Utoronto APIrpo.library.utoronto.ca ↗
Access thousands of poems, poet biographies, glossary terms, timelines, and awards from Representative Poetry Online via 15 structured endpoints.
What is the Utoronto API?
The RPO API exposes 15 endpoints covering the full contents of Representative Poetry Online, including poem full-text with line numbers, poet biographies, a chronological poetry timeline, a glossary, bibliography, and honours records. The get_poem endpoint returns structured line objects, rhyme scheme, poetic form, publication year, and citation data. The advanced_search_poems endpoint filters by literary period, movement, nationality, poetic form, rhyme scheme, and publication year.
curl -X GET 'https://api.parse.bot/scraper/9b664bef-3066-4f73-bc1a-f68bf21744ec/list_poems?page=0' \ -H 'X-API-Key: $PARSE_API_KEY'
Typed, relational, agent-ready
A generated client with real types, enums, and the links between objects — the structure a flat JSON response can't carry. Autocompletes in your editor and reads cleanly to coding agents.
- Fully typed · autocompletes
- Objects link to objects
- Typed errors & pagination
Typed Python client. Set up the SDK in your uv project, then pull this API’s typed client:
uv add parse-sdk uv run parse init uv run parse add --marketplace rpo-library-utoronto-ca-api
uv run parse add --marketplace pulls a pinned snapshot of this canonical API — it won’t change underneath you. To customize it, subscribe and swap to your own copy.
"""Walkthrough: RPO SDK — search poems, explore poets, browse glossary."""
from parse_apis.rpo_poetry_api import RPO, YearOp, PoemNotFound
client = RPO()
# Search poems by keyword, iterate with a cap
for poem in client.poemsummaries.search(query="rose", limit=5):
print(poem.title, poem.poet)
# Drill into the first result's full text
poem_summary = client.poemsummaries.search(query="silence", limit=1).first()
if poem_summary:
full_poem = poem_summary.details()
print(full_poem.title, full_poem.poet, full_poem.poet_dates)
for line in full_poem.text[:4]:
print(line.line_number, line.line_text)
print(full_poem.metadata.rhyme_scheme, full_poem.metadata.poetic_form)
# Search poets and get full biography
poet_summary = client.poetsummaries.search(query="Keats", limit=1).first()
if poet_summary:
poet = poet_summary.details()
print(poet.name, poet.birth_date, poet.nationality)
print(poet.metadata.literary_period)
# Typed error handling for a missing poem
try:
bad = client.poemsummaries.search(query="zzz_nonexistent_zzz", limit=1).first()
if bad:
bad.details()
except PoemNotFound as exc:
print(f"Poem not found: {exc.slug}")
# Browse glossary entries filtered by letter
for entry in client.glossaryentries.list(letter="S", limit=3):
print(entry.term, entry.definition[:60] if entry.definition else "")
print("exercised: poemsummaries.search / details / poetsummaries.search / details / glossaryentries.list")
List poems in the RPO database alphabetically. Returns paginated poem summaries. Each page contains approximately 40 poems. Use page=0 for the first page.
| Param | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| page | integer | Zero-indexed page number for pagination. |
{
"type": "object",
"fields": {
"page": "integer, current page number",
"poems": "array of poem summary objects, each containing title, url, path, and poet"
},
"sample": {
"data": {
"page": 0,
"poems": [
{
"url": "https://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/node/78791",
"path": "/node/78791",
"poet": "Brooks, Shirley",
"title": "&"
},
{
"url": "https://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/content/harsher-sentences",
"path": "/content/harsher-sentences",
"poet": "Christakos, Margaret",
"title": "/harsher sentences"
}
]
},
"status": "success"
}
}About the Utoronto API
Poem Data
The get_poem endpoint accepts a poem slug, node ID, or full path and returns the complete poem text as an array of line objects — each with line_number and line_text — alongside structured metadata fields including rhyme_scheme, poetic_form, publication_year, editors, and edition. Citation data comes back as a separate object with source_book, publisher, and library_call_number where available. The get_random_poem endpoint returns the same structure without requiring any input.
