I have been craving some very good poetry, but I don’t know where to start - I usually stumble upon good verse by accident. Please, can anyone recommend some good poets/ poems? It would be greatly appreciated.
I love the work of William Butler Yeats. But it’s hard to recommend poetry without having any idea of your taste in such things. If you could give an example of a few poems that you’ve enjoyed, we can probably give more apt suggestions.
My favorite poet is Charles Bukowski, but I’d hardly call him “great literature.” He’s very much a “poet for guys,” a dirty old man, a hard liver, someone who would appeal to a fan of the Beat writers or Tom Waits. I highly recommend his poetry compilations *Love Is a Dog From Hell * and Mockingbird Wish Me Luck.
One of my very favorites is Tennyson’s Ulysses
Right now I’m very fond of S.T. Coleridge (The Pains of Sleep probably my favorite) and Allan Ginsburg (A Supermarket in California my favorite of his).
Here is a terrific site for you to browse (by poet or poem).
Still, there is nothing better than this.
Many of Shakespeare’s sonnets are wonderful, as is much of Poe’s poetic work, but for completely different reasons.
Check out also Ray Bradbury and the Biblical book of Psalms. You may well be pleasantly surprised.
No poet has ever affected me as profoundly and repeatedly as Philip Larkin. To get started, try This Be the Verse.
Also read Aubade, Money, and the one that first made me a fan, Wants. Even his little trifles, like Why Did I Dream of You Last Night?, are perfectly constructed, without giving over to the self-conscious formalism that, for me, ruins much of poetry (and other arts for that matter).
Homer
Virgil
Dante
Well, sure, if you want to do this this easy way!
The only book of poetry on my shelf is a collection called Cruelty/Killing Floor by someone calling him/herself Ai. Some of it’s disturbing, but I rather enjoy it.
E.E. Cummings.
Not for everyone - most of the people in my social group (I’m at college) find his work too sappy, but dammit, it’s the good kind of sappy.
I’ve always had a thing for the Romantics. Keats especially, but also Blake and Coleridge, Byron and Shelly. Never did care for Wordsworth, though.
Some of the only good writting that has ever come out of Australia (I’m allowed to say that, I’m a writter from Australia). 
It can be very touching or very light hearted but never really serious.
I’m not sure if I’m allowed to do this but I can’t find one to link to. So here it is:
Things just seem to fall apart…
String bags full of oranges
And things within the heart
Calamities evaporate and memories depart
People laugh at anything
And things just fall apart.
For short easily approachable poems I loved James Fenton 's collection Out of Danger .
He does political subjects* and love poems which are easy to read and have a nice turn of phrase.
Some people may feel that his style is simplistic, songlike, but the best compliment I can give him is that I first read his work a decade ago and I can still enjoy it now.
*not the entire poem
My general recommendations:
A.E. Housman
John Donne
Thomas Campion
English and Scottish Balladry in general
American Balladry in general
Dylan Thomas
Poets:
William Carlos Williams
Ogden Nash
e.e. cummings
Don Marquis
Stevie Smith
Emily Dickinson
Poems:
William Carlos Williams, “This Is Just to Say” – just an amazing poem that says volumes in just a few lines
Louis Macneice “Bagpipe Music” – remarkable in the way it never quite rhymes.
Andrew Marvel “To His Coy Mistress” – a poem of seduction
Roger Mcgough “Goodbat Nightman” – a charming superhero tale
Don Marquis "the lesson of the moth" – Actually any of his archy and mehitabel poems are wonderful.
e. e. cummings "pity this busy monster, manunkind – On top of everything else, it’s a sonnet.
A. A. Milne “Disobedience” – One of the most infectious pieces of light verse ever written.
Anonymous “The Ballad of Eskimo Nell” – One of the greatest humorous poems ever written, and certainly the bawdiest. There isn’t a single verse that isn’t 100% X-Rated (not to mention chavinistic in the extreme), but if you can take it, you’ll grin for days (especially if you’re Canadian). To spare tender sensibilities, I won’t put a link, but google “Eskimo Nell” and you’ll find it.
I’ve always loved (Apart from Shakespeare)
Anne Sexton – Very dark, but with stark powerful imagery.
Sylvia Plaith – Not always dark. There is a classicism that runs through her work that I love. In addition, she balances her images and passions well.
T.S. Eliot – I’ve always loved the beauty of his images, the structure of his work.
e e cummings – innovative, daring, articulate, affecting; in almost every respect a brilliant poet.
Langston Hughes – featured unique and striking imagery with some powerful undercurrents of emotion. Plus, he figured out that Blues were poetry and let everyone else in on it.
Philip Larkin’s another fave. Also love his books of jazz reviews, altho I don’t always agree with his taste in jazz.
[sub]Everything about the relationship between men and women makes me angry…It might have been planned by the Army, or the Ministry of Food. -PL[/sub]
A good place to start is with the book “The Best Poems of the English Language : From Chaucer Through Frost” – by Harold Bloom.
Bloom is a great judge of good poetry, as well as a lot of other things. He’s written a lot of books, none of which you’d regret reading.