! The subject headings that I may assign to any given poem are subjective in that they are based on my interpretation or feelings from the poem itself. I suppose that you could try and guess at the author's intended imagery and themes, but again, that would be detracting from the poems ability to create a new sense of voice and place within the reader/listener/audience. So where does this leave me?

Well, as I found in my earlier posts, the Internet has given the world some arguably useful tools for locating and interpreting poetry. While I personally do not find that my ideal manner of poetry reading is done in front of a computer screen, these resources could be seen as a means to an end in that they ultimately should point the searcher in the direction of at least one "real book."

For "fun," I decided to look up the bibliographic record of my Norton Anthology in OCLC. Here is the record:
>010 96031984
>040 DLC $c DLC $d UKM $d BAKER $d BTCTA $d LVB $d YDXCP $d OCLCG
>015 GB97-30666
>019 36839841
>020 039396924X (pbk.)
>020 9780393969245 (pbk.)
>050 00 PR1174 $b .N6 1997
>082 00 821.008 $2 20
>090 $b
>049 MFKA
>245 04 The Norton anthology of poetry / $c [edited by] Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy.
>250 Shorter 4th ed.
>260 New York : $b Norton, $c c1997.
>300 xli, 1215 p. ; $c 24 cm.
>504 Includes bibliographical references (p. 1122) and index.
>650 0 English poetry.
>650 0 American poetry.
>650 6 Poésie anglaise $v Anthologies.
>650 6 Poésie américaine $v Anthologies.
>700 1 Ferguson, Margaret W., $d 1948-
>700 1 Salter, Mary Jo.
>700 1 Stallworthy, Jon.

So for those of you non-library students (and if there are any of you out there still reading this, good for you), this is a MARC record of the specific work that I have been using for my poetry references. In a MARC record, the subject lines, where the LCSH come into play, are in the 6xx fields. In this case, the 650 fields. Anyway, in this case, the coverage is pretty basic: English poetry and American poetry. Interestingly, this record decided to include French subject translations. Not that this really enhances the record too much since they are exact translations of the English, but they do add the "Anthologies" subfield to the end. Why do the English versions not include this? I do not know.

If I were the cataloger of this book, what would I do differently? Would I include more information in the Note (5xx) fields? Would I want more detailed subject headings? Or are these adequate? Would I add a contents note? On one hand, it seems so barren to have these simple subjects, but on the other hand, given the widely varying tones and styles found throughout this anthology, such an attempt might end up being too long and likely contradictory in certain instances. So... what about the contents note? This table of contents is VERY long, but it is essentially a list of contributing poets. Perhaps, if I was feeling ambitious, I would add this. It would certainly be useful to a researcher who was wondering what poets were featured in this particular work.

Finally, I apologize for the more "technical" nature of this final entry. It is my attempt to synthesize the information of previous entries and to come to a conclusion of my own with regards to the placement of poetry vs. LCSH. What I have learned is that modern day poetry searching has become very Internet reliant. Obviously people who lived in a pre-Internet world had to rely on other resources to locate specific poems, and I would like to think that these resources were likely real people or even (gasp) librarians. Sadly, I do not know that many people (outside of English majors) would be able to name the poet or author of a poem given just a brief snippet line from memory. For this reason, it is encouraging to see that the Internet has provided a means to lead the searching mind to the appropriate end, and in some cases to an appropriate book or collection.

The limited vocabulary of LCSH is not designed to completely and accurately categorize poems or groups of poems, but it is a means of cataloging the specific book or work in which they dwell. However, that doesn't mean that it isn't fun to bring them together every once in a while... So for my grand finale, I will take on the Shakespeare Sonnet which gave my blog its name.

Sonnet #18
by William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? (Summer)
Thou art more lovely and more temperate: (Atmospheric temperature)
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, (Atmospheric circulation; Plants, flowering of; Spring)
And summer's lease hath all to short a date; (Summer; Seasons)
Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines, (Global warming; Atmospheric temperature; Sun; Light sources)
And often is his gold complexion dimmed; (Solar eclipses)
And every fair from fair sometimes declines, (Aging; Gerontology)
By chance or nature's changing course untrimmed; (See above)
But thy eternal summer shall not fade, (Immortality)
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; (See above)
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade, (See above)
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st: (Aging)
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, (Eternity)
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. (Life support systems (Critical care))

Thanks for reading!!!

Searching for a buzzing fly

Well, I have reached the eve of my last day of class for this semester! It's very exciting, and I can certainly say that I know a lot more about cataloging and classification than I did four months ago. Getting back to my project, this last week was our peer review session where two of my classmates looked over what I have so far on my blog and gave me feedback and suggestions for future entries. As a result, I was given a new idea for an entry subject - poetry search engines - do they exist? If so, are they better (or more relevant) substitutes for Google?

