Essential Poems

Name the best poems conceived by the human race. Main Sources: https://www.poetryverse.com/foreign-poets https://www.poemhunter.com/

In no particular Order

I am going through these again on the criteria, I will be merging and doing more titles over time.

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Last updated: February 17, 2025

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First submitted	October 11, 2017
Times taken	105
Average score	1.3%
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30:45

I included a lot of English Poems but still a lot of Foreign ones

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Author	Poem
Henry Scott Holland	Death Is Nothing At All
Siegfried Sassoon	Idyll
Kobayashi Issa	The Snow is Melting
Kimiko Hahn	In Childhood
Yosa Buson	The Short Night
Matsuo Basho	The Dragonfly
Matsuo Basho	Collection of Six Haikus
Alexander Pushkin	Angel
	Invocation
	I Don't Deplore These Years
	Thoughts
Charles Baudelaire	A Woman Passing By
Charles Baudelaire	Meditation
Desanka Maksimovic	Bloody Fairy Tale
	Apprehension
	Joy
	Migratory Birds
Fedrico Garcia Lorca	Arbole, Arbole
Fedrico Garcia Lorca	Farewell
Gabriela Mistral	Song of Death
Gabriela Mistral	Death Sonnet
Hermann Hesse	At Night At the High Seas
	The Dream
	We Live as a Form
Jacques Prévert	Birdwatcher's Song
Maya Angelou	Phenomenal Woman
Jorge Luis Borges	A Wolf
	The Art of Poetry
	Suicide
	You Learn
Mir Taqi Mir	In My Own Way
Miraza Ghalib	An Open House
Miraza Ghalib	To be Human, Is no Easy Feat
Octavio Paz	Between Going and Staying
Octavio Paz	As One Listens to the Rain
Pablo Neruda	Always
	Don't Go Far Off
	XVII Sonnet of Love
Rabindranath Tagore	Freedom
	Waiting
	Paper Boats
	On the Nature of Love
	Let Me Not Forget
	Babys World
	Defamation
Rumi	A Moment of Hapiness
	Any Chance Meeting
	Beyond
	Come
	This Art
	The Guest House
William Shakespeare	Sonnet 18
	All the World's A stage
	Sonnet 59
	Sonnet 116
John Donne	Death be not Proud
John Donne	A Valediction Forbidding Mourning
Ben Jonson	Song to Celia
William Blake	Of Another's Sorrow
William Blake	The Human Abstract
William Wordsworth	Guilt and Sorrow
	She Dwelt among untrodden ways
	A slumber did my spirit seal
	I wandered lonley as a cloud
	Mutability
Samuel Taylor Coleridge	The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Samuel Taylor Coleridge	Frost at Midnight
Lord Bryon	When we two parted
Lord Bryon	So we'll go no more a roving
Percy Bysshe Shelly	Hymn to Intellectual Beauty
Percy Bysshe Shelly	Ozymandias
John Keats	Ode to a Grecian Urn
	La Belle Dame Sans Merci
	Sonnet: To Sleep
Clement Clark Moore	A Visit from St Nicholas
John Greenleaf Whittier	What the Birds Said
John Greenleaf Whittier	Telling the Bees
Langston Hughes	Remember
	Negro Speaks of Rivers
	The Weary Blues
	Let America Be America Again
	Harlem
Robert Frost	Fire and Ice
	The Road not Taken
	After Apple Picking
	Mending Wall
	Design
Dylan Thomas	Do Not go Gentle into that Good Night
Dylan Thomas	And Death Shall Have no Dominion
Ralph Waldo Emerson	Uriel
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow	Snow Flakes
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow	The Childrens Hour
Ted Kooser	A Birthday Poem
Edgar Allan Poe	The Raven
	Eldorado
	Annabel Lee
	A Dream Within a Dream
	The Conqueror Worm
Wallace Stevens	Dissalusionment of Ten o' Clock
	Thirteen Ways to look at a Blackbird
	The Snow Man
	Sunday Morning (Stanza 7)
Carl Sandburg	Cahoots
	The Harbor
	Harrison Street Court
Muhammad Allama Iqbal	Two Planets
Muhammad Allama Iqbal	The Cloud on the Mountain
Walt Whitman	O Captain! My Captain!
	When I heard the learn'd Astronomer
	Song of Myself 51
Sappho	To any army wife in Sardis
Sappho	Charaxos and Larichos
Emily Dickinson	I started early, took my dog
	Tell all the Truth but tell it slant
	A Bird, came down the walk
	Because I could not stop for Death
	I never lost as much but twice
	My life had stood a loaded gun
	After great pain a formal feeling comes
	Hope is the thing with feathers
Alfred, Lord Tennyson	The Kraken
Alfred, Lord Tennyson	Mariana
Henry Lawson	Unwritten Books
Henry Lawson	The Unknown God
Omar Khayyam	The Rubaiyat
Elizabeth Barret Browning	Sonnets from the Portuguese 43
Oliver Wendel Holmes	Old Ironsides
Oliver Wendel Holmes	The Voicless
Emily Bronte	Remembrance
Emily Bronte	Stanzas
Julia Ward Howe	My Last Dance
Herman Melville	The Conflict of Convictions (Stanzas 3-5)
Herman Melville	The Maldive Shark
Gerard Manley Hopkins	I wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
Edward Lear	The Jumblies
William Ernest Henley	Invictus
William Ernest Henley	Margaritae Sorori
Eugene Field	Our Two Opinions
Eugene Field	Little Boy Blue
Robert Louis Stevenson	Requiem
Ella Wheeler Wilcox	Interlude
Ella Wheeler Wilcox	You Never Can Tell
Ruyard Kipling	If
A. A Milne	When I was One
William Butler Yeats	The Lake Isle of Innisfree
	Easter, 1916
	The Second Coming
Thomas Hardy	Hap
Thomas Hardy	The Convergence of the Twain
A E Housman	When I was One and Twenty
Jon McCrae	In Flanders Field
Amy Lowell	Granadilla
	New Heavens for Old
	A Lady
Robert W Service	Carry on!
