In Jean Thompson's novel The Poet's House, main character Carla discovers a new world when she meets Viridian, a well-established poet. Viridian soon brings Carla into her circle of writer friends and the drama that pervades the group, changing her life forever.

Novels about poets and poetry can provide an interesting opportunity for the author to insert fictional poems of their own making. They can also give an author the chance to create a unique artistic atmosphere, one in which the writing or deciphering of poems can serve as either background, plot points or both. Below are just a few other novels in which poets and poetry take center stage.

One of the most famous novels featuring a poet is Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire, an intricate literary puzzle built around a work by the fictional poet John Shade. The book includes the text of a 999-line poem called "Pale Fire," which Shade supposedly composed before he was murdered, as well as an introduction and commentary ...