The answer is YES, they do exist. Ironically, I was able to find them using a Google search. The first one I checked out was http://www.bartleby.com It is a reference site for Verse (poetry), Fiction, Reference, and Non-fiction. I had never heard of the site before, but very quickly I have been able to put it to good use. Instead of going through all the sections, I went to the "Verse" tab right away. A screen comes up that has a "Search Verse" box, so I put it to the test. I chose poem 465 ("Dying") by Emily Dickinson, and input the first five words, "I heard a Fly buzz" and hit search. One result came up, so I clicked it and it brought me right to the poem - or so I thought. Oddly enough, some of the words and punctuation are different from the poem as written in my Norton Anthology. Why would this be? I noticed a link button above the poem that said "Bibliographic Record" and clicked on it to see if I could find my answer. Here is what I found: http://www.bartleby.com/br/113.html It's not exactly a MARC record, but it does tell you the original source. Is that good enough? I'm no Emily Dickinson scholar, but it does seem strange that there would be two different published versions of the same poem, especially since they were never translated from another language. I'm not sure which one is the authoritative version, but this website doesn't seem to have the answer.

Since I had limited success with the Bartleby site, I tried another Google search result, http://www.poemhunter.com After closing out of the pop-up advertisement (yet another reason to choose books over digital sources), I repeated my search query for "I heard a Fly buzz" and got two hits in the poem category. Both were for Emily Dickinson (thank goodness), so I clicked the first. This pulled up a copy of the poem - and much to my consternation, I found that it was again a slightly different version than the one in my book. However, upon closer examination of my book, I found that there are often multiple versions of the same poem when dealing with Dickinson. Very interesting. While this website did not contain an obvious bibliographic reference, it did have an interesting feature beneath the text of the poem in the form of a reference to other poems using subject words. For this reference it said, "Read poems about/on: power, light." The second search result brought me to essentially the same poem as the first, with slightly different paragraph breaks, but the same "extra" references at the bottom. Additionally, there was an area for viewers to comment, and there were actually comments for this poem. Unfortunately, there was also a commercial for Lysol and fighting H1N1 through hand washing, which sort of detracted from the poem a bit for me personally. :)

I had a brief look through a few other poetry search sites and was able to find a version of my poem in each. All in all, it was a positive experience to find that there are indeed "search engines" dedicated to poetry exclusively. Whether or not the common user would even look beyond the basic Google search to find them is another question. In my opinion, they function as a sort of online index, which works in a way that LCSH could not. My only concern for these vast online databases is in the referencing of specific works. As I now know, some poets write different versions of the same poem. In my preliminary searches, I was not able to locate the version that matches the one found in my text, which serves to highlight one of the limitations of the poetry search engine. However, in the instance of the Bartleby.com website, there was bibliographic reference which would at least send the reader in the direction of a physical text which could in turn lead them to other collections by the author and then perhaps to the different versions of the poem...

Since I spent so much time on this poem tonight, it seems only fair to use it for my entry concluding LCSH send off. Please note - I am going to use the version from my Norton Anthology.

#465 ("Dying") by Emily Dickinson

I heard a Fly buzz - when I died - (Insect sounds, Sound production by insects)
The Stillness in the Room (Quietude)
Was like the Stillness in the Air - (Quietude)
Between the Heaves of Storm - (Windstorms)

The Eyes around - had wrung them dry - (Crying, Nonverbal communication)
And Breaths were gathering firm (Respiration)
For that last Onset - when the King (Kings and rulers)
Be witnessed - in the Room - (Vision -- religious aspects)

I willed my Keepsakes - Signed away (Wills, Legacies)
What portion of me be
Assignable - and then it was
There interposed a Fly - (Flies)

With Blue - uncertain stumbling Buzz - (Insect sounds, Sound production by insects)
Between the light - and me -
And then the Windows failed - and then
I could not see to see - (Death)

Subject Headings vs. Google

In my attempts to locate literature referencing the LCSH used to catalog poetry, I have run into a dead end. What I am realizing is that most poetry has been published in a rebound format which is usually selected and compiled by an editor. As this is the case, it likely does not make sense to have subject headings on a compilation as there would be far too many to list. However, what most anthologies contain is an index. For example, the index of my Norton Anthology contains several types of references. First, there is the actual poem titles and the authors. Also included are the first lines of each poem and the key words from the extra sections that were written by the editors with regards to the styles and composition of poetry.

My question is this: what is the best way to locate a specific poem? Let us say, for instance, that you are trying to find a poem that you remember hearing in your childhood, but all that you can remember is that it had something to do with walking through fields of daffodils. Could you use LCSH? Probably not. Could you use a (gasp) keyword search? I tried this, using simply keywords "daffodil" and "poem." The Library of Congress catalog search yielded some definitely unrelated records. The catalog of the Hennepin County Library gave nothing. What about Google? In a search for "daffodil poem," the first record that comes up is "William Wordsworth's 'Daffodils,'" (www.blupete.com/Literature/Poetry/WordsworthDaffodils.htm) and the second is a Wikipedia link to "I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Wandered_Lonely_as_a_Cloud) Since I am more familiar with Wikipedia, I clicked on that link. Sure enough, there in a box on the right hand side is the poem I remember.

