Laurel is a reading room for English verse, run by Contubernales Books. These terms are short because the site is simple: the texts are free to everyone, the tools are ours, and an account is a courtesy between us.
Last revised 10 September 2026.
Every poem, translation, original text, dictionary entry, editorial note and picture on Laurel is in the public domain, or carries a Creative Commons licence that permits reuse. The Sources page sets out which is which. You may read, copy, print, quote and republish those texts without asking us. Some files carry a Creative Commons credit: the biographies adapted from Wikipedia, the Perseus editions of the Greek and Latin texts, the classical names from Smith's dictionaries. Keep the credit when you reuse them.
The analyses, measures, games, courses, tests, worksheets, the reader, the workshop, the site's code, design and writing are the work of Contubernales Books. You may use them here freely, and you may download the processed data files for study and research with a credit to Laurel. You may not copy the site, its tools or its data to build a competing service, or sell them, without our written agreement.
An account needs only a username and a password; an email address is optional and is used solely to recover a lost password. You are responsible for keeping the password private. One person, one account; a username that impersonates someone else, or is offensive, may be renamed or removed. You may delete your account at any time from the account page, which removes everything it holds at once.
Use the site as a reader would. Do not run scripts that fetch the site's pages or data at speed, scrape the library wholesale, probe the account system, or try to enter another person's account. Requests to the account service are limited to a modest rate per address. If you want the data in bulk for research, ask us and we will give it to you properly.
Reports of errors, requests for texts, and notes you propose for the commentary are read by a person. By sending a note for the commentary you allow us to publish it on the site, credited to your username, and to edit it for length. Notes and drafts you keep in your own account stay yours.
Scores are kept honestly or not at all. Play that games the scoring (automated answers, tampered requests) will be removed from the boards, and the account may be closed.
Everything on Laurel is free: the texts, the reader, the courses, the games, the tools and the accounts. The site is paid for by Contubernales Books and by readers who choose to give. Donations are gifts, not purchases. They buy nothing extra and are not refundable. They fund the work described on the support page: new texts, new features, and the server. If that ever changes, the change will be announced here first, and nothing already free will be taken behind a charge.
The texts are old and were typed by many hands; the analyses are automatic and their methods are published so you can check them. We correct errors as they are found, but the site is offered as it is, without warranty, and we are not liable for loss arising from its use. The scansion, rhyme and vocabulary figures are aids to reading, not authorities.
We may revise these terms; the date at the top changes when we do, and a signed-in reader will be told of any change that matters. Questions and complaints: use report in the reader, or write to Contubernales Books. These terms are governed by the laws of the United States and the state in which Contubernales Books is registered.