1. Jacopo Sannazaro (1458)

Poet

Naples-born poet and humanist best known for a late fifteenth-century pastoral masterpiece entitled Arcadia. His other works include De Morte Christi Lamentatio and Salices.

2. Nostradamus (1503)

Poet

French poet, apothecary, and self-proclaimed prophet who began publishing his predictions in 1555. His quatrains, whether truly prophetic or misinterpreted to be so, have attained a cult following through the...

3. Philip Sidney (1554)

Poet

Prominent English poet of the Elizabethan era who is most remembered for a pastoral romance entitled The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia.

4. John Donne (1572)

Poet

English metaphysical poet who is remembered for such works as Pseudo-Martyr, An Anatomy of the World, and Devotions upon Emergent Occasions. His most famous individual poems include "A Valediction: Forbidding...

5. Austin Clarke (1896)

Poet

Irish poet and author best known for incorporating Gaelic poetic devices into English-language poetry. His poetic works include Ancient Lights, Tiresias, and Mnemosyne Lay in Dust.

6. Janos Batsanyi (1763)

Poet

Hungarian poet who is remembered for a 1785 patriotic poem entitled "The Valour of the Magyars." He also edited a political publication known as the Magyar Museum.

7. Anne Bradstreet (1612)

Poet

Poet known for Before the Birth of One of Her Children, To My Dear and Loving Husband, and other domestic-themed works. Although many of her works are positive and optimistic,...

8. John Milton (1608)

Poet

English poet who published his blank verse masterpiece, Paradise Lost, in 1667. His other works include Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes, and Animadversions.

9. Phillis Wheatley (1753)

Poet

Credited as the first African American woman to be published, she became famous for her 1773 poetry collection, "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral."

10. Katherine Philips (1632)

Poet

Seventeenth-century English-Welsh author who was most famous during her lifetime for her poetic works. She was also a translator of the work of Pierre Corneille.

11. Nicholas Rowe (1674)

Poet

British poet, playwright, and author known for Ode for the New Year MDCCXVI and The Ambitious Stepmother. His other works include The Fair Penitent and The Biter.

12. Kristijonas Donelaitis (1714)

Poet

Prussian-born Lithuanian poet and cleric who famously wrote a poem entitled "Metai" ("The Seasons"). The poem, which focuses on peasant life in Lithuania, became a classic of Lithuanian literature.

13. Mary Robinson (1757)

Poet

British poet, playwright, novelist, and actress of the eighteenth century. Her published works include London's Summer Morning (poems), The False Friend: A Domestic Story (novel), and Nobody: A Comedy in...

14. Kobayashi Issa (1763)

Poet

Japanese poet and artist best known for his haiku poems and his accompanying drawings. Known simply as "Issa," he is considered one of the four greatest haiku poets in Japanese...

15. Antanas Strazdas (1970)

Poet

Lithuanian priest, poet, and hymn writer. He published two literary works during his lifetime: Ode to Riga and Secular and Holy Songs.

16. Robert Garioch (1970)

Poet

Twentieth-century Scots-language poet and translator. His works include Two Men and a Blanket and such poems as "The Big Music" and "The Wire."

17. Samuel Woodworth (1970)

Poet

An American author, literary journalist, opera librettist, playwright, and poet, he is particularly known for his poem, "The Old Oaken Bucket," which was set to music by George F. Kiallmark....

18. John Neal (1793)

Poet

Multi-talented author and critic who also worked as a political activist, architect, boxer, and lawyer. His published works include The Down-Easters, Battle of Niagara, and Errata.

19. James Henry (1798)

Poet

Nineteenth-century Irish poet and classical scholar whose poems were published posthumously in the New Oxford Book of Victorian Verse and in the Penguin Book of Victorian Verse. During his lifetime,...

20. Francois-Xavier Garneau (1970)

Poet

French-Canadian author, poet, and historian who published his three-volume work, Histoire du Canada, in the 1840s.

21. Juliusz Slowacki (1809)

Poet

Polish Romantic dramatist and poet known for Kordian, Beniowski, and other works. Over the course of his career, he wrote more than two hundred poetic works and twenty-five plays.

22. Edward Fitzgerald (1809)

Poet

A nineteenth-century British author and poet, he is best known for his English translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. He also famously published the Oxford Book of English Verse.

23. Giuseppe Giusti (1809)

Poet

Nineteenth-century Italian poet known for a satirical poem entitled "Gingillino." Author Susan Horner published The Tuscan Poet Giuseppe Giusti and His Times, an 1864 biography of the poet.

24. Sandor Petofi (1823)

Poet

Hungarian writer who was considered Hungary's national poet and an important figure during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.

25. Vasile Alecsandri (1821)

Poet

Diplomat and poet who championed Romanian cultural identity in his poem "Romania's Awakening". He supported the union of Moldavia and Wallachia, which he wrote about in his poem "Hora Unirii".

