The 75 Best Poets Of The 20th Century, Ranked
Who are the best 20th century poets? This list includes great poets from the 20th century such as Maya Angelou, T.S. Eliot, James Baldwin, and Robert Frost.
The best poems
Written works have the ability to make us feel. They make us want to believe, be inspired, and live vicariously through the stories on the page. Whether short or long form, poetry is often illusory, and full of rich imagery or hidden meaning. It is these elements which provoke readers to dig deeper. <anchor>The best poems</anchor> and poets are read throughout the ages. They are passed from generation to generation and taught throughout schools to young students.
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Poetry? Oh Noetry! Lists about and ranking the best poets and poems of all times, including rhymes, haiku, sonnets, free verse, blank verse, epics, ballads, love poems, villanelles, and even limericks.

The Greatest Poems Ever Written, Ranked

# The Greatest Poems Ever Written, Ranked

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Updated July 16, 202479.9K views72 items

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Vote up the all time greatest poems ever written in recorded history.

What is the best poem of all time? In the English language, we have several that regularly appear on lists like these: "The Raven," "Daddy," "O Captain! My Captain!," and "I Hear America Singing." Poetry has captivated readers for centuries, and the poems on this list include modern classics as well as older poems that have stood the test of time.

Written works have the ability to make us feel. They make us want to believe, be inspired, and live vicariously through the stories we read on the page. Whether short or long form, poetry is often illusory, and full of rich imagery or hidden meaning. It is these elements which provoke readers to dig deeper. The best poems, like those on this list, are read throughout the ages. They are passed from generation to generation and taught throughout school to young students.

Poets and their poetry have the ability to take readers places and into worlds never imagined. Poets can often be tortured souls or great thinkers that allow the reader a new view on the world. The greatest poems on this list provide the kind of emotional connection to the written word that few other poems can.

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## The Raven

Edgar Allan Poe

"The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. First published in January 1845, the poem is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow fall into madness. The lover, often identified as being a student, is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. Sitting on a bust of Pallas, the raven seems to further instigate his distress with its constant repetition of the word "Nevermore". The poem makes use of a number of folk and classical references.
Poe claimed to have written the poem very logically and methodically, intending to create a poem that would appeal to both critical and popular tastes, as he explained in his 1846 follow-up essay, "The Philosophy of Composition". The poem was inspired in part by a talking raven in the novel Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty by Charles Dickens. Poe borrows the complex rhythm and meter of Elizabeth Barrett's poem "Lady Geraldine's Courtship", and makes use of internal rhyme as well as alliteration throughout.



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1,700 votes

## The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost

"The Road Not Taken" is a poem by Robert Frost, published in 1916 as the first poem in the collection Mountain Interval.



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993 votes

## Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Dylan Thomas



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928 votes

## Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

William Shakespeare

Sonnet 18, often alternately titled Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?, is one of the best-known of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. Part of the Fair Youth sequence, it is the first of the cycle after the opening sequence now described as the Procreation sonnets.
In the sonnet, the speaker compares his beloved to the summer season, and argues that his beloved is better. He also states that his beloved will live on forever through the words of the poem. Scholars have found parallels within the poem to Ovid's Tristia and Amores, both of which have love themes. Sonnet 18 is written in the typical Shakespearean sonnet form, having 14 lines of iambic pentameter ending in a rhymed couplet. Detailed exegeses have revealed several double meanings within the poem, giving it a greater depth of interpretation.



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1,031 votes

## O Captain! My Captain!

Walt Whitman



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697 votes

## Shakespeare's sonnets

William Shakespeare

Shakespeare's Sonnets is a book with the complete collection of the 154 sonnets of William Shakespeare.



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