Poet Data
The get_poet endpoint returns a full poet profile: biography, birth_date, death_date, nationality, literary_period, literary_movement, honours, occupations, and a bibliography array. The poems field lists every poem in the RPO database attributed to that poet, each with title, slug, url, and path. The advanced_search_poets endpoint filters across birth_year, death_year, nationality, period, and movement taxonomy IDs, all paginated with zero-indexed page parameters.
Reference Data
The get_timeline endpoint returns a chronological array of events covering English poetry from ancient to modern times, each with a year and event description. The get_glossary endpoint supports filtering by letter or query, returning term, definition, and url for each entry. The get_bibliography endpoint similarly supports letter- and keyword-based browsing, returning structured fields including author, title, edition, place, publisher, and year.
Honours and Collections
The get_poet_honours endpoint returns a paginated list of named poetry awards, each with a recipients array containing year, poet name, and poet slug. The list_collections endpoint returns poem sequences and collections with title, slug, url, and poet, paginated via the page parameter.
The Utoronto API is a managed, monitored endpoint for rpo.library.utoronto.ca — not a raw scraper you maintain. Every endpoint is automatically health-checked on a schedule, and when rpo.library.utoronto.ca changes and a check fails, the API is automatically queued for repair and re-verified. It is built to keep working as the site underneath it changes.
This isn't an official rpo.library.utoronto.ca API — it's an independent, maintained REST wrapper over public data. Where the source has no official API (or only a limited one), Parse gives you a stable contract over a source that never promised one, and keeps it current. Need a new endpoint or field? You can revise it yourself in plain English and the agent rebuilds it against the live site in minutes — contributing the change back to the shared API is free.
Will this API break when the source site changes?+
Is this an official API from the source site?+
Can I fix or extend this API myself if I need a new endpoint or field?+
What happens if I call an endpoint that has an issue?+
- Build a poetry reader app that displays full poem text with line numbers using get_poem
- Populate a literary database with poet biographies, nationalities, and dates from get_poet
- Drive a poetry discovery feature using get_random_poem or get_random_poet
- Filter poems by rhyme scheme or poetic form using advanced_search_poems for classroom tools
- Display a chronological timeline of English poetry using get_timeline event objects
- Look up definitions for poetic terms with the get_glossary letter and keyword filters
- Track poetry award history by poet and year using get_poet_honours recipient data
| Tier | Price | Credits/month | Rate limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 100 | 5 req/min |
| Hobby | $30/mo | 1,000 | 20 req/min |
| Developer | $100/mo | 5,000 | 100 req/min |
One credit = one API call regardless of which marketplace API you call. Exceeding the rate limit returns a 429 response. Authenticate with the X-API-Key header.
Does Representative Poetry Online have an official developer API?+
What does advanced_search_poems accept for the rhyme, form, period, movement, and nationality parameters?+
year_op parameter accepts '=', '<', '>', or 'between' to control how the year value is applied.Does the API expose individual poem annotations or line-level notes beyond line number and text?+
text field in get_poem returns line objects with line_number and line_text only. Supplementary editorial notes or annotations are not included in the response. You can fork this API on Parse and revise it to add an endpoint targeting annotated content if RPO exposes it on specific poem pages.Is there a way to retrieve all poems by a specific poet directly?+
get_poet endpoint returns a poems array listing every poem attributed to that poet, each with title, slug, url, and path. You can then pass any poem's slug to get_poem for full text and metadata.Does the API cover full bibliography entries for individual poets, or only the general RPO bibliography?+
get_poet returns a bibliography array scoped to that individual poet. get_bibliography returns the site's general bibliography, browsable by letter (a–z) or keyword query, with structured author, title, edition, place, publisher, and year fields.