Famous Poets from England and Around the World

These great poets are forever immortal in their works. Their thoughts and dreams and fears are forever impressed upon those who care to read their works.

In fact many famous poets have helped to shape the form of modern thought and have had huge cultural contributions not only in their life times but in today's society too.

Famous English Poets

William Shakespeare: was born in 1564. He was The Bard of Avon and at the same time a highly revered poet and playwright. In fact, he is considered to be the greatest English writer in the field of drama and literature. England hails him as its national poet, and the world is grateful for his literary contributions.

William Blake: More than just a poet, William Blake was also recognized as a painter as well as a mystic. He claimed that he was influenced by divine forces. Such radical views caused damage to his reputation at the time but after his death his talent become known far and wide. Perhaps his most famous prose was The Tiger.

Rudyard Kipling: born in 1865 and died in 1936. His father taught arts and crafts at a school of art in Bombay, India. At the time India was of course ruled by the British. "Ruddy" as he was often affectionately referred to, was actually brought up by a local woman in the service of his parents (called an ayah) and his first language was therefore Hindustani. Kipling received the Nobel Prize in 1907.

William Wordsworth: Known for immortal works such as "Lucy Gray", "Lyrical Ballads" and "Yarrow River". He is one of the most noted poet during the Romantic Age. And most known for breathing life into fictitious character such as "Lucy Gray" to aid him in his loneliness. The Bronte Sisters: the three Bronte sisters (Anne, Charlotte and Emily) from Haworth in Yorkshire are well known Victorian poets and novelists, like many contemporary female writers, they originally published their poems and novels under male pseudonyms. In recent years their works have been adapted into famous movies and television shows and they are considered some of the greatest writers of all time.

Other Famous Poets

This website is dedicated to the history of England but there were also many poets who were born and lived outside of England, e.g. in India, Ireland and the United States, who had a significant influence on poetry in the English speaking world.

William Butler Yeats: was born in the Irish city of Dublin during 1865 and died in 1939. He came from an Irish Protestant family. His early years were spend in London and later he also spent much time in Slingo, one of the most beautiful counties on the Irish West Coast. This area made an indelible impression on him and was later depicted in a number of his poems. He won the Nobel Price for Literature in 1923. A few of his works that will never be forgotten by lovers of poetry include "Brown Penny", "He wishes for the cloths of Heaven", "The Second Coming" and "September 1913".

Rabindranath Tagore: must be the greatest writer modern India has so far produced. He was a Bengali poet and novelist who won the Nobel Prize in 1913. He was also awarded a British knighthood in 1915, but during 1919 he surrendered this again as a form of protest against the massacre that took place at Amritsar where British troops killed more than 400 Indian protestors who held a demonstration against colonial rule.

Edgar Allan Poe: was born on January nineteenth in 1809 in Boston Massachusetts. He was a poet as well as a writer, editor, and literary critic. At a very young age, he became an orphan. When he grew older, he attended the University of Virginia, but did not finish due to financial issues. His work mainly focused on macabre and mystery as subjects and themes. He wrote short stories that were fictional and early in his career, he went by an anonymous name called the Bostonian. Of his collection of poems, The Raven is his most famous and recognized work.

Walter Whitman: was born May thirty first in 1819 in Long Island. He wrote essays, books, and journals in addition to poetry. He also worked as a government clerk, teacher, and volunteer nurse for the American army during the Civil War. He was known for the unusual symbolism in his poetry and also for being controversial since some of his poems dealt with sexuality.

Emily Dickinson: was born December 10th in 1830 in Amherst Massachusetts. Her poems had many subjects, such as immorality and death. She wrote almost eighteen hundred poems but in her lifetime, less than twelve were ever published. The rest were published after her death when her sister discovered them.

Robert Frost: was born on March twenty sixth in 1874 in San Francisco California. His work involved realistic accounts of rural life. Before becoming a poet, he attended Harvard and worked as a farmer and an English teacher. The first poem he got published was called My Butterfly: An Elegy. In his lifetime, he received four Pulitzer Prizes for his poetic works.

Oscar Wilde: was born in 1854 in Ireland. He was a celebrity in London during the Victorian era and considered to be one of the literary geniuses of his time. His sharp wit was made known in his works that included poems such as The Sphinx and The Ballad of Reading Gaol.