50 of the Greatest Poets
Criteria: It is with respect to the myriad forms and subject matter that exist in poetry that these poets were chosen. Their lasting impact, influence and originality, as well as initial and lasting popularity were considered.
Plus examples of their greatest poems.
Plus examples of their greatest poems.
Greatest Poets
1. Samuel Taylor Coleridge: 1772-1834
• The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
• Kubla Khan
• Frost at Midnight
2. Edgar Allan Poe: 1809-1849
• The Raven
• Annabel Lee
• A Dream Within a Dream
3. Robert Frost: 1874-1963
• Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
• The Road Not Taken
• Nothing Gold Can Stay
4. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: 18078-1882
• Wreck of the Hesperus
• Paul Revere's Ride
• The Song of Hiawatha
5. William Shakespeare: 1564- 1616
• Sonnet 18
• Sonnet 71
• Sonnet 116
• The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
• Kubla Khan
• Frost at Midnight
2. Edgar Allan Poe: 1809-1849
• The Raven
• Annabel Lee
• A Dream Within a Dream
3. Robert Frost: 1874-1963
• Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
• The Road Not Taken
• Nothing Gold Can Stay
4. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: 18078-1882
• Wreck of the Hesperus
• Paul Revere's Ride
• The Song of Hiawatha
5. William Shakespeare: 1564- 1616
• Sonnet 18
• Sonnet 71
• Sonnet 116
6. William Wordsworth: 1770-1850
• I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
• Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey
• The World is Too Much With Us
7. Maya Angelou: 1928- 2014
• Still I Rise
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• Touched by an Angel
8. Rudyard Kipling: 1865- 1936
• If
• The Way Through the Woods
9. William Blake: 1757- 1827
• The Tyger
• Loves Secret
10 Emily Dickinson: 1830-1886
• Because I Could Not Stop for Death
• I'm Nobody! Who are You?
• How Far is It to Heaven?
11. Geoffrey Chaucer: 1340's-1400
• The Canterbury Tales
• Troilus and Criseyde
12. John Donne: 1572-1631
• Death Be Not Proud
• For Whom the Bell Tolls
• The Flea
13. Alfred Noyes: 1880- 1958
• The Highwayman
• The Moon is Up
14. Dylan Thomas: 1914-1953
• Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night
• I See the Boys of Summer
15. Elizabeth Barrett Browning: 1806-1861
• How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)
• The Cry of the Children
16. Alfred Lord Tennyson: 1809- 1892
• In Memoriam
• The Lady of Shallot
• The Charge of the Light Brigade
• Idylls of the King
17. Lord Byron : 1788- 1824
• She Walks in Beauty
• The Dream
18. Christina Rossetti: 1830-1894
• When I am Dead My Dearest
• The Goblin Market
• Remember
19. Robert Service: 1874- 1958
• The Cremation of Sam McGee
• It is Later Than You Think
20. Rumi : 1207-1273
• Because I Cannot Sleep
• The Guest House
• All Through Eternity
21. Lauren Ferlinghetti: 1919-2021
• Constantly Risking Absurdity
• Bird with Two Right Wings
22. Mary Oliver: 1935-2019
• The Swan
• When Death Comes
• The Journey
23. Walt Whitman: 1819- 1892
• O Captian! My Captain!
• Song of Myself
• I Sing the Body Electric
24. Emma Lazarus: 1849- 1887
• The New Colossus
• A Masque of Venice
25. Homer: 8th Century BC
• The Iliad
• The Odyssey
26. Edmund Spencer: 1552-1599
• The Faerie Queene
• One Day I Wrote Her Name Upon the Strand
27. Lewis Carroll: 1832-1898
• The Walrus and the Carpenter
• The Hunting of the Snark
• The Jabberwocky
28. Robert Browning: 1812-1889
• My Last Duchess
• Fra Lippo Lippi
• Love Among the Ruins
29. John Keats: 1795-1821
• Ode to a Nightingale
• Ode on a Grecian Urn
30. Amanda Gorman: 1998-
• The Hill We Climb
• Earthrise
• The Miracle of Morning
31. Shel Siverstein: 1930-1999
• Where the Sidewalk Ends
• A Boy Named Sue
32. Langston Hughes: 1901-1967
• Dream Deferred
• Mother to Son
• I, Too
33. Carl Sandburg: 1878-1967
• The Fog
• Chicago
34. Sherman Alexie: 1966-
• Grief Calls Us to the Things of this World
• Good Hair
• Terminal Nostalgia
35. Rod McKuen: 1933-2015
• The Need
• A Cat Named Sloopy
36. Anne Bradstreet: 1612-1672
• To My Dear and Loving Husband
• For Deliverance From a Fever
37. John Greenleaf Whittier: 1807- 1892
• Barbara Fritchie
• Ichabod
38. Percy Bysshe Shelley: 1792-1822
• To a Skylark
• Ozymandias
39. William Butler Yeats: 1865- 1939
• When You Are Old
• All Souls Night
40. Matsuo Basho: 1644-1694
• A Caterpillar
• The Old Pond
• From Time to Time
41. Thomas Moore: 1779-1852
• Drink to Her
• Enigma
42. Robert Burns: 1759-1796
• To A Mouse
• A Red
• Red Rose
• Tam o'Shanter
43. Ralph Waldo Emerson: 1803- 1882
• Give All to Love
• Concord Hymn
44. Andrew Marvell: 1621-1678
• To HIs Coy Mistress
• A Dialogue Between the Soul and Body
• The Death of Cromwell
45. Omar Khayyam: 1048- 1131
• The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
• Now the New Year
46. James Kavanaugh: 1928-2009
• There are Men too Gentle to Live Among Wolves
• Will You Be My Friend?
