The Greatest 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 759 '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
30 The Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri 1308 Italian Italian
70 The Aeneid Virgil -19 Roman Latin
77 Leaves of Grass Walt Whitman 1855 American English
98 The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe 1902 American English
110 The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer 1400 British Middle english
111 The Waste Land T. S. Eliot 1922 British English
127 Paradise Lost John Milton 1667 British English
156 Poems of Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson 1890 American English
175 Metamorphoses Ovid 8 Roman Latin
178 The Flowers of Evil Charles Baudelaire 1857 French French
238 A Season in Hell Arthur Rimbaud 1873 French French
264 The Epic Of Gilgamesh Unknown -2100 Multiple Akkadian
268 Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats 1933 Irish English
285 Oresteia Aeschylus -458 Greek Ancient greek
317 The Poems of Robert Frost Robert Frost 1913 American English
343 The Sonnets William Shakespeare 1609 British English
365 Eugene Onegin Alexander Pushkin 1833 Russian Russian
373 The Duino Elegies Rainer Maria Rilke 1923 German German
405 De Rerum Natura Lucretius 55 Roman Latin
447 Gypsy Ballads Federico García Lorca 1928 Spanish Spanish
462 The Prophet Kahlil Gibran 1923 Lebanese English
464 Petrarch's Songbook Francesco Petrarca 1341 Italian Italian
465 Collected Poems Wallace Stevens 1954 American English
478 Alcools Guillaume Apollinaire 1913 French French
479 Four Quartets T. S. Eliot 1943 British English
481 The Lusiad Luís Vaz Camões 1572 Portuguese Portuguese
499 Platero Juan Ramón Jiménez 1914 Spanish Spanish
518 The Odes Horace 23 Roman Latin
557 The Souls of Black Folk W. E. B. Du Bois 1903 American English
562 Aesop's Fables Aesop -560 Greek Ancient greek
576 Complete Poems Elizabeth Bishop 1969 American English
584 Poet in New York Federico García Lorca 1940 Spanish Spanish
585 Tao Te Ching Lao Tsu -300 Chinese Classical chinese
593 Complete Poems of Giacomo Leopardi Giacomo Leopardi 1831 Italian Italian
608 Canto General Pablo Neruda 1950 Chilean Spanish
610 Requiem Anna Akhmatova 1963 Russian Russian
618 Poems of W. H. Auden W. H. Auden 1930 British English
694 La Fontaine's Fables Jean de La Fontaine 1668 French French
707 Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson 1830 British English
736 Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Edward FitzGerald 1859 British English
748 Howl and Other Poems Allen Ginsberg 1956 American English
752 Poems Of Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy 1898 British English
809 Poems by Machado Antonio Machado 1907 Spanish Spanish
812 Collected Poems of T.S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1963 British English
824 Rhymes And Legends Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer 1871 Spanish Spanish
854 Cane Jean Toomer 1923 American English
860 The Solitudes Luis de Góngora 1613 Spanish Spanish
865 The Pillow Book Sei Shōnagon 1002 Japanese Japanese
875 Greguerias Ramón Gómez de la Serna 1910 Spanish Spanish
900 The Poems of Sappho Sappho -569 Greek Ancient greek
907 Hyperion Friedrich Holderlin 1797 German German
919 The Poems Of Gerard Manley Hopkins Gerald Manley Hopkins 1918 British English
964 Paroles Jacques Prévert 1946 French French
974 The Poems of John Keats John Keats 1817 British English
1016 Poems Of C. P. Cavafy C. P. Cavafy 1935 Greek Greek
1045 Selected Essays of T. S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1932 British English
1049 Works and Days Hesiod -700 Greek Ancient greek
1053 The Kalevala Elias Lönnrot 1835 Finnish Finnish
1083 Upanishads Unknown -799 Indian Sanskrit
1091 Shahnameh Ferdowsi 1010 Iranian Persian
