Best Poets

We already have a "best Poetry Books" list, but this is different. Here you vote for a poet, or their overall output as a poet, not for one of their specific volumes. So when you add a book to this list, only vote for the poet's selected or collected works. Other volumes will be deleted.
398

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4.41 avg rating — 367 ratings
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398

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4.21 avg rating — 264 ratings
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398

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4.44 avg rating — 1,085 ratings
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404

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4.09 avg rating — 351 ratings
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404

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3.86 avg rating — 80 ratings
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404

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4.96 avg rating — 26 ratings
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404

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4.37 avg rating — 348 ratings
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404

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4.14 avg rating — 253 ratings
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404

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4.26 avg rating — 106 ratings
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410

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4.23 avg rating — 47 ratings
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410

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4.32 avg rating — 5,110 ratings
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410

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4.70 avg rating — 57 ratings
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413

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3.98 avg rating — 99 ratings
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413

by
4.21 avg rating — 358 ratings
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413

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3.67 avg rating — 6 ratings
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416

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4.18 avg rating — 73 ratings
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416

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3.88 avg rating — 175 ratings
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416

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4.05 avg rating — 451 ratings
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416

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4.29 avg rating — 14 ratings
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420

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 324 ratings
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420

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4.15 avg rating — 1,839 ratings
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420

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4.14 avg rating — 76 ratings
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423

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2.88 avg rating — 8 ratings
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423

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3.84 avg rating — 25 ratings
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425

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3.74 avg rating — 27 ratings
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426

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3.75 avg rating — 8 ratings
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426

by
4.17 avg rating — 882 ratings
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428

by
3.83 avg rating — 54 ratings
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428

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3.78 avg rating — 68 ratings
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430

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4.15 avg rating — 1,953 ratings
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431

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3.92 avg rating — 122 ratings
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432

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3.83 avg rating — 30 ratings
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433

by
4.68 avg rating — 19 ratings
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433

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4.22 avg rating — 334 ratings
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435

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4.30 avg rating — 304 ratings
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436

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3.90 avg rating — 313 ratings
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437

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4.57 avg rating — 1,107 ratings
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438

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4.33 avg rating — 177 ratings
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438

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4.23 avg rating — 39,845 ratings
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440

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4.26 avg rating — 2,169 ratings
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441

by
4.22 avg rating — 14,224 ratings
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441

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4.36 avg rating — 18,192 ratings
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443

by
3.69 avg rating — 93 ratings
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444

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4.24 avg rating — 3,464 ratings
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445

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4.02 avg rating — 62 ratings
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446

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4.28 avg rating — 4,032 ratings
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447

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4.08 avg rating — 2,671 ratings
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448

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4.18 avg rating — 7,042 ratings
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449

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3.95 avg rating — 61 ratings
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450

by
4.03 avg rating — 66 ratings
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451

by
4.40 avg rating — 204 ratings
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452

by
4.33 avg rating — 134 ratings
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453

by
4.26 avg rating — 257 ratings
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454

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 43 ratings
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455

by
4.24 avg rating — 561 ratings
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456

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4.32 avg rating — 2,774 ratings
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457

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4.26 avg rating — 215 ratings
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457

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3.94 avg rating — 101 ratings
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459

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4.19 avg rating — 52 ratings
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459

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4.35 avg rating — 668 ratings
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461

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4.06 avg rating — 186 ratings
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462

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3.54 avg rating — 24 ratings
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463

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4.07 avg rating — 54 ratings
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463

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4.22 avg rating — 273 ratings
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465

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4.21 avg rating — 90 ratings
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466

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3.32 avg rating — 19 ratings
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466

by
4.26 avg rating — 202 ratings
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468

by
4.34 avg rating — 362 ratings
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469

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4.46 avg rating — 709 ratings
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470

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4.04 avg rating — 207 ratings
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471

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4.40 avg rating — 189 ratings
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472

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4.31 avg rating — 16 ratings
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473

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4.14 avg rating — 7 ratings
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474

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4.58 avg rating — 80 ratings
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474

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4.39 avg rating — 49 ratings
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476

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4.04 avg rating — 4,057 ratings
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476

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4.28 avg rating — 664 ratings
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478

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4.55 avg rating — 42 ratings
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479

