# Top 20th Century Poets **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 29, 2007, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-20th-century-poets/413552 "2007-07-29T01:43:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Humble\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/47e85d/32.png) [@Humble\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humble_Servant)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-20th-century-poets/413552/1 "2007-07-29T01:43:01Z")
Well, the century’s over so we can choose. Some possibilities: Eliot Pound Cummings Frost Yeats Ginsberg Wiliams Plath Heaney Sandburg Housman Auden Nash Parker Seuss Neruda Lorca Who deserves to be ranked? Who’s overrated? Quote something to support your answer. Mine–Eliot. He seems to be unfashionable right now, but Prufrock, the Waste Land and 4 Quartets weigh heavily. No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; Am an attendant lord, one that will do To swell a progress, start a scene or two, Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool, Deferential, glad to be of use, Politic, cautious, and meticulous; Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse; At times, indeed, almost ridiculous– Almost, at times, the Fool. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-20th-century-poets/413552/2 "2007-07-29T01:59:52Z")
I’d go with Williams, with cummings a close second. Williams made simplicity a virtue, and cummings did some amazing stuff with form and language. If you’re going to mention Seuss, you should also include Ogden Nash, one of the century’s best humorous poets; Nash was more of an innovator (created a form of verse that no one has ever dared duplicate: the mixture of long and short lines. Eliot, meh. Proofrock is good, but he and Pound were too filled with ivory tower pretentiousness. ` ---
**Author:** ![Humble\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/47e85d/32.png) [@Humble\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humble_Servant)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-20th-century-poets/413552/3 "2007-07-29T02:10:27Z")
[QUOTE=Humble Servant] Nash Parker Seuss [/QUOTE] Yep, Nash! The simplicity of really short stuff can be compelling and is very difficult. Nonetheless, I prefer Eliot over Williams because it has more stuff in it. True, some of the stuff Italian and knowingly highbrow, but I still like it on the meaty side. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-20th-century-poets/413552/4 "2007-07-29T02:35:48Z")
Frost gets high marks if you value accessibility and traditionalism, not so much if you want an innovator who moved the art of poetry forward. Still, he’s widely appreciated, a master at _some_ of the things a great poet does, and there’s more to him than at first meets the eye. [QUOTE=Robert Frost] They cannot scare me with their empty spaces Between stars—on stars where no human race is. I have it in me so much nearer home To scare myself with my own desert places. [/QUOTE] He doesn’t belong at the top of the list, but I have to give a shout-out to hometown boy Vachel Lindsay. [QUOTE=Vachel Lindsay] Let not young souls be smothered out before They do quaint deeds and fully flaunt their pride. It is the world’s one crime its babes grow dull, Its poor are ox-like, limp and leaden-eyed. Not that they starve, but starve so dreamlessly, Not that they sow, but that they seldom reap, Not that they serve, but have no gods to serve, Not that they die, but that they die like sheep. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-20th-century-poets/413552/5 "2007-07-29T02:44:48Z")
No love for Dylan Thomas? ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-20th-century-poets/413552/6 "2007-07-29T04:06:06Z")
Aside from the obvious candiddates (Eliot, Auden, Frost, Thomas, etc.), who, by the way, reveal our parochialism (male, white, “western”), some consideration should be given to one Robert Zimmerman. I put his name forward only partly tongue-in-cheek. If nothing else, his audience dwarfs that of the other contenders. And, as a result, his influence may be greater, too. “Even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked!” ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-20th-century-poets/413552/7 "2007-07-29T04:26:43Z")
My vote is for Charles Bukowski. The most interesting life among the poet’s named so far, too. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-20th-century-poets/413552/8 "2007-07-29T04:38:04Z")
[Philip Larkin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Larkin) They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you. [James Dickey](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Dickey) And I to my motorcycle Parked like the soul of the junkyard Restored, a bicycle fleshed With power, and tore off Up Highway 106 continually Drunk on the wind in my mouth Wringing the handlebar for speed Wild to be wreckage forever ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-20th-century-poets/413552/9 "2007-07-29T04:38:25Z")
