Famous Poets - List of Famous Poets - page 18

What do William Wordsworth, Charles Wright and W. B. Yeats have in common? The answer is that they were all world famous poets whose poems are still studied as a part of literature. Poets have often been described as people who step outside the bounds of the obvious and produce aesthetic and, in some cases, even rhythmic works that are meant to take the reader on a fanciful journey through the poet’s words. Poems have been a part of literature forever and it is believed that the earliest poems evolved from folk songs. A poem usually has certain characters that define it, some of which are things like the rhyme scheme, symbolism, rhetoric, rhythm and even irony. This form of literature has also been used to tell stories, the best example of which the two poems Iliad and The Odyssey, written by Homer, are the best examples. Having familiarized ourselves with poems, it’s only natural that we move onto better acquainting ourselves with the people who wrote them. To that end, what follows now is a collection of the biographies of some of the most famous poets. They include their timelines, information about their professional and personal lives along with interesting facts and trivia about them.

The Most Famous Poets

NameBirthdayNationalityBio
Charles BukowskiAugust 16, 1920German, AmericanCharles Bukowski was a German-born American novelist, short story writer and poet
Abdolkarim SoroushDecember 16, 1945IranianAbdolkarim Soroush is a reformer, thinker, and Rumi scholar belonging to Iran
Sarojini NaiduFebruary 13, 1879IndianSarojini Naidu was an Indian freedom fighter and poet
Aleister CrowleyOctober 12, 1875BritishAleister Crowley was an occultist and ceremonial magician who founded the ethical philosophy of Thelema
Derek WalcottJanuary 23, 1930Saint LucianDerek Walcott is a West Indian poet and playwright, who won the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature
Amir Khusrow1253IndianAmir Khusro was a Sufi musician, poet and scholar regarded as the "father of Qawwali"
Ahlam MosteghanemiApril 13, 1953AlgerianAhlam Mosteghanemi is a contemporary Algerian poet and novelist
Aeschylus525 BCGreekAeschylus was an eminent Greek tragedian
John DonneJanuary 22, 1572BritishJohn Donne was a famous English poet, satirist, lawyer and priest of his time
Nizar QabbaniMarch 21, 1923SyrianNizar Qabbani was a poet, and is one among the most honoured men in the Arab Literary world
Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman was an American poet, journalist and humanist

AmericanMay 31, 1819258 views

Francesco Petrarch

Fêted as the “Father of Humanism”, Francesco Petrarch is one of the most influential literary figures the world has ever had

ItalianJuly 20, 1304290 views

Seamus Heaney

Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney was an Irish poet, playwright and translator

IrishApril 13, 1939310 views

Saul Williams

Saul Williams is an American poet, singer, actor and writer

AmericanFebruary 29, 1972225 views

W B Yeats

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright

IrishJune 13, 1865249 views

Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett was an Irish playwright, novelist, theatre director and poet

IrishApril 13, 1906269 views

Rupert Brooke

Rupert Brooke was an English poet who is widely known for his poem ‘The Soldier’, which was a part of five war sonnets

BritishAugust 3, 1887249 views

Robert W. Service

Robert William Service was a British-Canadian poet and writer of his time

CanadianJanuary 16, 187493 views

Matthew Arnold

Matthew Arnold was an English poet and literary critic of great repute

BritishDecember 24, 182280 views

Gwendolyn Brooks

Gwendolyn Brooks was the first African-American poet to win the Pulitzer Prize

AmericanJune 7, 1917304 views