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4.29 avg rating — 156 ratings
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480

by
4.08 avg rating — 467 ratings
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481

by
4.26 avg rating — 632 ratings
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482

by
4.10 avg rating — 985 ratings
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483

by
4.20 avg rating — 44 ratings
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484

by
4.03 avg rating — 351 ratings
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485

by
3.99 avg rating — 352 ratings
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486

by
4.62 avg rating — 2,087 ratings
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487

by
3.98 avg rating — 460 ratings
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488

by
4.21 avg rating — 151 ratings
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489

by
4.54 avg rating — 14,408 ratings
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490

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 27 ratings
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491

by
4.42 avg rating — 1,406 ratings
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492

by
4.34 avg rating — 6,664 ratings
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493

by
4.64 avg rating — 14 ratings
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494

by
4.32 avg rating — 9,168 ratings
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495

by
4.07 avg rating — 14 ratings
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496

by
4.15 avg rating — 1,840 ratings
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497

by
4.28 avg rating — 189 ratings
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498

by
4.24 avg rating — 3,145 ratings
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499

by
4.10 avg rating — 181 ratings
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500

by
4.47 avg rating — 15 ratings
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515 books · 385 voters · list created August 29th, 2009 by John Burns (votes) .
102 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


John 846 books
53 friends
Christy 7507 books
2609 friends
Ruth 2646 books
382 friends
Khanh 554 books
18 friends
Susanna - Censored by GoodReads 3384 books
853 friends
Judy 879 books
8 friends
Gwyn 122 books
81 friends
Joan 1874 books
43 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-10 of 10 (10 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by John (new)

John Burns Deleted the wasteland and other poems because it isn't a selected or collected volume. If a poet has a selected or collected volume add those instead. You're voting for poets here, not for specific volumes of poetry.


message 2: by John (new)

John Burns Removed leaves of grass.

It's interesting how different this is to the "best poetry books" list. Leaves of grass and howl are the top 2 books there, but whitman and ginsberg barely register on this list. Shows the distinction between voting for best books and best poets. PPL have heard of howl and leaves of grass because of their historical significance, but not many seem to care for the poetry so much...


message 3: by Peter (new)

Peter Should the Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge not be removed? After all, it only represents a very small part of either poet's output...

Anyway, I'm really quite surprised at Yeats being at the top, though I suppose given how paradoxical and contradictory he was throughout his life there's going to be at least one poem in their collection for any kind of nutcase.


message 4: by John (new)

John Burns Peter wrote: "Should the Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge not be removed? After all, it only represents a very small part of either poet's output...

Anyway, I'm really quite surprised at Yeats being ..."


Well spotted. Deleted the lyrical ballads.

I though yeats was pretty good... i don't think paradox and contradiction necessarily bother ppl. Most probly don't notice it, i didnt.


message 5: by Peter (new)

Peter Hah, I suppose Yeats's contradictory nature is really only going to be highlighted if you happen to study him or you're involved with Irish poetry/politics in some way... He's definitely one of the greats though. Perhaps the last great Romantic and certainly among the first Modernists too. Personally, I'll always prefer Keats and Shelley though.


message 6: by Antoine (new)

Antoine Killthepopular wrote: "Removed leaves of grass.

That's fine, I guess. But it is worth knowing that Leaves of Grass (unlike Howl or the Waste Land) is basically Whitman's only book. Some poets do not have a proper "collected works." Virgil comes to mind. So does Shel Silverstein, who appears on this list three times. I suggest you leave his highest ranking book in place and delete the others.



message 7: by BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) (last edited May 04, 2016 07:23AM) (new)

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) I don't think Eugene Onegin (#90) or The Divine Comedy (#11) should be on this list...?


message 8: by John (new)

John Burns Dante is only really known for two works: Divine comedy and Vita Nuova. Vita Nuova is a short and comparatively obscure volume and the divine comedy is a compilation of three previously published works so I'm inclined to regard The Divine Comedy as being more or less the same as a collected works volume.


message 9: by John (new)

John Burns Deleted The Prophet seeing as we have the collected works of Gibran hanging round #50.


message 10: by Vincent (new)

Vincent By God, why is this list so anglosphere oriented. Where are the great French, German, Norse poets in the top 10? The only ' foreign' poet in the top is Dante Alighieri and he is only tenth!


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