[QUOTE=Thudlow Boink] He doesn’t belong at the top of the list, but I have to give a shout-out to hometown boy Vachel Lindsay. [/QUOTE] Who you can’t really bring up without mentioning Sara Teasdale. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-20th-century-poets/413552/10 "2007-07-29T04:39:14Z")
Wallace Stevens ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-20th-century-poets/413552/11 "2007-07-29T04:43:15Z")
[QUOTE=RickJay] No love for Dylan Thomas? [/QUOTE] I second that and put Wilfred Owen into the arena as well. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-20th-century-poets/413552/12 "2007-07-29T05:12:24Z")
[James Wright](http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s_z/j_wright/j_wright.htm) _Last night I paused at the edge of darkness, And slept with green dew, alone. I have come a long way, to surrender my shadow To the shadow of a horse._ From [Sitting in a Small Screenhouse on a Summer Morning](http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/programs/2001/03/26/index.html) [scroll about a third of the way down] ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-20th-century-poets/413552/13 "2007-07-29T18:31:46Z")
I’m quite partial to Eliot… But I’ll have to say I rate Stevens highest: _I do not know which to prefer, The beauty of inflections Or the beauty of innuendoes, The blackbird whistling Or just after._ ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-20th-century-poets/413552/14 "2007-07-29T19:36:29Z")
[QUOTE=MrDibble] But I’ll have to say I rate Stevens highest [/QUOTE] Cat, or Ray? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-20th-century-poets/413552/15 "2007-07-29T21:39:24Z")
On my all-underrated team is [Byron Herbert Reece](http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2464). A sample: \*As I met early A gray old man, I with nearly All life to span, And he but a candle This side of dusk, His sage’s mantle Seemed suddenly husk\* ---
**Author:** ![Humble\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/47e85d/32.png) [@Humble\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humble_Servant)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-20th-century-poets/413552/16 "2007-07-30T15:09:27Z")
I like that Frost you quoted, **Thudlow**. This turned out to be harder than I expected–I thought there might be a concensus top 5-10, but on reflection that probably won’t work because of all the arts poetry should not be judged on what is most “influential.” Also, the OP doesn’t come from a list someone has done, so it is certainly incomplete even with respect to what might be “obvious” candidates. ---
**Author:** ![rayh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@rayh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rayh)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-20th-century-poets/413552/17 "2007-07-30T16:51:41Z")
[Brian Patten](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Patten) _You lose your love for her and then it is her who is lost. You tried not to hurt and yet Everything you touched became a wound. You tried to mend what cannot be mended, You tried, neither foolish nor clumsy, To rescue what cannot be rescued._ [Roger McGough](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_McGough) _And the railings. All around, the railings. Are they to keep out wolves and monsters? Things that carry off and eat children? Things you don’t take sweets from? Perhaps they’re to stop us getting out Running away from the lessins. Lessin. What does a lessin look like? Sounds small and slimy. They keep them in the glassrooms. Whole rooms made out of glass. Imagine._ [Adrian Henri](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Henri) _Girls in bikinis are moonbathing Folksongs are being sung by real folk Art galleries are closed to people over 21 Poets get their poems in the Top 20 There’s jobs for everybody and nobody wants them In back alleys everywhere teenage lovers are kissing in broad daylight In forgotten graveyards everywhere the dead will quietly bury the living and You will tell me you love me Tonight at noon_ [Adrian Mitchell](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Mitchell) \*For if Jesus came to Britain He would turn its dizzy head. They’d nail him up on a telegraph pole Or he’d raise the poor from the dead. So if you have a little baby Make sure it’s a legitimate child, Bind down his limbs with insurance and a mortgage And he’ll grow up meek and mild. Meek and mild…, meek and mild…, meek and mild.\* [Stevie Smith](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevie_Smith) _Oh, no no no, it was too cold always (Still the dead one lay moaning) I was much too far out all my life And not waving but drowning._ ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-20th-century-poets/413552/18 "2007-07-30T17:00:55Z")
[QUOTE=Bricker] Wallace Stevens [/QUOTE] Bricker beat me to it. Maybe not in the #1 position (I still adore cummings), but easily in my Top 5. ---
**Author:** ![Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Key_Lime_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-20th-century-poets/413552/19 "2007-07-30T17:28:25Z")
I want to think about it some more, but here are some names that should be added to the mix, IMO: Langston Hughes Anna Akhmatova Czesław Miłosz Raymond Carver