The 20 Greatest Poets Of All Time

Poetry is a unique medium open to interpretation that allows people to bring their own insights and experiences to bear on the poem. The best poets take advantage of this by creating work that will resonate with different people for different reasons. They tackle issues of life, death, love, grief and more to connect personally with the reader. Famous poets earn acclaim because their work is universal—they combine beautiful writing with deep thoughts, often incorporating imagery, symbolism, metaphor and, of course, creative use of meter to create singular works. This list includes 20 of the best famous poets who have crafted some of the most enduring work, dating back not just centuries but millennia.

Top Poets

Poetry is one of the oldest forms of writing, dating back thousands of years. Early poetry put words to beats and music, serving as songs that told stories. Poems often narrated past events to help cultures pass their history from generation to generation. Poems can rhyme or not. They often use forms of meter.

Different types of poetry include haiku, ballads, sonnets, elegies, odes, limericks, couplets and more. The poets on this list have written all these and more. They range from storytellers of ancient times, like Rumi, to activists pushing for change in the civil rights era, like Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou. These rankings are based on the mass appeal of their poetry, impact on society and craft, popular culture influence and quality of work.

20. Federico García Lorca (1898-1936)

Federico García Lorca belonged to the iconic Generation of ‘27, a group of Spaniards who incorporated symbolism and futurism into their work. He was gay at a time when most were closeted, and he struggled with depression. He showed talent far beyond his young age, demonstrated in his early book Romancero gitano.

García Lorca grew up in Andalusia, and he incorporated imagery from his childhood there into his poems. He studied under Nobel Prize winner Juan Ramón Jiménez and was close friends with Salvador Dalí. In addition to poems, García Lorca wrote plays. The outspoken socialist was assassinated in 1936 amid a tumultuous time in Spanish history, most likely targeted by a nationalist militia. You can read Federico García Lorca’s work in the books Selected Poems of Federico García Lorca, In Search of Duende and In The Green Morning, all available from publisher New Directions.

19. Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)

Sylvia Plath published only one volume of poetry in her lifetime, yet she’s one of the most famous American poets. Her autobiographic novel, The Bell Jar, detailed her struggle with depression, and she died by suicide in 1963. She had two children from her volatile relationship with fellow poet Ted Hughes.

Plath was raised in Massachusetts, and her father passed away when she was only 8 years old, around the time she published her first poem. While she lived a short life, Plath published to great acclaim. She studied with Anne Sexton and under Robert Lowell, and a posthumously published poetry collection, with several never-before-seen poems, earned the Pulitzer Prize. “Daddy,” which alludes to her troubled relationships with her father and her husband, and “Lady Lazurus” are her most famous poems. You can read Sylvia Plath’s poetry in The Collossus, available from publisher Penguin Random House.

18. Rumi (1207-1273)

You have surely read quotes by Rumi, an Islamic scholar in Greater Iran who wrote in Persian and occasionally Greek during the 13^th century. He’s been referred to as the world’s best-known poet. His most famous quotes include, “Do not feel lonely, the entire universe is inside you,” and “What you seek is seeking you.”

Best known for the classic Persian poem “Masnavi,” Rumi grew up the son of a preacher in Afghanistan and later moved to Samarkand before settling in Iran. Rumi cited Persian poets Attar and Sanai, as well as his own father, as his greatest influences. People still pay pilgrimage to the spot where Rumi was buried in Konya, Turkey, after a group of Jews and Christians carried his body through the city. You can read Rumi’s work in the book The Essential Rumi, available from publisher HarperCollins.

17. Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

Transcendentalist poet Walt Whitman, often called the father of free verse, was one of the most influential American writers. He was controversial in his day, with many in the 19^th century uncomfortable with what they called the “obscene” sensuality of Leaves of Grass, his poetry masterwork.

Whitman grew up in New York in a Quaker family that struggled economically, making for a tense and uncomfortable childhood. He left school at age 11 to work and help provide for his family, becoming an apprentice at Patriot, a Long Island newspaper. He continued working for papers and as a teacher, and published his first poem as a teen. He wrote serialized novels and self-help guides, too. The poem cadences in Leaves of Grass are Biblically based. You can read Walt Whitman’s work in the books The Complete Poems of Walt Whitman and Leaves of Grass, available from publisher Penguin Random House.

