Poems of All Time
Are you obsessed with lists?— List poems, Rolling Stones' Top 500 Albums of All Time, VH1's Top Female Artists of All Time, AFI's Top 100 Films of All Time. The lists go on. We know if you had to name your Top 10 Poems of All Time you might choose 10 after some deliberation, some of you might rattle them off in a few minutes. And we know that poems you've chosen today could easily change tomorrow. Do you remove a poem by Ginsberg for a poem by Plath? How can you NOT put Prufock on the list? Hey, nothing by Aunt Emily, Uncle Walt? Lists spark conversation, and that's the idea. This is SoFloPoJo's Top 10 Poems of All Time chosen by some of our staff. Some are in order one to 10, others are in no certain order. What are your Top 10 Poems of All Time? Let us know, maybe we'll add it here.
Red text are links to the poem
Stacie M. Kiner
The Wasteland T.S. Eliot
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock T.S. Eliot
Ash Wednesday T.S. Eliot
From Blossoms Li-Young Lee
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning John Donne
The Sensual World Louise Gluck
Daffodils Ted Hughes
For My Lover Returning to His Wife Anne Sexton
What Work Is Philip Levine
I Am On My Way to Oklahoma to Bury the Man I Nearly Left My Husband For Sandra Cisneros
Susannah W. Simpson
One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII Pablo Neruda
Now Is The Time Hafiz
The Panther Rainer Maria Rilke
Eagle Poem Joy Harjo
The Guest House Rumi
Otherwise Jane Kenyon
Ah, Ah Joy Harjo
Wild Swans at Coole W.B. Yeats
The Peace of Wild Things Wendell Berry
Lenny DellaRocca
Soldier Asleep at the Tomb Gjertrud Schnackenberg
Black Mare Lynda Hull
Mistral John Koethe
Prayer for Sunlight and Hunger Traci Brimhall
The Sheep Child James Dickey
High Windows Philip Larkin
Howl Alan Ginsberg
Bulimia Denise Duhamel
Waiting for the Barbarians Constantine P. Cafavy
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Goodnight Dylan Thomas
Nicole Tallman
Her Kind Anne Sexton
Tulips Sylvia Plath
Les roses sont entrées Renee Vivien
Chanson d’automne Paul Verlaine
Those Winter Sundays Robert Hayden
What the Living Do Marie Howe
Je t’aime Paul Eluard
Rain Jack Gilbert
One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII Pablo Neruda
The Snowman Wallace Stevens
Barbra Nightngale
The Colonel Carolyn Forche
Sunday Morning Wallace Stevens
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird Wallace Stevens
The Man with the Blue Guitar Wallace Stevens
The Idea of Order in Key West Wallace Stevens
Tonight I Write the Saddest Lines Pablo Neruda
Daddy Sylvia Plath
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock T.S. Eliot
Song of the Shirt Thomas Hood
Diving into the Wreck Adrienne Rich
Caridad Moro
The River Merchant’s Wife Li Po (Translated by Pound)
Wild Geese Mary Oliver
One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII Pablo Neruda
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock T.S. Eliot
Daffodils Ted Hughes
One Art Elizabeth Bishop
Double Image Anne Sexton
Warming Her Pearls Carol Anne Duffy
Those Winter Sundays Robert Hayden
To The Harbormaster Frank O’Hara
Michael Mackin O'Mara
Dinosaurs in the Hood Danez Smith
Have You Prayed Li Young Lee
Thinking of the Lost World Randall Jarrell
When the Burning Begins Patricia Smith
When I Have Fears John Keats
Magdalene – The Seven Devils Marie Howe
Order No 2 to the Army of the Arts Vladimir Mayakovsky
Harmonie Du Soir Charles Baudelaire
Fugue of Death Paul Celan
Of the Dark Doves Federico Garcia Lorca
Jennifer Greenberg
By Fire Sharon Olds
For Anna Mae Pictou Aquash Joy Harjo
So Penseroso Ogden Nash
How Can Black People Write About Flowers at a Time Like This Hanif Abdurraquib
Listen e e cummings
The Cows on Killing Day Les Murray
The Sounds of the Universe Coming in my Window Jack Kerouac
Ode to My Socks Pablo Neruda
Duende Tracy K Smith
Berck-Plage Sylvia Plath
Gary Kay
Dream Song #5 John Berryman
I Knew a Woman Theodore Roethke
Emperor of Ice Cream Wallace Stevens
The Snow Man Wallace Stevens
Leda and the Swan W.B. Yeats
The Art of Losing Elizabeth Bishop
My Last Duchess Robert Browning
Harlot's House Oscar Wilde
Darkling Thrush Thomas Hardy
Aunt Jennifer's Tigers Adrienne Rich
Patricia Whiting
The Second Coming W.B. Yeats
Easter 1916 W.B. Yeats
Under Ben Bulben W.B. Yeats
The Waste Land T.S. Eliot
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock T.S. Eliot
Digging Seamus Heaney
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird Wallace Stevens
A Book Full of Pictures Charles Simic
The Windhover Gerard Manley Hopkins
No Man Is an Island John Donne
Meryl
Sestina Elizabeth Bishop:
note, passed to superman Lucille Clifton
My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun— Emily Dickinson
Rant Diane di Prima
Fragment Thirty-six H.D
The Arrival of the Bee Box Sylvia Plath
Diving into the Wreck Adrienne Rich
