Gretaest poets 20th century in English

[desiresjab]

For all reasons, who are the 10 greatest 20th century poets of the English language.

1 Yeats
2 Auden
3 Elliot
4 Frost
5 Stevens
6 Dylan Thomas
7 Larkin
8 Roethke
9 Robert Lowell
10 D. H. Lawrence

[sandy14]

Ten is a rather arbitrary number. However, for argument's sake I think much as I like Larkin's work, I wouldn't put him in the top ten. He did not write a huge amount, and didn't change much in poetry.

I'd argue that Heaney should probably be somewhere in the top ten as he is widely read and his use of language is good. Perhaps swap Heaney for Larkin?

Robert Lowell or Walter Carlos Williams? My money is on Williams.

In addition - an American poet from the Beat era - Ginsberg or O'Hara perhaps.

Then there's the concrete poetry movement out of which new forms of poetry developed - Tom Raworth, Bob Cobbing, or perhaps Christopher Logue, but I'm sure someone could come up with a better suggestion.

It's an interesting question - how can you come up with a top ten over a century with so many different movements? Do you give a nod to someone who started something new, or do you go for something else?

[MorpheusSandman]

I'm going to go with a purely personal list this time:

1. James Merrill
2. WB Yeats
3. Wallace Stevens
4. WH Auden
5. Geoffrey Hill
6. John Ashbery
7. Seamus Heaney
8. Philip Larkin
9. Hart Crane
10. Robert Frost

[Lokasenna]

I'd find it quite difficult to make a top ten list, but suffice it to say that Auden would probably be at the top, with Yeats a close second (if you can really think of Yeats as a 20th century poet...). Eliot, Thomas and Crane would also feature quite high up there.

[desiresjab]

I never did see much in Williams that interested me, Sandman (I mean Sandy), I must admit. He is a poet who hit singles and an occasional double. Even with his small output, I think Larkin hit some homeruns.

I considered Ginsberg strongly and I still think he could go on the list in spite of my personal dislike.

[desiresjab]

I'm going to go with a purely personal list this time:

Merrillboro man.

[MorpheusSandman]

Merrill is, in a lot of ways, my ideal poet. Most others I can look at and say "yeah, they were great at this, but I wish they'd done that." Yeats, eg, never wrote an epic, or even any long poems of significance. We've discussed Stevens's narrowness before. As great as Auden is, I'm not sure if any of his major works are completely successful, and he did have a few deficiencies (never was much of an imagist, and his post-30s work tended to avoid emotion more and more). I can't say such things about Merrill. I think he wrote nearly flawless masterpieces in every style/mode he attempted, and he attempted a lot (maybe not quite as many as Auden), and whatever the flaws of Sandover I think its originality, ambition, and numerous sublime moments make up for it. If there's one flaw I can point to it's that, compared to the above poets, Merrill was not much of a thinker/philosophizer. Yet, even if there's not the overt grappling with philosophical themes as in the others, I don't find his work shallow in the slightest.

[Majesty]

This is the first time i have ever seen someone put dylan thomas and d.h lawrence in a top ten list.If you are really talking about for all reasons then the two will surely not be part of it.Larkin wrote too little as well.By elliot did you mean t.s eliot?

[desiresjab]

All lists are tentative. I am always willing to move people around or take them off entirely.


By elliot did you mean t.s eliot?

Sylvester Elliot, one of the better unknown poets and a cousin of R.H. Yates.

[Poetaster]

This will show my awful taste in modern poetry, but:

1 Yeats
2 Larkin
3 Elliot
4 Heaney
5 Auden
6 Frost
7 Robert Graves
8 Ted Hughs
9 Czelaw Milosz
10 Robert Fagles - sorry, for his translations of the Greek and Roman classics, I have to include him.

[desiresjab]

Yeats, Auden and Frost seem to make almost every list. I used Larkin, too. I almost put Graves down. To Juan At The Winter Solstice is one of my favorites. Excuse me. Right now I have to go get trounced in another thread.

[WICKES]

Larkin was the finest poet writing in English in the last 40 years of the 20th century.

[desiresjab]

Larkin was the finest poet writing in English in the last 40 years of the 20th century.

I believe one could make a plausible argument for that. He did not write much, by average standards, and he did not write any long poems, but he wrote homeruns. The repressed freak had a magic touch with words.

[MorpheusSandman]

Larkin was the finest poet writing in English in the last 40 years of the 20th century.No. I really like Larkin, but Merrill, Heaney, Ashbery, and Hill are significantly better. More imaginative, more diverse, more technically accomplished, more intellectually substantial, more original, more everything, really. What Larkin really has going for him is accessibility; he may have been the last significant poet to write in a manner that even non-poetry lovers could like and understand. But to achieve that accessibility required a real paring down of his range, technique, and modes of expression. I WILL say I think he wrote the best poem on death of the 20th century in Aubade: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178058

[JBI]

Hardy, if we can count him 20th century, would be on my list. Then again, so would a whole bunch of strange choices. The biggest figure for me though would be Yeats, as a sort of summary of the achievement until then and an introduction of what was to come. Frost would also make my list.

[MorpheusSandman]

Then again, so would a whole bunch of strange choices.Would love to hear them.

I think most agree that Yeats is a towering figure in with 20th century poetry. I have no problem with anyone placing him first, and were it not for my (apparently idiosyncratic) love for Merrill, I'd have him first as well. My biggest bug with Yeats is that he never wrote any significant poetry of length, even compared to Stevens (whose longest pieces are only a few hundred lines). It's especially a shame when his A Vision is such prime poetry material.

[sandy14]

I believe one could make a plausible argument for that. He did not write much, by average standards, and he did not write any long poems, but he wrote homeruns. The repressed freak had a magic touch with words.

I disagree - and that's not because I dislike Larkin's work.

If you take a look at Thomas Hardy's poems and Larkin's you'll find that a number of Larkin's works seem to be modern versions of Hardy. For example both have poems about County Fairs - Larkin cites Hardy as an influence and seems to have used Hardy as a template for some of his poems.

Also, Larkin had several women on the go at once. In public he may well appear to be the repressed and slightly depressed poet from Hull, but I get the impression that his private life was somewhat different. There again Larkin wouldn't be the first to say one thing and do something else altogether. His published letters to Monica (as well as the accounts of his girlfriends suggest that he was a great host and really enjoyed parties).

[Pierre Menard]

Hardy, if we can count him 20th century, would be on my list. Then again, so would a whole bunch of strange choices. The biggest figure for me though would be Yeats, as a sort of summary of the achievement until then and an introduction of what was to come. Frost would also make my list.


I'm with you on loving Hardy. A fantastic poet!

[Maximus2]

Here are my few 20th century poets:


Yeats
Pound
Olson
Zukofsky
Ronald Johnson
Wallace Stevens
Robert Duncan


No list, order, etc.

[desiresjab]

Pound is receiving some very high ratings. I always thought of him as a seminal figure in 20th century poetry mainly because of his critical and eclectic influence, and as a poet who had a few isolated moments of brilliance. Maybe I was wrong. I don't know yet.

[Ginia]

No-one has listed a single woman. Seriously? Might want to reexamine the "20th Century" using less blurry glasses.

[Fantods1]

After a few minutes of thought:

Pound
Wallace Stevens
Kenneth Koch
James Tate
T.S Eliot