16. Mary Oliver (1935-2019)

National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Mary Oliver is one of the widest-read poets in America, once being named the country’s bestselling poet. Her poems center nature, and she wrote them in plain language accessible to all levels of readers.

Oliver was born in the Cleveland suburbs, and she later revealed she was sexually abused as a child. She formed a connection with the family of renowned poet Edna St. Vincent Millay before studying at (but not graduating from) Ohio State University and Vassar College. Oliver published her first poetry collection in 1963, and she taught at several universities. Her best-known works include “Wild Geese,” “Morning poem,” “When death comes?” and “In Blackwater Woods.” You can read Mary Oliver’s work in the books Instructions for Living, Dream Work and Devotions, available from publisher Penguin Random House.

15. Homer (8^th century B.C., exact date of birth and death unknown)

Ancient Greek poet Homer wrote two of the most enduring poems in history, The Iliad, which chronicles a dispute between Achilles and Agamemnon at the end of the Trojan War, and The Odyssey, about Odysseus’s return to Ithaca after Troy fell. While the epic poems are tragedies, they also include some comedy.

Historians believe Homer’s poems were handed down orally, and they were told to teach lessons about Greek heroism and honor. It’s been difficult to attribute other works to Homer accurately, and most of what’s known about his life comes from legend. Scholars have studied him since antiquity, and many treat his poems as allegories. Some modern scholars claim the same person did not write his most famous works, though that hasn’t been proven. You can read Homer’s work in the books The Iliad and The Odyssey, available from publisher Penguin Random House.

14. Robert Browning (1812-1889)

Playwright and poet Robert Browning was among the best-known Victorian writers, employing irony to deliver his social commentary. He embraced a vast vocabulary, and his plays included notoriously long monologues. His command of language and syntax was unmatched in his time.

Browning grew up in London in a home that valued literature and the arts. By age 12, he’d written a volume of poetry, and he was a huge fan of the Romantic poets. He studied at University College London, though he didn’t get a degree. Pauline (1833) and Paracelsus (1835) were his most famous early poems. He married fellow poet Elizabeth Barrett and moved to Italy. Following her death, he published his most enduring work, the book-length poem The Ring and the Book. You can read Robert Browning’s work in the book Browning: Poems, available from publisher Penguin Random House.

13. T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)

“April is the cruelest month” begins “The Waste Land,” T.S. Eliot’s most famous poem. Published in the post-World War I era, it explores themes of loss and sacrifice. While he had plenty of other successes, the Harvard-educated Eliot’s career was defined by this insightful, at times satirical look at life.

Eliot, who also wrote plays and essays, was a modernist who used language in new ways. Born in America, he left for England when he was 25 and never returned. His most famous poems included “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (renounced by critics upon initial publication but now considered a classic) and “Ash Wednesday.” His home life was fraught. Eliot drank heavily at times, while his wife, Vivienne Haigh-Wood, used drugs to deal with chronic health conditions. He died of emphysema. You can read T.S. Eliot’s work in the book The Waste Land and Other Poems, available from publisher Penguin Random House.

12. Adrienne Rich (1929-2012)

Essayist and poet Adrienne Rich is known for her influence on second-wave feminism and incredible evolution throughout a seven-decade career. She originated the term “lesbian continuum,” and she was known for her political discipline. She once turned down the National Medal of Art to protest proposed funding cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts.

Raised in Maryland, Rich received early encouragement from her father to write and read poetry. He set high expectations for her, which she explored in the poems “After Dark” and “Sources.” She studied at Radcliffe College, where poet W.H. Auden recognized her with the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award. She received the National Institute of Arts and Letters award and two Guggenheim Fellowships, publishing three poetry volumes by 1963. She came out later in life and called her lesbianism political and personal. You can read Adrienne Rich’s work in the book Adrienne Rich: Poetry and Prose, available from publisher W.W. Norton.

11. Audre Lorde (1934-1972)

Poet and philosopher Audre Lorde was one of her generation’s greatest writers and thinkers. She embraced intersectional feminism as a way to prevent the “hierarchy of oppression.” Her poems often addressed civil rights issues and social injustice. She delivered many as powerful spoken word pieces, and she later movingly chronicled her breast cancer treatment.