26. Helen Hunt Jackson (1830)

Poet

A nineteenth-century American poet, novelist, and historian, she is known for works such as A Century of Dishonor, Ramona, and Glimpses of California. Her works often discuss government mismanagement and...

27. Amanda Gorman (1998)

Poet

Poet whose material has focused on subjects ranging from feminism to African culture. She gained significant attention after reading her poem "The Hill We Climb" at the January 2021 inauguration of...

28. Tom Foolery (1994)

Poet

Poet and video creator who uses his probablytomfoolery Instagram account to share his work, causes that he supports, information about poets, historical traditions, and his pop culture interests. His wide array...

29. Grigor Parlichev (1830)

Poet

A Bulgarian-born writer who contributed greatly to the literature and language of modern Macedonia, he is known for such poems as "O Armatolos" and "Skenderbeg." Another noteworthy accomplishment was his...

30. Benjamin Paul Blood (1970)

Poet

New York-born poet and philosopher known for Bride of the Iconoclast, The Colonnades, and Justice, among other works. His last literary work, Pluriverse, was published after his death.

31. José Rosas Moreno (1838)

Poet

Mexican poet of minor tone who wrote fables of the 19th century and is considered the best Mexican fabulist for his works like El Ratoncillo Ignorante.

32. Mihkel Veske (1970)

Poet

Estonian poet who published his major works during the second half of the nineteenth century. His poetry collections include Dr. Veske Laulud and Mihkel Veske Laulud.

33. Hugh Antoine d'Arcy (1970)

Poet

French-born poet known for an 1887 work entitled "The Face Upon the Floor." The poem inspired both a film and a popular country western song.

34. Lydia Koidula (1843)

Poet

Nineteenth-century Estonian poet and playwright who was nicknamed "Koidulaulik" ("Singer of the Dawn"). Her notable literary works include Emajoe Oobik, Vainulilled, and Saaremaa Onupoeg.

35. Ivan Vazov (1850)

Poet

Bulgarian poet, playwright, and novelist whose best-known works include Under the Yoke and Songs of Macedonia. His most famous work, Epic of the Forgotten, deals with the aftermath of the...

36. George Moore (1852)

Poet

Remembered for such influential modernist works as Esther Waters and Confessions of a Young Man, this Irish fiction writer, poet, and memoirist was associated with the Celtic Revival and infused...

37. Martin Lipp (1854)

Poet

His best-known poem, "The Estonian Flag," was turned into a popular Estonian anthem.

38. Georges Rodenbach (1970)

Poet

Symbolist poet and author known for his 1892 work Bruges-la-Morte. His other notable publications include La Vocation and Le Carillonneur.

39. Edgar Saltus (1970)

Poet

An American writer of such philosophical works as The Philosophy of Disenchantment and The Anatomy of Negation, he is remembered for his refined literary style. His other works include Love...

40. Vojislav Ilic (1860)

Poet

Important Serbian poet who is remembered for Pesme and other nineteenth-century works. Two volumes of his Collected Works were published posthumously in 1907 and 1909.

41. Stuart Merrill (1970)

Poet

American-born symbolist poet who wrote in the French language and became known for Petits Poemes d'Automne, Les Fastes, and other works.

42. Rudolfs Blaumanis (1863)

Poet

A master of Latvian realism, he is known for his plays, poems, and translations, as well as for his journalistic work. He published his debut work in the German language;...

43. George Sterling (1970)

Poet

American poet and dramatist best known for his poem "A Wine of Wizardry." He was a key figure in the northern Californian literary scene of the early twentieth century.

44. Masaoka Shiki (1867)

Poet

Japanese poet, author, and critic who is best known for his haiku poetry. He also wrote numerous critical essays on the subject of Japanese tanka poetry.

45. Charles Peguy (1970)

Poet

French socialist poet, editor, playwright, and essayist known for Jeanne d'Arc, Eve, De la Raison, and other works. His complete poetic works were published (posthumously) in 1941; his prose works...

46. Avetik Isahakyan (1875)

Poet

Armenian poet, activist, and writer known for his articles on the Armenian Genocide and for his superb lyric poetry. His best-known works include The Songs of Haiduks, To my Motherland,...

47. Robert Frost (1874)

Poet

Major American poet who is known for such famous works as "The Road Not Taken," "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," and "Birches." Over the course of his career,...

48. Gordon Bottomley (1874)

Poet

British poet known for such collections as Chambers of Imagery and A Vision of Giorgione. Also a verse dramatist, he wrote The Crier by Night, Britain's Daughter, and many other...

49. Ernst Enno (1970)

Poet

Estonian poet who rose to prominence in the early years of the twentieth century. His poetic works include Hallid laulud and Vaike luuleraamat; he also published a 1957 children's book.

50. Oscar Milosz (1970)

Poet

French-Lithuanian poet who represented Lithuania at the League of Nations. His literary works include Les Arcanes (poems), L'Amoureuse Initiation (novel), and Contes et Fabliaux de la vieille Lithuanie (Lithuanian folk...