Greatest Poets of All Time

1. William Shakespeare

   

   William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor who is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He wrote approximately 39 plays, 154 sonnets, and numerous poems. His works are still widely studied, performed, and celebrated around... read more

   I love how he made so many inspiring poems and how it was a calming thing for him to do. I wrote a paper about him, and it was fun to research all about the famous poet William Shakespeare.

   He is the most successful poet I have ever loved and read about. He is, of course, the best.

2. Edgar Allan Poe

   

   Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 - October 7, 1849) was an American writer, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He's widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and American literature... read more

   I literally laughed out loud when I saw Tupac on this list - let alone being at number one! Edgar Allan Poe's style may be too much for some people to comprehend, but if you can understand it, the reward is amazing. He must have put a ton of effort into getting you to sympathize with his characters. He never asked you to feel any sympathy. You just did.

   Very sadly underrated. An outstanding poet of great fascination and great poetry.

   He is so underrated. His poems are dark, mysterious, and so interesting.

3. Emily Dickinson

   

   Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 - May 15, 1886) was an American poet born in Amherst, Massachusetts. She came from a prominent New England family but spent most of her life in quiet reclusion, writing poetry largely in private. Her reclusive lifestyle and personal letters have intrigued... read more

   Emily Dickinson is AMAZING. Not only was she completely unknown during her time and published posthumously, but her poetry resonates deeper than anything I've ever read. While some poems (these are in Life) talk about the angels and heaven, others explore emotional insecurity and fear of society and the outside world. READ EMILY DICKINSON!

   I really admire Emily Dickinson. She is one of the greatest poets. I love her poems. She is a true genius.

   She is, without a doubt, the most insightful poet ever!

4. Saadi

   

   Persian poetry rules impose horrendously difficult constraints on the Persian poet. Yet, Sa'di and other Persian poets manage to overcome them. He, Hafez, Mowlavi (AKA Rumi in the West), and a few others so masterfully overcome these constraints in the most magnificent way that Shakespeare himself would have bowed to their talent and thoughts, just as Goethe did with respect to Hafez.

   By the way, I'm amazed that Hafez is not in the top ten of this list! It is such a pity that so much is lost in translation of these poets' and thinkers' writings into other languages. Only then could one realize the extent of their mastery over their language and what amazing thinkers they were, given how long before the Western poets on this list they lived. Only then could one make a fair comparison of poets from different mother tongues and different eras.

5. Dante

   

   Durante degli Alighieri, commonly known as Dante (c. 1265-1321), was a major Italian poet of the Late Middle Ages. He is best known for his epic poem The Divine Comedy, which explores the realms of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. The work is widely regarded as the greatest literary achievement in the Italian... read more

   Dante should be considered the best poet in the world. He is definitely the greatest poet of all Italy. T. S. Eliot called him second only to Shakespeare. Although he is not recognized today as a huge poet, his writings are still heavily studied and used by scholars. His poems have flourished for eight hundred years - longer than those of Shakespeare, Milton, and Chaucer.

   They were all moderately influenced by Dante, the influencer of the greatest poets. He was the Florentine who was exiled in one of the most brutal times in Florentine history and the poet who exposed the wrongs of humanity and the beauty of Paradise. He wrote in new ways and challenged the meaning of love and what people will do to find it.

6. Maya Angelou

   

   Maya Angelou (born Marguerite Annie Johnson. April 4, 1928 - May 28, 2014) was an American memoirist, poet, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over... read more

   Maya Angelou has reached inside of me from a very young age. Her poems aren't a random mass of words. Instead, they are art with a purpose. I hope everyone has a chance to read one of her poems.

   You can sense her strength and passion in her poems. Definitely a source of inspiration and motivation!

7. Langston Hughes

   

   James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902 - May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. He was a pioneer of jazz poetry, a style that blends the rhythm and mood of jazz music with poetic expression. Hughes is best remembered as... read more

8. William Wordsworth

   

   William Wordsworth (April 7, 1770 - April 23, 1850) was a major English Romantic poet. Along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, he helped launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798. Wordsworth later served as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1843... read more

   Arguably the best poet that came out of the Romantic Era. Tintern Abbey is fantastic. If you haven't read it, please stop what you're doing and enjoy a masterpiece.

   A true poetry composer. He deserves to be in the top three on here.

9. Homer

   

   The Greek poet Homer was born sometime between the 12th and 8th centuries BC, possibly on the coast of Asia Minor. He is best known for composing the epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey, which have had a profound influence on Western literature. Although these works are central to the classical canon... read more

   In my mind, he is the greatest poet of all time, not only because of the rhythm of every line and the hexameter that he so skillfully uses, but also because of when it was written in history. He created his masterpiece in the Greek Dark Ages, an age when no one, not even the poets, knew how to write or read. This implies not only that Homer had to memorize the whole thing but that he had to compose it in his head.

   Another thing is that he had to compose in Greek, which is a much more complex language than, let's say, English. He wasn't only a poet but a genius. Oh, and did I mention he was blind?

10. Rumi

    

    Rumi, one of the best poets of all time, brings the definition of LOVE as the best remedy for humans to reach the highest level of security, happiness, and cure.

