Great Poets of the World

A is for Maya Angelou

• Poet, playwright and novelist

• Some of her most renowned poetry includes A Brave and Startling Truth and Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie

B is for Elizabeth Barrett Browning

• English poet of the Romantic movement

• Most renowned for her Sonnets from the Portuguese, love poems written to her husband

C is for e.e.cummings

• Renowned for his radical style which abandoned traditional syntax and punctuation

• One example of his poems is anyone lived in a pretty how town

D is for Emily Dickinson

• American poet• Greatly influences by

metaphysical poets• Her poetry reflects her

solitude

E is for Ralph Waldo Emerson

• American poet, essayist, and philosopher

• Best known for his Transcendentalism

• One of his great poems is “Song of Nature”

F is for Robert Frost

• American poet known for traditional verse forms and metrics

• His poems have a theme of life and landscape of New England

• One of his renowned poems is “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”

G is for Jorge Guillén

• Spanish poet• Member of the

“Generation of 1927”• Renowned for his

inventiveness of expressing the common in an uncommon manner

H is for Homer

• Ancient poet born 750 BC

• Author of the Iliad and the Odyssey

I is for David Ignatow

• American poet noted for his numerous poems which depict events in everyday life

• One of his poems is “Hollow Legs”

J is for James Weldon Johnson

• American poet• Most renowned for his

poem “Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing“ written on the occasion of Lincoln's birthday

K is for John Keats

• English romantic poet• Most renowned for the

three finest poems pof the English language including “Ode to a Grecian Urn”

L is for Federico García Lorca

• Most important Spanish poet of 20th century

• Influenced by surrealism

• Member of Generation of 1927

• Author of the poem “La Guitarra”

M is for Osip Mandelstam

• Polish-Russian poet• Noted for his

development of Acmeism

• Mixture of poetics and moral doctrine

• Poems include “A Speechless Sadness”

N is for Pablo Neruda

• World famous poet from Chile. Best known for his poems of angst.

O is for Ovid

• Ancient Roman poet born in 43 BC

• Greatly influenced writers of the middle ages and the renaissance

• Most noted for The Metamorphoses

P is for Jack Prelutsky

• American poet• Author of humorous

poetry written for children

• Works include “As Soon as Fred Gets Out of Bed” and“Be Glad Your Nose is on Your Face”

Q is for Salvatore Quasimodo

• Italian poet and critic• Known for both his

hermetic poetry and post-hermetic poetry

• Poems include “Day After Day” and “Life is not a dream”

R is for Mary Ruefle

• American poet• Poems include “The

Daze”

S is for Shel Silverstein

• Renowned childrens poet. Some of his works include Falling Up and Where the Sidewalk Ends

T is for Henry David Thoreau

• American poet and writer

• Renowned for his masterpiece Walden and Poems of Nature

U is for John Updike

• American poet and novelist

• Author of more than 50 books

• Poetry volumes include Facing Nature and Tossing and Turning

V is for Reetika Vazirani

• Indian poet• Poems include

“Daughter-Mother-Maya-Seeta”and “Dream of the Evil Servant”

W is for Walt Whitman

• American poet• Self taught• Developed unique

style of poetry• Most famous for the

collection of poems entitles Leaves of Grass

Y is for W.B. Yeats

• Irish poet• Traditional verse with

influence of mysticism• Renowned for “The

Lake Isle of Innisfree ” and “Leda and the Swan”

Z is for Zawgee

• Burmese poet• Renowned for “Way

of the Hyacinth”

Created By:Liz Martin

Media SpecialistSaluda Trail Middle School

Rock Hill, SC 29732