The Greatest Allegorical and Poetry Books of All Time

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 488 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
27 The Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri 1308 Italian Italian
136 Paradise Lost John Milton 1667 British English
419 The Prophet Kahlil Gibran 1923 Lebanese English
518 Complete Poems of Giacomo Leopardi Giacomo Leopardi 1831 Italian Italian
1061 The Conference Of The Birds Attar Neyshabouri 1177 Persian Persian
1436 La Fontaine's Fables Jean de La Fontaine 1668 French French
1899 A Poem Without A Hero Anna Akhmatova 1960 Russian Russian
2081 Stanzas about the Death of his Father Jorge Manrique 1476 Spanish Spanish
2108 The Twelve Alexander Blok 1918 Russian Russian
2129 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1798 British English
2345 Dark Night of the Soul Jean de la Croix 1578 Spanish Spanish
2865 The Faerie Queene Edmund Spenser 1590 British English
2948 The Romance of the Rose Guillaume (de Lorris) 1230 French Old french
3028 The Essential Rumi Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi 1995 Persian Persian
3450 The Inferno Dante Alighieri 1308 Italian Italian
4497 Goblin Market Christina Georgina Rossetti 1862 British English
6290 Mensagem Fernando Pessoa 1934 Portuguese Portuguese
8350 Paradise Regained John Milton 1671 British English
9931 The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton John Milton 2007 British English
11140 Jerusalem Delivered Torquato Tasso 1581 Italian Italian
11319 Until The Lions Karthika Nair 2015 French English
11366 Gulistan Saadi 1258 Gulistan Persian
13007 The Poems Of William Dunbar William Dunbar 1501 Scottish Middle scots
13014 Centuries, Poems, And Thanksgivings Thomas Traherne 1903 British English
12994 Lycidas, Comus, And The Minor Poems John Milton 1637 British English
13497 Astrophel And Stella Philip Sidney 1591 British English
13497 The Poetical Works Of Edmund Spenser Edmund Spenser 1590 British English
13497 Samson Agonistes John Milton 1671 British English
13497 The Deserted Village Oliver Goldsmith 1770 Irish English
13497 Délie Maurice Scève 1544 French French
13497 Lutrin Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux 1674 French French
13497 The Chimeras Gerard de Nerval 1854 French French
13497 Aurelia Gerard de Nerval 1855 French French
13497 The City Of The Dreadful Night James Thomson 1880 British English
13497 Hymns To The Night Novalis 1800 German German
13497 The Odyssey Nikos Kazantzakis 1938 Greek Greek