Greatest 20th Century Poet (in English)

William Haskins · Feb 25, 2005

Who do you believe to have been the greatest poet of the 20th Century (writing in English)?

If none of these reflect your choice, please feel free to enter your choice in your reply.

Jamesaritchie · Feb 25, 2005

Poet

William Haskins said:
Who do you believe to have been the greatest poet of the 20th Century (writing in English)?

If none of these reflect your choice, please feel free to enter your choice in your reply.

I check Robert Frost, but I'd have to give Kipling very strong consideration, even though his life was split between the 19th and 20th centuries.

William Haskins · Feb 25, 2005

indeed.

good call on kipling. it's a shame that i could only post 10 options, because there really are a lot i couldn't include.

theodore roethke and wilfred owen leap to mind.

thanks for posting and voting, james.

randesq · Feb 25, 2005

bukowski

What other poet can crack you up?

neepheid · Feb 26, 2005

I was always partial to the works of Norman McCaig. No idea if he's the greatest, but his is the first poetry I seriously studied at school so it will always be with me.

wingtoad · Feb 26, 2005

Where's Yeats? He'd be my choice.

Ralyks · Sep 24, 2010

I too would choose Yeats. Of the options on the list, however, I chose Frost.

SirOtter · Sep 24, 2010

Henry Gibson

rugcat · Sep 24, 2010

Yeats, without a doubt.

Though I'm quite fond of Wallace Stevens.

donroc · Sep 24, 2010

e.e. cummings, who could be lyrical, political, and had a great sense of humor.

dolores haze · Sep 24, 2010

Bukowski.

Billytwice · Sep 24, 2010

John Betjeman

Qbynewbie · Sep 24, 2010

I don't know how to measure "greatest". Frost probably had more influence than any of the others, if measured by the number of people who were influenced by his work. But "The Waste Land" may be the greatest poem of the 20th century. Edna St. Vincent Millay won a Pulitzer at something like 30 and was a giant of her generation. Tolkien was a poet and a great writer but was he also a great poet? Too many choices to choose one. But since I needed to choose one, I chose Eliot for the poll.

Xelebes · Sep 24, 2010

Favourite is Robert Service followed by Rudyard Kipling.

poetinahat · Sep 26, 2010

(sometimes a little necromancy is a good thing, no?)

I don't think I can choose one, but of the poets I've read, I'd think also about Seamus Heaney (I beat that drum too often, I know). I don't know that I'd end up selecting Richard Brautigan, but I love Trout Fishing in America.

Steppe · Sep 26, 2010

I would vote for Emily Dickinson.

It was said of her work that it held "A searing strength of language and an economy of words which recalls Oriental literature overshadow the vivid but gentle lyricism of most of her anthologized work".

I think that her poetry was in part helpful for the transition from classic into modern poetry.

milly · Sep 26, 2010

I echo Roethke

"she moved in circles and those circles moved"

OMG...brilliant

Kate Thornton · Sep 27, 2010

I didn't see William Haskins on the list, so I had to go for Robert Graves. But Robert Service and Stephen Spender are great favorites of mine, my favorites having nothing to do with great poets of the 20th C.

scarletpeaches · Sep 27, 2010

William Haskins said:
good call on kipling. it's a shame that i could only post 10 options, because there really are a lot i couldn't include.

theodore roethke and wilfred owen leap to mind.

thanks for posting and voting, james.

Wilfred Owen was my first choice.

Sassoon just squeaks into second, I think. Maybe Betjeman.

But Owen's definitely in first place for me.

Priene · Sep 28, 2010

The Waste Land is the greatest poem of that century, so TS Eliot has to be a probable, though his productivity was low and Gerontion makes me want to vomit. If not him, then I'd probably go with WH Auden, though I sometimes feel he failed to nail the perfect poem. In the generation after him, Sylvia Plath and Tony Harrison are my favourites.

There's also Thomas Hardy to consider, who main poetry was actually produced after 1900, though he feels like a Victorian.

blacbird · Sep 28, 2010

Steppe said:
I would vote for Emily Dickinson.

Emily Dickinson did not live in the 20th century.

KTC · Sep 28, 2010

blacbird said:
Emily Dickinson did not live in the 20th century.

you are correct, sir.

caw

milly · Sep 28, 2010

Priene said:
There's also Thomas Hardy to consider, who main poetry was actually produced after 1900, though he feels like a Victorian.

Thomas Hardy is by far my favorite combination writer...novelist/poet

and he was prolific when it came to his poetry...well, in his fiction as well now that I think about it...just wonderful

Greatest 20th Century Poet (in English)

Who do you believe was the greatest poet of the 20th Century (writing in English)?

Robert Graves

Charles Bukowski

Maya Angelou

T.S. Eliot

Robert Frost

Allen Ginsberg

Dylan Thomas

Sylvia Plath

William Carlos Williams

Ezra Pound

poet

poet

wingtoad

Untold stories inside

Il Cavaliere Marino

Lost in the Fog

Historicals and Horror rule

international guttersnipe

New but not a kid anymore :)

Delerium ex Ennui

Numbers are beautiful

...

seeing sparks

Still Happy to be Here. Or Anywhere

Out to lunch

Stand in the Place Where You Live

seeing sparks