1100 Collected Poems Of Edward Thomas Edward Thomas 1920 British English
1112 The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake William Blake 1827 British English
1118 Germany, a Winter Tale Heinrich Heine 1844 German German
1139 The Unquiet Grave Cyril Connolly 1944 British English
1171 Residence on Earth Pablo Neruda 1933 Chilean Spanish
1182 Poems of Federico García Lorca Federico García Lorca 1921 Spanish Spanish
1195 Song Of Lawino Okot P'Bitek 1966 Ugandan Acholi
1229 Songs of Innocence and Experience William Blake 1789 British English
1238 The Age of Anxiety W. H. Auden 1947 British English
1239 The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne John Donne 1952 British English
1256 Prometheus Bound Aeschylus -455 Greek Ancient greek
1270 Omeros Derek Walcott 1990 Saint Lucian English
1273 Robert Browning's Poetry Robert Browning 1833 British English
1273 Selected Poems of Lord Byron Lord Byron 1800 British English
1302 Poems Paul Celan 1952 German German
1304 Collected Poems Stéphane Mallarmé 1887 French French
1349 Gitanjali Rabindranath Tagore 1910 Indian Bengali
1355 Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas Dylan Thomas 1952 British English
1359 Illuminations Arthur Rimbaud 1886 French French
1364 Fragments Heraclitus -500 Greek Ancient greek
1436 Letters to a Young Poet Rainer Maria Rilke 1929 Austrian German
1438 Masnavi Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi 1258 Persian Persian
1441 The Cantos Ezra Pound 1933 American English
1446 The Tongue Set Free Elias Canetti 1977 Austrian German
1466 Don Juan Lord Byron 1819 British English
1472 The Beauty Of The Husband Anne Carson 2001 Canadian English
1508 The Tower William Butler Yeats 1928 Irish English
1516 Heinrich of Ofterdingen Novalis 1802 German German
1543 Eclogues Virgil -37 Latin Latin
1544 The Poetic Edda Unknown 1270 Multiple Old norse
1546 Poems Of Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson 1847 American English
1555 Troilus And Criseyde Geoffrey Chaucer 1385 British Middle english
1556 The Poems of Francois Villon François Villon 1489 French Middle french
1591 Wry-Blue Loves Tristan Corbière 1873 French French
1611 The Prelude William Wordsworth 1850 British English
1611 The Song of Hiawatha Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1855 American English
1620 Sister Outsider Audre Lorde 1984 American English
1642 Song Of Myself Walt Whitman 1855 American English
1644 The Nature of Things Francis Ponge 1942 French French
1652 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1798 British English
1658 The Song of Roland Unknown 1100 French Old french
1666 Zami Audre Lorde 1982 American English
1667 The Poetry of Alexander Pushkin Alexander Pushkin 1836 Russian Russian
1724 Logbook George Seferis 1940 Greek Greek
1738 The Bedbug And Selected Poetry Vladimir Mayakovsky 1920 Russian Russian
1769 Under Milk Wood Dylan Thomas 1954 British English
1781 Poems of Pablo Neruda Pablo Neruda 1970 Chilean Spanish
1804 Cartucho And My Mother's Hands Nellie Campobello 1931 Mexican Spanish
1810 The Weary Blues Langston Hughes 1926 American English
1815 The Collected Poems of A. E. Housman A. E. Housman 1939 British English
1815 The Ring And The Book Robert Browning 1868 British English
1860 Notebook Of A Return To The Native Land Aimé Césaire 1939 French French
1861 Citizen Claudia Rankine 2014 American English
1869 The Recognition of Sakuntala Kālidāsa -400 Indian Sanskrit
1886 Poems, New And Collected, 1957 1997 Wislawa Szymborska 1998 Polish Polish
1892 A Sand County Almanac Aldo Leopold 1949 American English
1933 Capital of Pain Paul Éluard 1926 French French
1962 The Prose Of The Trans Siberian Blaise Cendrars 1913 French French
1969 Poppy And Memory Paul Celan 1950 German German
1979 Furor and Mystery René Char 1948 French French