Canadian Poetry charts the formation of Canadian poetry over a period of some 400 years, opening with the writings of colonists and reluctant exiles and ending in the early 20th century. It offers the full text of over 19,000 poetic works by 177 writers drawn from over 680 printed sources, as well as author biographies.

Authors in Canadian Poetry include Bliss Carman, Wilfred Campbell, Isabella Valancy Crawford, Archibald Lampman, Alexander McLachlan, and many others. Many of the works in Canadian Poetry are not widely available in print.

Canadian Poetry has been produced in collaboration with the University of New Brunswick (UNB) and reflects the strengths of UNB's unique holdings of English-language Canadian verse. All poems published in book form are included, taking reliable modern critical editions where available. For poems up to 1850, broadsheet and serial publications are included; in certain cases such publications occurring after 1850 are also included.

To ensure the quality and accuracy of the content, all authors and works in Canadian Poetry were selected under the guidance of an Editorial Board of leading scholars.

Canadian Poetry is available as a complete, stand-alone database, and as an integrated part of Literature Online, the leading online resource for English and American literature.