Edgar Lee Masters	George Gray
Edna St Vincent Millay	Renascence
William Carlos Williams	Complaint
William Carlos Williams	To Elise
E E Cummings	i carry your heart with me
Yu Qian	Limestone Chant
Agha Shahid Ali	Ghazal
Luo Binwang	Parting on the River Yi
Luo Binwang	Listening to the Cicadas in Prison
Rudaki	Shahids Caravan
Rudaki	Dear Heart
Kabir	Look at the Grinding Stones Dohas
Kabir	I said to the Wanting Creature Inside Me
Kamala Das	The Old Playhouse
Kamala Das	A Hot Noon in Malabar
Theophile Gautier	The Blind Man
Kahlil Gibran	God
	The Scarecrow
	The Blessed City
James Joyce	Tutto Sciolto
James Joyce	Night Piece
Brandy Nalani McDougall	He Mele Aloha no ka Niu
Craig Santos Perez	(First Trimester)
Judith Wright	Woman to Man
Dorothea Mackeller	The Dreamer
Dorothea Mackeller	Burning Off
Oodgeroo Noonuccal	Municipal Gum
W. S. Rendra	The Worlds First Face
Toeti Heraty	A Woman's Portrait 1938
Toeti Heraty	Two Women
Kim Hyesoon	Inside-Bird and Outside-Bird
Dongju Yun	Yet Another Home
Dongju Yun	A Poem I've Written Easily
Ho Xuan Huong	Confession III
Chiranan Pitpreecha	Night Ponderings
Dennis Brutus	"Bury the Great Duke"
Wole Soyinka	Civilian and Soldier
Wole Soyinka	In the Small Hours
Muhammad Shanazar	O! Death Stop
Muhammad Shanazar	A Deformed Angel
Okot P'Bitek	Cattle Egret
Warsan Shire	Backwards
Koleka Putuma	Black Joy
Jean Joseph Rabearivelo	Three Birds
Li Bai	The Solitude of Night
Gwendolyn Brooks	Boy Breaking Glass
Gwendolyn Brooks	The Children of the Poor
Laurence Binyon	For The Fallen
Mukoma Wa Ngugi	I Swear I See Skulls Coming
Paul Celan	Psalm
Kofi Awonoor	Had Death Not Had Me in Tears
JP Clark	The Casualties
Ovid	To His Mistress
Frederich Von Schiller	To a Moralist
Henrik Ibsen	Burnt Ships
Susan Kiguli	I Love Home
Mary Oliver	Wild Geese
Lisa Mueller	The Blind Leading the Blind
Lisa Mueller	Beginning with 1914
Edgar A Guest	See It Through
Edgar A Guest	Reward
Sara Teasdale	After Love
	The Broken Field
	Night Song at Amalifi
Joyce Kilmer	Trees
	Martin
	The Apartment House
T S Eliot	The Hollow Men
	Gerontion (Stanza 5)
	Cousin Nancy
Ezra Pound	Middle-Aged: A Study in Emotion
Ezra Pound	The Station of the Metro
*Apocryphal	John Henry
Cáozhí	Seven Steps Verse
Meng Haoran	Spring Morning
Min Nong/Li Shen	Pity Toiling Farmers
Li Shangyin	The Fine Evening
Cao Xueqin	Story of Stone
Philip Larkin	Aubade
Paula Gunn Allen	Taking a Visitor to See the Ruins
Anne Carson	Tango XIX
Tracy K Smith	The Universe as Primal Screaming
Natalie Diaz	These Hands, If Not Gods
Natasha Trethewey	Pilgramage
Ocean Vuong	Tell Me Something Good
Danez Smith	the bullet was a girl
Cathy Park Hong	Engines Within the Throne
Cathy Park Hong	Ontology of Chang and Eng
Patricia Lockwood	The Pinch
Patricia Lockwood	Rape Joke
Ross Gay	ode to the puritain in me
Ada Limon	Sharks in the Rivers
Ada Limon	The Conditional
Carl Philips	Civilization
Benjamin Zephaniah	Dis Poetry
Derek Walcott	A Far Cry From Africa
Spike Milligan	Have A Nice Day
Anne Sexton	Courage
Anne Sexton	After Auschwitz
Wilfred Owen	Dulce Et Decorum Est
Wilfred Owen	Disabled
Paul Laurence Dunbar	We Wear the Mask
Philis Wheatley	On Being Brought From Africa to America
Li Po	Alone and Drinking Under the Moon
Robert Herrick	To The Virgins, Make Much of Time
Edna Millay	What My Lips Have Kissed, And Where, And Why
Kalidasa	Look to this Day
Kalidasa	Waking
Nazim Hikmet	Letters from a Man in Solitude
Nazim Hikmet	On Living
Claude McKay	If We Must Die
Lawrence Ferlinghetti	The World is a Beautiful Place
Jimmy Santiago Baca	Who Understands me but Me
Mahmoud Darwish	Under Siege
Mahmoud Darwish	I Have a Seat in the Abandoned Theater
Wislawa Szymborska	A Few Words on the Soul
Wislawa Szymborska	Hunger Camp at Jaslo
Swami Vivekananda	Song of the Free
Ernest Thayer	Casey at the Bat
Walter De La Mare	The Listeners
Ingeborg Bachmann	Stay
Emma Lazarus	The New Colossus
Leonie Adams	Certainly Beauty
Leonie Adams	Magnificat in Little
Chairil Anwar	Pines in the Distance
Chairil Anwar	My Friend and I
Marguerite Young	The Clinic
Sylvia Plath	Edge
Paul Blackburn	Ritual VIII
*Apocryphal	Narcissus
Louisa May Alcott	My Kingdom
Ruben Dario	Fatality
Edward Arlington Robinson	Luke Havergal
Edward Arlington Robinson	Richard Cory
Alexander Pope	Argus
Jose Marti	I Wish to Leave the World
Jose Marti	A Sincere Man Am I
Horace	Ode I 11
Horace	Priapus
Bei Dao	Moon Festival
Bei Dao	Declaration
Sergei Yesenin	The Drops
Sergei Yesenin	What Is Gone Can't Be Retrieved
Zhai Yongming	The Black Room
George Eliot	In a London Drawingroom
George Eliot	I Grant You Ample Leave
Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin	Azabo Revisited
Nizar Qabanni	I Conquer the World with Words
Al Mutannabi	Cowards
Saadi Shirazi	Manner of Kings 2
Saadi Shirazi	Manner of Kings 5
Yehuda Amichai	A Child is Something Else Again
Shel Silverstein	Sick
Sarojini Naidu	To The God of Pain
Sarojini Naidu	Village Song
Etel Adnan	XXXIX from Arab Apocalypse
Joy Harjo	Without
Niyi Osundare	Not My Business
May Swenson	Gods. Children
Mbuyiseni Mtshali	Nightfall in Soweto
Tahar Ben Jalloun	The Rising of the Ashes (Before)
Lenrie Peters	We Have Come Home
Lutpulla Mutellip	Response to Years