47. Theodore Roethke: 1908-1963
• The Waking
• The Bat
• The Sloth
48. Wendell Berry: 1934-
• The Peace of Wild Things
• I Go Among Trees and Sit Still
• How to Be a Poet
49. Pablo Neruda: 1904-1973
• I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You
• Always
50. Anne Sexton: 1928-1974
• Her Kind
• Mercy Street
• I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
• Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey
• The World is Too Much With Us
7. Maya Angelou: 1928- 2014
• Still I Rise
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• Touched by an Angel
8. Rudyard Kipling: 1865- 1936
• If
• The Way Through the Woods
9. William Blake: 1757- 1827
• The Tyger
• Loves Secret
10 Emily Dickinson: 1830-1886
• Because I Could Not Stop for Death
• I'm Nobody! Who are You?
• How Far is It to Heaven?
11. Geoffrey Chaucer: 1340's-1400
• The Canterbury Tales
• Troilus and Criseyde
12. John Donne: 1572-1631
• Death Be Not Proud
• For Whom the Bell Tolls
• The Flea
13. Alfred Noyes: 1880- 1958
• The Highwayman
• The Moon is Up
14. Dylan Thomas: 1914-1953
• Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night
• I See the Boys of Summer
15. Elizabeth Barrett Browning: 1806-1861
• How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)
• The Cry of the Children
16. Alfred Lord Tennyson: 1809- 1892
• In Memoriam
• The Lady of Shallot
• The Charge of the Light Brigade
• Idylls of the King
17. Lord Byron : 1788- 1824
• She Walks in Beauty
• The Dream
18. Christina Rossetti: 1830-1894
• When I am Dead My Dearest
• The Goblin Market
• Remember
19. Robert Service: 1874- 1958
• The Cremation of Sam McGee
• It is Later Than You Think
20. Rumi : 1207-1273
• Because I Cannot Sleep
• The Guest House
• All Through Eternity
21. Lauren Ferlinghetti: 1919-2021
• Constantly Risking Absurdity
• Bird with Two Right Wings
22. Mary Oliver: 1935-2019
• The Swan
• When Death Comes
• The Journey
23. Walt Whitman: 1819- 1892
• O Captian! My Captain!
• Song of Myself
• I Sing the Body Electric
24. Emma Lazarus: 1849- 1887
• The New Colossus
• A Masque of Venice
25. Homer: 8th Century BC
• The Iliad
• The Odyssey
26. Edmund Spencer: 1552-1599
• The Faerie Queene
• One Day I Wrote Her Name Upon the Strand
27. Lewis Carroll: 1832-1898
• The Walrus and the Carpenter
• The Hunting of the Snark
• The Jabberwocky
28. Robert Browning: 1812-1889
• My Last Duchess
• Fra Lippo Lippi
• Love Among the Ruins
29. John Keats: 1795-1821
• Ode to a Nightingale
• Ode on a Grecian Urn
30. Amanda Gorman: 1998-
• The Hill We Climb
• Earthrise
• The Miracle of Morning
31. Shel Siverstein: 1930-1999
• Where the Sidewalk Ends
• A Boy Named Sue
32. Langston Hughes: 1901-1967
• Dream Deferred
• Mother to Son
• I, Too
33. Carl Sandburg: 1878-1967
• The Fog
• Chicago
34. Sherman Alexie: 1966-
• Grief Calls Us to the Things of this World
• Good Hair
• Terminal Nostalgia
35. Rod McKuen: 1933-2015
• The Need
• A Cat Named Sloopy
36. Anne Bradstreet: 1612-1672
• To My Dear and Loving Husband
• For Deliverance From a Fever
37. John Greenleaf Whittier: 1807- 1892
• Barbara Fritchie
• Ichabod
38. Percy Bysshe Shelley: 1792-1822
• To a Skylark
• Ozymandias
39. William Butler Yeats: 1865- 1939
• When You Are Old
• All Souls Night
40. Matsuo Basho: 1644-1694
• A Caterpillar
• The Old Pond
• From Time to Time
41. Thomas Moore: 1779-1852
• Drink to Her
• Enigma
42. Robert Burns: 1759-1796
• To A Mouse
• A Red
• Red Rose
• Tam o'Shanter
43. Ralph Waldo Emerson: 1803- 1882
• Give All to Love
• Concord Hymn
44. Andrew Marvell: 1621-1678
• To HIs Coy Mistress
• A Dialogue Between the Soul and Body
• The Death of Cromwell
45. Omar Khayyam: 1048- 1131
• The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
• Now the New Year
46. James Kavanaugh: 1928-2009
• There are Men too Gentle to Live Among Wolves
• Will You Be My Friend?
47. Theodore Roethke: 1908-1963
• The Waking
• The Bat
• The Sloth
48. Wendell Berry: 1934-
• The Peace of Wild Things
• I Go Among Trees and Sit Still
• How to Be a Poet
49. Pablo Neruda: 1904-1973
• I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You
• Always
50. Anne Sexton: 1928-1974
• Her Kind
• Mercy Street
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List Compiled and Edited By Jacqueline W.
List Begun: 2022-12-30