Favorite/best Poet of all time?

Question

I was wanting to know who you thought was the best poet of all time, or just your favorite. I'll admit to not knowing a lot about poetry, but I hope to learn. I personally like Walt Whitman, and Robert Frost.

Answer 1

This may sound a bit odd, but I would have to say Shel Silverstein. His poems range from absolute insanity to touching insights on life.


" If you are a dreamer, come in,

If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,

A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer . . .

If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire

For we have some flax-golden tales to spin.

Come in!

Come in! "

Answer 2

Emily Dickenson.

Frost and Whitman... you are hard on yourself, they aren't the one's I suggest to try for beginners.

Emily is marvelous, Robert Service is terrific also, and good for beginners.

I suggest you start out with Palgraves Golden Treasury, he was a professor of Poetry, chose the poems he thought were best, and they really are.

2nd best book is Ralph Woods "Favorites" 1 and 2 are a set, but 2 is hard to find (worth the search). He put about 2 dozen books together of the best, and was better at selecting a wider variety than Palgraves (who is likely a stickler about "proper" poetry). Woods or Palgraves will let you find your way through a multitude of poets and you will find which poets you prefer without buying or reading lots that aren't your type.

I have 138 books of poetry, most of them are scrapbooks put together by pro's... and I prefer the menagerie to a large amount by a single poet ... except Emily... she's the best.

Answer 3

Robert Frost
Edgar Allan Poe
Emily Dickinson

Answer 4

I like Edward Arlington Robinson.
I love Edgar Alan Poe and Robert Frost.
However, Oscar Wilde is the reason the world continues to turn.

Answer 5

Edgar Allan Poe

Answer 6

Yeah I was gonna say Robert Frost and maybe Emily Dickinson a lot of her poems were like riddles.

Answer 7

I personally like ee. cummings, Sylvia Plath, and Edgar Allan Poe. I never had a fondness for Emily Dickinson.

Answer 8

William Wordsworth / Robert Frost for me

Answer 9

You are in for an exciting adventure if you are exploring poetry. Whom you will like depends on your preferences, of course.

Here are a couple poems that may interest you. They illustrate the great diversity of poems. One is by Ogden Nash, the other by Wilfred Owen.

Reflections on Ice-Breaking
by Ogden Nash

Candy
Is Dandy
But liquor
Is quicker.



DULCE ET DECORUM EST
Wilfred Owen circa 1918

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed,coughing like hags,
we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod.
All went lame, all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!-- an ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime.
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight
he plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes wilting in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs
Bitten as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

---

Enjoy reading or the eating of poems as someone like e.e.cummings said. (Actually it was something like that, by someone. Let me know if you run across it in your exploration.)

Answer 10

My personal favorite is Poe, but who doesn't like him? I haven't really read a lot of poetry, but he is my favorite.