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10 Comments

Level 82

May 3, 2021

Wow! Quite a list. Obviously it's subjective, but with such a long list I think you really should include some poems by the best poet using the English language (in my opinion) - Wilfred Owens. Certainly "Dulce et decorum est" should be in there. Also, a correction: It's not "Do not go gently into that good night". It is "gentle". Please also allow some more titles e.g. "Daffodils" instead of first lines.

Level 83

May 7, 2021

Hi thanks for the reply. Could you help me out on some of the titles you are referring to? I use the American Poetry Foundation for most titles so that's what I get my sources from mostly.

Level 82

Jun 7, 2021

Daffodils is the common title for the poem which you have called "I wandered lonley (should be lonely)as a cloud". Thanks for including some GM Hopkins. My favourite of his has a title that is a bit of a mouthful: "That nature is an Heraclitean fire and on the comfort of the Resurrection"!

Level 63

Jan 19, 2023

You should merge poet names/

Level 83

Jan 20, 2023

Eventually, jobs are rough these days.

Level 63

Mar 24, 2023

Just hit merge all up and down.

Level 63

Jan 19, 2023

Essential songs next?

Level 83

Jan 20, 2023

It is a titanic project that I am currently undertaking, and is a bit different in how I format it due to the unique dimensions of music as a scientific and artistic device. It has unique properties, and many songs to consider. It will be a while

Level 33

Jun 2, 2023

as a literary student, I've nominated you. Go far and wide! Although please make corrections for the titles, as it is impossible to get them with misspelled words.

Level 83

Jun 2, 2023

Thanks for the nomination! You've got it, I will be working a lot on type ins in the coming weeks as I have been referring a lot back to this list myself during slow hours of work.