The Quest to Find Perfect Poems

In conjunction with my Quest to Find the Perfect Short Stories, I’ve decided to find the perfect poets. Whenever a read a poem that I love, I add the poet’s name to this “to study” list. This list includes both “to be read” and my “recently read,” with links to any reviews on Rebecca Reads. If the author is the link, that means I read a representation of their poetry. If I read just one poem or one collection, I link to that.

NOTE: This list will not be updated. Click on the “Poetry” category to see all poetry I’ve dicussed on this site.

Have I missed your favorite poet? Please tell me, and I’ll add him or her to the list.

A ^ indicates the poet has a book in the Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets series (my dream poetry collection, I think!). A * indicates that the poet’s works are on the HTR&W list.

  • Achebe, Chinua
  • Akhmatova, Anna^
  • Atwood, Margaret The Door
  • Auden, W.H.^
  • Baudelaire, Charles^
  • Berry, Wendell
  • Betjeman, John
  • Bishop, Morris
  • Blake, William^*
  • Bridges, Robert
  • Brontë, Emily*^
  • Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
  • Browning, Robert*^
  • Burns, Robert^
  • Byron, George G. Lord^
  • Care, John
  • Carroll, Lewis Poetry for Young People
  • Chesterton, G.K.
  • Coleridge, Samuel Taylor*^
  • Collins, Billy Sailing Alone Around the Room
  • Cullen, Countee
  • Davis, Dick
  • Day-Lewis, Cecil
  • de la Mare, Walter
  • Dickinson, Emily*^
  • Donne, John^
  • Eliot, T.S.^
  • Emerson, Ralph Waldo^
  • Field, Eugene
  • Fitzgerald, Robert
  • Frost, Robert^
  • Graves, Robert
  • Hall, Donald
  • Hardy, Thomas^
  • Hass, Robert
  • Heath-Stubbs, John
  • Hecht, Anthony
  • Herbert, George^
  • Herrick, Robert
  • Hill, Geoffrey
  • Homer The Iliad; The Odyssey
  • Hopkins, Gerard Manley^
  • Hopkins, John Henry
  • Housman, A.E.*
  • Hudgins, Andrew Babylon in a Jar
  • Hughes, Langston^
  • Jennings, Elizabeth
  • Jonson, Ben
  • Keats, John*^
  • Kipling, Rudyard^
  • Landor, Walter Savage*
  • Larkin, Pjilip
  • Lewis, Janet
  • Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
  • Lord, Audre
  • Lowell, Robert
  • Marvell, Andrew^
  • McClatchy, J.D.
  • McGinley, Phyllis
  • Merwin, W.S.
  • Milowz, Czelaw
  • Milton, John^*
  • Milne, A.A. When We Were Very Young; Now We Are Six
  • Mohr, Joseph
  • Moore, Clement
  • Morris, John N.
  • Morris, William
  • Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus^
  • Nash, Ogden
  • Neale, J.M.
  • Neruda, Pablo Twenty Love Songs and a Song of Despair
  • Nims, John Frederick
  • Paman, Clement
  • Parker, Dorothy
  • Plath, Sylvia^
  • Poe, Edgar Allan^
  • Pushkin, Alexander^
  • Rilke, Rainer Maria^
  • Rimbaud, Arthur^
  • Robinson, Edwin Arlington^
  • Rossetti, Christina^
  • Sandburg, Carl Chicago Poems
  • Schnackenberg,Gjertrud
  • Scott, Sir Walter
  • Sears, Edmund Hamilton
  • Shakespeare, William^* Poetry for Young People
  • Shelley, Percy Bysshe^*
  • Smart, Christopher
  • Smith, Stevie
  • Southwell, Robert
  • Staff, Leopold
  • Stevens, Wallace^
  • Stevenson, Robert Louis Poetry for Young People
  • Suckling, Sir John
  • Tate, Allen
  • Tennyson, Alfred Lord^*
  • Thackery, William Makepeace
  • Tsvetaeva, Marina
  • Van Duyn, Mona
  • Vaughan, Henry
  • Watts, Isaac Divine Songs
  • Whitman, Walt^*
  • Wilbur, Richard
  • Williams, William Carlos
  • Wordsworth, William^*
  • Wylie, Elinor
  • Yeats, William Butler