The daughter of Caribbean immigrants, Lorde grew up in Harlem. Her eyesight was so bad she was legally blind. She published her first poem as a teenager in Seventeen magazine and graduated from Hunter College. She cared deeply about language and expression, and some of her poems dealt with her strained relationship with her mother. She taught and joined the influential Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press while publishing poems. Her most famous works include “The Black Unicorn,” “Hanging Fire” and “East Berlin 1989.” You can read Audre Lorde’s work in the book Sister Outsider, available from publisher Penguin Random House.

10. Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)

Though his father discouraged his writing, Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda published his first poem at age 13. While he was well known for his political writings, he also dabbled in surrealism and love poems. By age 18, he’d published two critically acclaimed poetry volumes, sparking controversy over their erotic imagery.

The Chilean poet’s interest in politics was so strong, he served as a senator representing the communist party and also held several diplomatic positions. After communism was outlawed, Neruda fled to Argentina when a warrant for his arrest was issued. He returned to Chile a few years later to advise communist president Salvador Allende. Neruda died in 1973 under what the Chilean government eventually admitted were suspicious circumstances. Neruda is still called Chile’s national poet. You can read Pablo Neruda’s work in the book Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, available from publisher Penguin Random House.

9. e.e. cummings (1894-1962)

Edward Estlin (e.e.) Cummings was raised in Massachusetts and attended undergrad and graduate school at Harvard University. His poems reflect experimentation and innovative uses of language. In fact, he often made up words and used others in ways they weren’t intended (like in poem “love is more thicker than forget”).

Cummings served as an ambulance driver in World War I and published his first book of poetry a few years after. Best known for his lyric poems, cummings also drew attention for his unconventional capitalization (or uncapitalization) of his initials and last name—though in recent years, his publisher and scholars have claimed he didn’t really care about the stylization. One of his most famous poems was “anyone lived in a pretty how town.” You can read e.e. cummings’ work in the book Complete Poems, 1904-1962, available from publisher W.W. Norton.

8. Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950)

Edna St. Vincent Millay was a noted feminist, respected poet and sought-after dinner guest during the Roaring Twenties, becoming the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1923. She was also honored later in life with the Frost Medal, a lifetime achievement award.

Modernists in the 1930s dismissed her work, but her prescient embrace of feminist ideology sparked a posthumous surge in popularity in the 1960s and ‘70s. Millay grew up in Maine and graduated from Vassar College, where her reputation as a gifted poet flourished. She was openly bisexual in an era where that was unheard of, and she wrote plays as well as poetry. Some of her most famous poems include “Renascence,” “First Fig” (including the famous line “My candle burns at both ends”) and “Spring.” You can read Edna St. Vincent Millay’s work in the book The Selected Poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay, available from publisher Penguin Random House.

7. Sappho (approximately 630–570 BC)

Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet hailing from the island of Lesbos whose prolific work has endured for millennia. Her poems were set to music, and she earned attention for her lyricism. Sappho came from an affluent family, but little else is known about her upbringing.

Only a few of her poems survived intact, including her most famous, “Ode to Aphrodite,” and another that was discovered in 2014 dubbed “Brothers Poem.” Most of her work focused on love and religion, and she’s revered for her sharp imagery. Though her people exiled her to Sicily, the Hellenistic Alexandria scholars dubbed her one of the Nine Lyric Poets. Legend has it she killed herself because she couldn’t be with the man she loved—but her writings about “loving women” coined the term “sapphic” and have made her a lesbian icon. You can read Sappho’s work in the books Stung with Love and If Not, Winter, available from publisher Penguin Random House.

6. Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

Rudyard Kipling may be best known for The Jungle Book, but he was also a prolific and accomplished poet. Hailing from India, which was then under British rule, Kipling became the youngest person ever to win the Nobel Prize for Literature at age 41. He was also the first English-language author to get it.

Kipling’s parents met in England and then resettled in India, and so his career was often marked by controversy due to his perceived (some would argue implied and others would say stated) support of British colonialism. He was educated in the UK, then returned to Bombay to work as a journalist. He later lived in the U.S. and UK. Many of his most famous poems were published before 1920, including “Gunga Din,” “The White Man’s Burden” and “My Boy Jack,” about his only son, who died in World War I. You can read Rudyard Kipling’s work in the book Kipling: Poems, available from publisher Penguin Random House.

