List of famous poets, with photos, bios, and other information when available. Who are the top poets in the world? This includes the most prominent poets, living and dead, both in America and abroad. This list of notable poets is ordered by their level of prominence, and can be sorted for various bits of information, such as where these historic poets were born and what their nationality is. The people on this list are from different countries, but what they all have in common is that they're all renowned poets.
Items here include everything from Bob Dylan to Paul McCartney.
From reputable, prominent, and well known poets to the lesser known poets of today, these are some of the best professionals in the poet field. If you want to answer the questions, "Who are the most famous poets ever?" and "What are the names of famous poets?" then you're in the right place. (1851 items)
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an expatriate American poet and critic who was a major figure of the early modernist movement. His contribution to poetry began with his development of Imagism, a movement derived from classical Chinese and Japanese poetry, stressing clarity, precision and economy of ...more
Age: Died at 87 (1885-1972)
Birthplace: Hailey, Idaho, United States of America
Profession: Poet, Literary critic, Writer
Also Ranked
#42 on The Greatest American Writers of All Time
#45 on The Greatest Poets of All Time
#12 on The Best Poets of the 20th Century
#6 on The Best American Poets
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Homer
Homerus, best known as his anglicised name Homer, is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. He was believed by the ancient Greeks to have been the first and greatest of the epic poets. Author of the first known literature of Europe, he had a lasting effect on the Western canon. Whether and when he ...more
Birthplace: Greece
Profession: Poet, Author, Writer
Credits: Troy, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Odyssey, Ulysses 31
Also Ranked
#8 on The Best Writers of All Time
#3 on The Greatest Poets of All Time
#36 on The Best Novelists of All Time
#26 on The Greatest Minds of All Time
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Jack Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his method of spontaneous prose. Thematically, his work covers topics such as Catholic ...more
Age: Died at 47 (1922-1969)
Birthplace: Lowell, Massachusetts, United States of America
Profession: Painter, Poet, Novelist, Screenwriter
Credits: On the Road, Big Sur, Pull My Daisy, Kerouac, the Movie
Also Ranked
#79 on The Best Novelists of All Time
#92 on The Best American Poets
#7 on The Most Unbearably Pretentious Authors In Literary History
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John Keats was an English Romantic poet. He was one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantic poets along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, despite his work having been in publication for only four years before his death. Although his poems were not generally well received by ...more
Age: Died at 26 (1795-1821)
Birthplace: Moorgate, London, England
Profession: Poet, Physician
Credits: Arterial
Also Ranked
#2 on The Best English Poets of All Time
#10 on The Greatest Poets of All Time
#2 on The Best Romantic Era Poets
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