10 Famous Poets Who Left an Indelible Mark on Literature
In their unique styles, these influential poets drew from their experiences to craft memorable poems about the human experience and the world around them.
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Starting in ancient times and continuing through the modern age, poetry has thrived as one of the most popular forms of expression. From the horrors of war and racism to the familiarity of the New England seaside, influential poets like Pablo Neruda, Maya Angelou, and Robert Frost could seemingly find inspiration in almost anything.
Decades later—and for some, even centuries—their writings continue to spark our imaginations. Get to know these 10 famous poets whose most popular works have left enduring legacies.
Homer
Birth and death date unknown
Little is definitively known about this famous Greek poet who lived before the common era. Some even question whether the same person wrote both epics credited to Homer, The Iliad and The Odyssey. Some scholars believe he might have left hints about his own life through his descriptions of the blind minstrel character Demodokos in The Odyssey.
Despite these uncertainties, the two epics about the fall of Troy and subsequent events have influenced writers throughout history like J.R.R. Tolkien and James Joyce. The use of vivid similes and metaphors as well as the in media res narrative structure—beginning in the middle of the plot and flashing back to past events—are characteristics of Homer’s writings.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1803-1882
Originally ordained in the Unitarian Church, Emerson resigned from the clergy after three years. He took up writing and lecturing instead, becoming a founding figure of the Transcendentalism movement in New England with early works such as 1836’s “Nature.” Other notable Transcendentalists included Henry David Thoreau and Margaret Fuller.
According to the Poetry Foundation, Emerson was the first major American writer to explore Middle Eastern and Asian ideas and mythologies in his writing. This was evident in works such as the poem “Brahma” and essay “Persian Poetry.”
Edgar Allan Poe
1809-1849
Poe, originally from Boston, is best known for his 1845 poem “The Raven,” which explores themes of death and loss akin to his collection of other horror and mystery tales like “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.”
Poe began writing poems during adolescence. Surprisingly, given how famous his works have become, he initially received little profits from his writing and had to support himself by editing magazines in Philadelphia and New York City.
Walt Whitman
1819-1892
Before his poetry earned him acclaim, Whitman worked as a journalist and was known for taking radical stances on issues like women’s property rights, immigration, and labor practices. But with the 1855 release of Leaves of Grass, the New York–born poet cemented his own unique writing style: using first person and rejecting rigid meter.
One of the poems in the collection, “I Sing the Body Electric,” went on to inspire a short story by author Ray Bradbury, an episode of the science-fiction TV show The Twilight Zone, and even a 2012 song by Lana Del Rey.
Emily Dickinson
1830-1886
The first volume of Dickinson’s poetry wasn’t published until 1890, four years after her death, and a full compilation wasn’t available until 1955. This is partly because she often wrote in seclusion, with some scholars suggesting she might have suffered from agoraphobia.
Dickinson was known for using compressed verse in her writing and a first-person style similar to writers such as Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
William Butler Yeats
1865-1939
Born in Ireland and raised in London, Yeats first had his poetry published in the Dublin University Review in 1885. He included legends, folklore, and ballads of his home country in much of his work. He was especially fascinated with the occult.
In 1890, after he returned to London, Yeats helped form a poetry group called the Rhymers’ Club who met regularly to discuss their craft. Their input apparently helped, as Yeats won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.
Robert Frost
1874-1963
Frost—who, following the death of his father, moved from California to Massachusetts with his mother and sister at age 11—became known for his references to New England life and locales in his work. His conversational poems avoided traditional verse forms and usually rhymes, too. Some of his notable pieces include “Fire and Ice,” “Mending Wall,” and “The Road Not Taken.”
Frost received a plethora of honors throughout his career, including a record four Pulitzer Prizes and the then-unofficial title of U.S. poet laureate under President John F. Kennedy.
Pablo Neruda
1904-1973
Neruda received the 1971 Nobel Prize for Literature, and fellow author Gabriel García Márquez once called him “the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language.” From Chile, Neruda used his writing abilities to reflect on large-scale atrocities from the Spanish Civil War in Spain in Our Hearts, as well as two of his own relationships in Twenty Love Poems.
However, Neruda’s success wasn’t without controversy, as he also wrote poems praising Communist figureheads like Joseph Stalin and Fidel Castro. Investigations into his untimely death are ongoing, with some people alleging he was poisoned.
Maya Angelou
1928-2014
A multiformat artist, Angelou received a Tony Award nomination in 1973 for the stage play Look Away and an Emmy nomination for the 1977 TV miniseries Roots. However, she is most famous for her writing, including her 1971 poetry collection Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ’fore I Diiie that earned her a Pulitzer nomination.
Angelou was also only the second poet—after Frost—to perform at a presidential inauguration, reciting “On the Pulse of Morning” at Bill Clinton’s big day in 1993.
Sylvia Plath
1932-1963
Plath is considered a key figure of confessional poetry, a personal style of writing that includes descriptions of the author’s own trauma and intense psychological experiences. Her notable collection Ariel, published two years after her tragic death, was influenced by the depression she suffered after the fracturing of her marriage to Ted Hughes.
In 1982, Plath became the first person to win a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for an assortment of her works titled The Collected Poems.
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