What does this mean? Obviously, the purpose of LCSH are not to be a random memory poem locating devices. My real question is: how would I have found this poem without the use of Google or the internet? Is there an indexing or catalogin resource available that existed before the ease of keyword searching? Hopefully by my next entry I will have found an answer to that question or at least some clue to point me in the right direction. For now, here is the poem, complete with LCSH subtitles:

I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud
by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud (Loneliness, Social isolation, Clouds)
That floats on high o'er vales and hills, (Landscape, Nature)
When all at once I saw a crowd (Visual perception)
A host, of golden daffodils; (Daffodils, Narcissus)
Beside the lake, beneath the trees, (Lakes, Shade trees)
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. (Dance, Atmospheric circulation)

Continuous as the stars that shine (Stars)
And twinkle on the milky way, (Galaxies)
They stretched in never-ending line (Infinite)
Along the margin of a bay: (Shorelines)
Ten thousand saw I at a glance, (Visual perception)
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. (Dance)

The waves beside them danced; but they (Dance, Water waves)
Outdid the sparkling waves in glee; (Water waves, Happiness)
A poet could not but be gay, (Poets, Happiness)
In such a jocund company; (Happiness)
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought (Visual perception)
What wealth the show to me had brought: (Well-being, Performance art)

For oft, when on my couch I lie (Relaxation)
In vacant of in pensive mood, (Anxiety)
They flash upon that inward eye (Flashbulb memory)
Which is the bliss of solitude; (Solitude, Privacy, Loneliness)
And then my heart with pleasure fills, (Happiness)
And dances with the daffodils. (Dance, Daffodils)

Let's Start at the Very Beginning...

Greetings Followers! Welcome to my first blog entry! As I am now approaching the day when my "rough draft" should be submitted for this project, I figured it was time to really get working. I have been mulling over the format for my entries, and I think that I am going to attempt a few different methods. For this first entry, I am going to give a little background on my topic choice. While I am certainly an ardent admirer of poetry, I am by no means an expert in the field. However, one of my most valuable books (at least in sentimental value) is my copy of The Norton Anthology of Poetry (Shorter 4th ed.). It was a required purchase for an undergrad literature course, and it's a book that is never far from my reach.

Towards the end of the book, on page 1103 to be exact, there is a section entitled "Versification" which is written by one of the editors, Jon Stallworthy. He has quite a bit to say about the purpose and "voice" of poetry, in particular, that "the more one understands versification (the principles and practice of writing verse), the more one is likely to understand and appreciate poetry and, in particular, the intimate relationship between its form and its content."

Taking this rather lovely description into account, I turn now to the perhaps not so poetic realm of Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). For those of you who are not educated in this field, LCSH are the authorized terms used by the Library of Congress to identify the subjects of a cataloged work. The full listing of these terms can be found on the Library of Congress website (http://authorities.loc.gov/) by choosing "Search Authorities" and then entering a term. For example, when using "Poetry" as a search term, the authorized reference comes up with 2307 bib records. Clicking on this reveals a long list of "Narrower Terms" associated with the main authority heading of "150 Poetry."

At first glance, this seems like a lot of choices! So let's take a look at the first three on the list: Albas, Anacreontic poetry and Anapestic poetry. Hm. I'm pretty sure I've never heard of ANY of these, so let's dig a little deeper and check on the term "Albas." In the authority record for "150 Albas," the 450 field, which is the "use for" listing is "Dawn songs (poetry)." That still isn't terribly clear. So let's look under the cross reference 550 fields: Love poetry, Lyric poetry, and Poetry. This is more helpful, but it's the 670 field that really helps: "Eos : an inquiry into the theme of lovers' meetings and partings at dawn in poetry, 1965."

I think that is about as far as I'm going to delve for my first entry as far as the LCSH for cataloging poetry goes - for the moment. However, I am going to conclude with something "fun." My goal is to end each entry with a poem from my Norton Anthology and to bring it up to LCSH standards. My first attempt will be Robert Burns' "A Red, Red Rose."

(Format: Line of poem followed by LCSH version or references in parentheses. Please note that words from LCSH will be taken exactly as the authority record appears. My apologies to the author.)

O my luve's like a red, red rose, (See also: Love, Roses)
That's newly sprung in June; (See also: Horticulture or Gardening)
O my luve's like the melodie (See also: Love, Music)
That's sweetly played in tune. (See also: Intonation (Musical pitch))

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass (See also: Interpersonal attraction)
So deep in luve am I; (See also: Love, Intimacy (Psychology))
And I will luve thee still, my dear, (See also: Love, Promises)
Till a' the seas gang dry. (See also: Global warming)

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear, (See also: Global warming, Terms of endearment, Love--terminology)
And the rocks melt wi' the sun; (See also: Lava, Volcanic soils, Sun, Light sources)
O I will love thee still, my dear (See also: Love, Promises, Terms of endearment)
While the sands o' life shall run. (See also: Life expectancy)

And fare thee weel, my only luve, (See also: Farewells, Separation (Psychology))
And fare thee weel awhile! (See above)
And I will come again, my luve, (See also: Homecoming, Travel)
Though it were then thousand mile. (See also: Standards of length, Weights and measures, length measurement)