Wallace Stevens is an excellent suggestion, much of his poetry has philosophical leanings. Walt Whitman is pretty good too.
If you're looking for something more modern you might want to check out the poetry of Louise Gluck or Mark Strand or perhaps even Ted Hughes would be excellent poets to try out.
With older poetry, John Donne, as has already been suggested, would be a good choice. Go for his later poetry - in his early years he was obsessed with women, his later poetry is obsessed with death. Makes for an interesting read!
For political poetry, I suppose you could try Alan Ginsberg or Adrian Mitchell or any of the Beat poets. For a more modern twist try Simon Armitage.
Good luck with your search.
Reply With Quote