Not Waving, but Drowning Stevie Smith
In Praise of My Sister Wislawa Szymborska
We Shall Not Escape Hell Marina Tsvetaeva
Don Burns
The Second Coming W. B. Yeats
After a Journey Thomas Hardy
Ithaca C. P. Cavafy
Deception Island W. S. Merwin
The Laughing Thrush W. S. Merwin
The Lost Land Eavan Boland
Any and all by Matsuo Basho
The Gift Li-Young Lee
Poetry Reading Anna Swir
Sonnet 116 (Let me not...) Shakespeare
The Wasteland T.S. Eliot
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock T.S. Eliot
Ash Wednesday T.S. Eliot
From Blossoms Li-Young Lee
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning John Donne
The Sensual World Louise Gluck
Daffodils Ted Hughes
For My Lover Returning to His Wife Anne Sexton
What Work Is Philip Levine
I Am On My Way to Oklahoma to Bury the Man I Nearly Left My Husband For Sandra Cisneros
Susannah W. Simpson
One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII Pablo Neruda
Now Is The Time Hafiz
The Panther Rainer Maria Rilke
Eagle Poem Joy Harjo
The Guest House Rumi
Otherwise Jane Kenyon
Ah, Ah Joy Harjo
Wild Swans at Coole W.B. Yeats
The Peace of Wild Things Wendell Berry
Lenny DellaRocca
Soldier Asleep at the Tomb Gjertrud Schnackenberg
Black Mare Lynda Hull
Mistral John Koethe
Prayer for Sunlight and Hunger Traci Brimhall
The Sheep Child James Dickey
High Windows Philip Larkin
Howl Alan Ginsberg
Bulimia Denise Duhamel
Waiting for the Barbarians Constantine P. Cafavy
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Goodnight Dylan Thomas
Nicole Tallman
Her Kind Anne Sexton
Tulips Sylvia Plath
Les roses sont entrées Renee Vivien
Chanson d’automne Paul Verlaine
Those Winter Sundays Robert Hayden
What the Living Do Marie Howe
Je t’aime Paul Eluard
Rain Jack Gilbert
One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII Pablo Neruda
The Snowman Wallace Stevens
Barbra Nightngale
The Colonel Carolyn Forche
Sunday Morning Wallace Stevens
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird Wallace Stevens
The Man with the Blue Guitar Wallace Stevens
The Idea of Order in Key West Wallace Stevens
Tonight I Write the Saddest Lines Pablo Neruda
Daddy Sylvia Plath
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock T.S. Eliot
Song of the Shirt Thomas Hood
Diving into the Wreck Adrienne Rich
Caridad Moro
The River Merchant’s Wife Li Po (Translated by Pound)
Wild Geese Mary Oliver
One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII Pablo Neruda
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock T.S. Eliot
Daffodils Ted Hughes
One Art Elizabeth Bishop
Double Image Anne Sexton
Warming Her Pearls Carol Anne Duffy
Those Winter Sundays Robert Hayden
To The Harbormaster Frank O’Hara
Michael Mackin O'Mara
Dinosaurs in the Hood Danez Smith
Have You Prayed Li Young Lee
Thinking of the Lost World Randall Jarrell
When the Burning Begins Patricia Smith
When I Have Fears John Keats
Magdalene – The Seven Devils Marie Howe
Order No 2 to the Army of the Arts Vladimir Mayakovsky
Harmonie Du Soir Charles Baudelaire
Fugue of Death Paul Celan
Of the Dark Doves Federico Garcia Lorca
Jennifer Greenberg
By Fire Sharon Olds
For Anna Mae Pictou Aquash Joy Harjo
So Penseroso Ogden Nash
How Can Black People Write About Flowers at a Time Like This Hanif Abdurraquib
Listen e e cummings
The Cows on Killing Day Les Murray
The Sounds of the Universe Coming in my Window Jack Kerouac
Ode to My Socks Pablo Neruda
Duende Tracy K Smith
Berck-Plage Sylvia Plath
Gary Kay
Dream Song #5 John Berryman
I Knew a Woman Theodore Roethke
Emperor of Ice Cream Wallace Stevens
The Snow Man Wallace Stevens
Leda and the Swan W.B. Yeats
The Art of Losing Elizabeth Bishop
My Last Duchess Robert Browning
Harlot's House Oscar Wilde
Darkling Thrush Thomas Hardy
Aunt Jennifer's Tigers Adrienne Rich
Patricia Whiting
The Second Coming W.B. Yeats
Easter 1916 W.B. Yeats
Under Ben Bulben W.B. Yeats
The Waste Land T.S. Eliot
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock T.S. Eliot
Digging Seamus Heaney
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird Wallace Stevens
A Book Full of Pictures Charles Simic
The Windhover Gerard Manley Hopkins
No Man Is an Island John Donne
Meryl
Sestina Elizabeth Bishop:
note, passed to superman Lucille Clifton
My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun— Emily Dickinson
Rant Diane di Prima
Fragment Thirty-six H.D
The Arrival of the Bee Box Sylvia Plath
Diving into the Wreck Adrienne Rich
Not Waving, but Drowning Stevie Smith
In Praise of My Sister Wislawa Szymborska
We Shall Not Escape Hell Marina Tsvetaeva
Don Burns
The Second Coming W. B. Yeats
After a Journey Thomas Hardy
Ithaca C. P. Cavafy
Deception Island W. S. Merwin
The Laughing Thrush W. S. Merwin
The Lost Land Eavan Boland
Any and all by Matsuo Basho
The Gift Li-Young Lee
Poetry Reading Anna Swir
Sonnet 116 (Let me not...) Shakespeare