Stanza gives you two ways to find work beyond the people you already follow: Search, when you have something in mind, and Discover, when you'd like to be surprised.
Search
Open Search from the bottom bar on a phone, the sidebar on a computer, or the Library. Type anything: a title, a poet's name or @username, a phrase, a theme or a form.
Results by type
Results are grouped into tabs, so you can narrow down quickly:
- All: the best matches of every kind together.
- Poems, Poets, Communities and Replies.
- Podcasts and Live, where those features are available.
- Sounds: tracks from Stanza's sound library.
Sorting
Sort by Most Relevant, Latest or Most Popular.
Search by meaning
Stanza understands what poems are about, not just the exact words in them. If nothing matches your words exactly, you may see results marked "Close in meaning": poems that speak to the same idea in different language.
Helpful extras
- Matching tags: tags that fit your search, with how many poems use each one.
- Poetic element cards: search for a form, style, meter, rhyme scheme or device (try "villanelle") and its definition appears above the results.
- Sound cards: search for a library sound and you can hear it straight away.
- Recent searches: suggested as you type, kept only on your device.
What search respects
Search follows the same rules as everywhere else. It only shows poems you're allowed to open, never reveals the author of an anonymous poem, and keeps mature work away from members under 18.
Discover
Discover is a curated window onto Stanza. Its tabs (All, Trending, Top Encored and Editor's Picks) and sections such as Rising Poets, Most Encored, Trending sounds and Trending elements mix what's resonating across the community with what fits your taste.
Discover also holds a few quiet shelves. Poems waiting for a first reader sit below the weekly prompt (see “Poems waiting for a first reader”). While a season is running, and for two weeks after, a seasonal shelf gathers poems that poets have tagged for it, such as Autumn poems or, in winter, Winter readings (spoken poems). Shelves are shuffled each day and never ranked, show one poem per poet in the first row, and hide when there is not enough to show. Past seasons are listed under Library › Explore › Seasons.
Make search work your way
Under Settings › Search you can choose where results open, how new searches sort, whether definition and sound cards appear, whether mature work is included, and whether recent searches are suggested. See "Search Preferences and Jump To".
Can't remember a poem's title? Search for a line you remember, or simply describe what it was about.