Trust at Past Poetry

Rights & sources

How Past Poetry verifies public-domain status, editions and source provenance.

Publish only when the evidence is clear.

Every poem has a rights record covering its author, publication, edition, territory and source. Imports stay unpublished until automated checks and a human review agree.

Our source hierarchy

  1. Authoritative library or archive editions and structured catalogues.
  2. Approved bulk datasets and APIs with documented reuse terms.
  3. Edition scans or transcriptions that can be independently verified.

Corrections and takedowns

If a rights holder or reader identifies a problem, we can unpublish the text while preserving the audit record. Contact details will be added before a public launch.