5. Robert Frost (1874-1963)

It might surprise you to learn that not only was the poet most associated with New England born in California, but this quintessential American writer also published a book in the UK before he had one in the U.S. Yes, it’s Robert Frost, the only person to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry four times.

Frost grew up in San Francisco and moved to Massachusetts at age 11. He briefly attended Dartmouth College and published his first poem in 1894. He married and spent three years in the UK, where A Boy’s Will, his first book, was published. Upon returning to the U.S., the Frost family purchased a New Hampshire farm that today remains a museum (The Frost Place). Frost’s most famous poems include “The Road Not Taken,” “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” and “Fire and Ice.” He’s known for nature imagery. You can read Robert Frost’s work in the books The Road Not Taken and Other Poems and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, available from publisher Penguin Random House.

4. Langston Hughes (1901-1967)

Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes helped originate the form of jazz poetry. He described the time of his popularity as “when Harlem was in vogue.” Hughes, who also wrote novels and plays, was a civil rights activist. People devoured his weekly political column in the Chicago Defender, a Black newspaper.

Hughes entered Columbia University after graduating from high school in Cleveland, but he didn’t graduate, opting to leave due to discrimination he faced as a Black student. He later received a B.A. at Lincoln University and published poetry in the NAACP’s The Crisis magazine. He published poems, short stories and more. His most popular poems include “Let America be America Again,” “I, Too,” “Mother to Son” and “Harlem.” He’s considered one of the defining poets of the 20^th century. You can read Langston Hughes’ work in the books The Weary Blues and Not Without Laughter, available from publisher Penguin Random House.

3. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

Emily Dickinson wrote almost 2,000 poems but only published 10 during her lifetime. She found fame posthumously, when her family uncovered her works, and since then, her fame skyrocketed. Dickinson’s poetry makes its own rules, using nonstandard capitalization, slant rhyme, short lines and more.

Hailing from an affluent and established family in Amherst, Massachusetts, Dickinson had limited formal education and preferred isolation to social interaction. She never married, unusual for a woman from a prominent family at that time. While she preferred seclusion, she corresponded diligently with many, including sister-in-law Susan Gilbert. While continuing to write, Dickinson also cared for her mother after she took ill in the 1850s. Dickinson’s sister, Lavinia, discovered her sister’s many unpublished poems after the latter’s death. Popular ones include “Because I could not stop for Death” and “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers.” You can read Emily Dickinson’s work in the book The Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson, available from publisher Penguin Random House.

2. Shel Silverstein (1930-1999)

It would be easy, and foolish, to dismiss Shel Silverstein as “just” a children’s poet. He was so much more. His funny poems demonstrated depth and insight that helped children develop empathy and recognize unfairness, encouraging them to speak up when they witnessed injustices. He also authored plays, cartoons, kids’ books and songs.

Silverstein was born and spent his early years in Chicago. He attended a semester at University of Illinois before being drafted into the Army and going to Korea and Japan. Upon returning to the U.S., he broke into magazines with cartoons and was eventually pushed to pursue poetry by his editor at Harper & Row. His books, including The Giving Tree, have millions of copies, and some of his best-known poems include “Homework Machine,” “Falling Up,” “Sick” and “For Sale.” You can read Shel Silverstein’s work in the books Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic and Falling Up, available from publisher HarperCollins.

1. Maya Angelou (1928-2014)

Maya Angelou is one of American history’s most decorated, celebrated and accomplished poets. She received more than four dozen honorary degrees, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and became the first poet since Frost to read at a presidential inauguration. She was a bestselling memoirist, penning I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

In that book, Angelou famously recounted her traumatic childhood in St. Louis and Arkansas, where she was raped and sexually abused. She went mute for five years after her abuser was murdered. Angelou was a gifted dancer and also worked as a nightclub performer, sex worker, actress and organizer before her writing career took off. She eventually became a celebrated professor at Wake Forest University. Caged Bird (published in 1969) marked a new era in memoir, with Angelou opening the door to more works by Black women who had been intentionally ignored by publishers in the past. You can read Maya Angelou’s work in the book The Complete Poetry, available from publisher Penguin Random House.

Bottom Line

Poets see the world differently, and they can open our eyes to new adventures and thoughts. The most influential poets illustrate everyday themes of life in new and creative ways. You will broaden your world outlook by reading any of these 20 poets.