    He is "LOVE," and that's the only truth in this life! There has never been any poet like him at any time! He is by far the best! He is the "REAL DEAL"!

    He is a great Persian poet and one of the greatest in the world. His poems move both your heart and your mind.

The Newcomers
11. ?

    Min Thu Wun

12. ?

    Allama Muhammad Iqbal

The Contenders

13. John Keats

    

    John Keats (October 31, 1795 - February 23, 1821) was an English Romantic poet. He was one of the leading figures of the second generation of Romantic poets, alongside Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Despite a short career, with only four years of published work before his death, Keats left a lasting... read more

    I really admire John Keats. He is a true genius.

14. Ferdowsi

    

    Ferdowsi was as great or even greater than Homer. The sad fact is that even if you translate his Shahnameh, you might get the stories and epics right, but the beauty and music of the words and poetry will be lost. This is true of all Persian poets like Saadi and Hafez.

    Ferdowsi is a poet with an epic story called Shahnameh, which is superior to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. It's such a pity that such great poets are unknown just because they are not European.

    He saved the Persian language. Otherwise, the Iranians would speak Arabic like Egyptians who became Arabized.

15. Robert Frost

    

    Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 - January 29, 1963) was one of the most popular and critically respected American poets of the 20th century. He was honored frequently during his lifetime, receiving four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry. Frost is best known for poems such as The Road Not Taken and Stopping... read more

16. John Milton

    

    John Milton (December 9, 1608 to November 8, 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, man of letters, and civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote during a period of intense religious and political change. Milton is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost, published... read more

    Men that see are blind. Blind men do see.

    On His Blindness is a masterpiece.

17. Lord Byron

    

    George Gordon Byron (later Noel), 6th Baron Byron, FRS (January 22, 1788 - April 19, 1824), commonly known as Lord Byron, was an Anglo-Scottish poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement. He is best known for works such as Don Juan, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, and the short lyric She Walks in... read more

18. Pablo Neruda

    

    Pablo Neruda was the pen name and later the legal name of Chilean poet-diplomat and politician Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto. He was born on July 12, 1904, and died on September 23, 1973. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971 for his powerful and influential poetry.

19. Rabindranath Tagore

    

    Rabindranath Tagore FRAS, also known as Ravīndranātha Thākura and honored with the title Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath. He reshaped Bengali literature and music and made significant contributions to Indian art through the movement known as Contextual Modernism. His work in the late 19th and early 20th... read more

    Rabindranath, the poet of poets, can't be described! If you don't go through his scintillating works, you will never be able to understand and realize him. His most famous works have been translated, but translation can never be well understood because the essence dies.

    Poet, lyricist, music composer, novelist, dramatist, painter, et al.

    Is there anyone else who has straddled the art world so completely?

    The greatest! Europeans were never able to understand his philosophy. They can't because when they translate his work into English, it dies.

20. Sylvia Plath

    

    Sylvia Plath (October 27, 1932 - February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She is recognized for pioneering the genre of confessional poetry. Her most notable poetry collections include The Colossus and Other Poems and Ariel.... read more

21. E. E. Cummings

    

22. Hafez

    

    One of the greatest minds of his time, way ahead of his era, his beautiful work has been translated into almost all languages. HAFEZ, the famous lyric poet of Persia in the fourteenth century, is sometimes called the Persian Anacreon.

    His love poems in the Persian language are exceptional. No one could bring love into literature like him.

    He has the most complete poems in history. He teaches you the best thinking style.

23. Charles Baudelaire

    

    Charles Pierre Baudelaire (April 9, 1821 - August 31, 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator, and art critic. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil), explores the evolving nature of beauty in the rapidly industrializing city of Paris during the mid-19th century... read more

24. Alexander Pushkin

    

    Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (June 6 [O.S. May 26], 1799 - February 10 [O.S. January 29], 1837) was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era. He is widely regarded as the greatest Russian poet and is credited with founding modern Russian literature. His major works include Eugene... read more

    Best poet of all time. He should be number one.

25. Arthur Rimbaud

    

    Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (October 20, 1854 - November 10, 1891) was a French poet known for his influence on modern literature and the arts, which prefigured surrealism. He produced his most famous works while still in his teens. Rimbaud abruptly abandoned writing by the age of 21 and spent his later... read more

    At a young age, he opened the world's flowers and snatched the unsnatched. His mix of words and limitless imagination and fantasy is just speechless.

    Ever read his Illuminations? Tupac with his West Coast hip hop could not touch that.

    I will always choose Rimbaud when asked to name the greatest poet of all time.

26. William Blake

    

    William Blake (November 28, 1757 - August 12, 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. During his lifetime, he was largely unrecognized and considered eccentric. Today, he is considered a foundational figure in the history of Romantic poetry and visual art.

    He was a great man. He was a reference to Satan in John Milton's Paradise Lost.

27. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

    

    Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (August 28, 1749 - March 22, 1832) was a German writer and statesman. His body of work includes epic and lyric poetry written in various meters and styles, as well as prose and verse dramas, memoirs, an autobiography, literary and aesthetic criticism, and treatises on botany... read more

    One of the greatest German poets of all time - if not THE greatest.