NOTE: I have edited and expanded this to 175 poets, after receiving some helpful feedback and also making notes after insomnia.
If you are, fortunately for everyone, alive today, and you write and publish poetry, you are a 21st century poet. Other poets, less lucky, have died in the last 100 years or so, but their great contribution to poetry continues. Poems, of all the literary art forms, are perhaps the most generous gifts, because compared to the energy and effort involved in their creation, the material returns are the least - so they stand as bequests to eternity, or at least, posterity.
Even a weak, or minor, poet may create a poem or three that are wonderful, moving, crafty, cunning, potent, convincing, wise, helpful, funny or delightful - but below is a list of 175 poets, who have written in the English language primarily, who published most of their poetry in the 20th century, and are no longer with us, who gave us whole collections that were and are vital and necessary to read.
No doubt another 25 or more poets from Canada, America, Ireland, Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and beyond, could flesh out a viable "canon" of 200+ 20th century English-language poets we should all read, but I think this list forms a very good start, and includes poets of all schools, styles, decades, eras, genders, and political leanings, more or less.
While debates will hopefully always continue in academic and critical circles about the value of certain poets and poems in terms of adding to the general literature of their age (where is Newbolt?), it seems, looking at this list, unlikely any new very major poets from the period under observation will appear, though a few very good lesser poets may receive their due. Terence Tiller, for example, is a seriously good, very brilliant and exciting poet, and when I publish his Collected Poems next year, his canonical status should be re-established. But he is not ever going to (it seems likely) be read as more significant than, say, near-contemporaries like Auden, Douglas or Larkin - partially because his impact on his time, his contemporaries, was less. His influence if it arrives, will be more posthumous, as was Hopkins.
Please let me know who you would want to see added. This is of course not a definitive list. But none of these 175 can really be left out. Happy Easter!
If you are, fortunately for everyone, alive today, and you write and publish poetry, you are a 21st century poet. Other poets, less lucky, have died in the last 100 years or so, but their great contribution to poetry continues. Poems, of all the literary art forms, are perhaps the most generous gifts, because compared to the energy and effort involved in their creation, the material returns are the least - so they stand as bequests to eternity, or at least, posterity.
Even a weak, or minor, poet may create a poem or three that are wonderful, moving, crafty, cunning, potent, convincing, wise, helpful, funny or delightful - but below is a list of 175 poets, who have written in the English language primarily, who published most of their poetry in the 20th century, and are no longer with us, who gave us whole collections that were and are vital and necessary to read.
No doubt another 25 or more poets from Canada, America, Ireland, Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and beyond, could flesh out a viable "canon" of 200+ 20th century English-language poets we should all read, but I think this list forms a very good start, and includes poets of all schools, styles, decades, eras, genders, and political leanings, more or less.
While debates will hopefully always continue in academic and critical circles about the value of certain poets and poems in terms of adding to the general literature of their age (where is Newbolt?), it seems, looking at this list, unlikely any new very major poets from the period under observation will appear, though a few very good lesser poets may receive their due. Terence Tiller, for example, is a seriously good, very brilliant and exciting poet, and when I publish his Collected Poems next year, his canonical status should be re-established. But he is not ever going to (it seems likely) be read as more significant than, say, near-contemporaries like Auden, Douglas or Larkin - partially because his impact on his time, his contemporaries, was less. His influence if it arrives, will be more posthumous, as was Hopkins.
Please let me know who you would want to see added. This is of course not a definitive list. But none of these 175 can really be left out. Happy Easter!
175 KEY ENGLISH-LANGUAGE POETS OF THE 20TH
CENTURY (DECEASED)
ADRIENNE
RICH
AE
HOUSMAN
AI
AL
PURDY
ALAN
DUGAN
ALLEN
GINSBERG
ALLEN
TATE
ALUN
LEWIS
AM
KLEIN
AMY
LOWELL
ANNE
SEXTON
ANNE
WILKINSON
ANTHONY
HECHT
AR
AMMONS
ARCHIBALD
MACLEISH
ASJ
TESSIMOND
AUSTIN
CLARKE
BANJO
PATTERSON
BARRY
MACSWEENEY
BASIL
BUNTING
BERNARD
SPENCER
BOB
COBBING
BRIAN
COFFEY
CARL
SANDBURG
CH
SISSON
CHARLES
CAUSLEY
CHARLES
OLSON
CHARLOTTE
MEW
CLAUDE
MCKAY
COLE
PORTER
CONRAD
AIKEN
COUNTEE
CULLEN
DARYL
HINE
DAVID
GASCOYNE
DAVID
JONES
DELMORE
SCHWARTZ
DENISE
LEVERTOV
DH
LAWRENCE
DIANA
BREBNER
DON
MARQUIS
DONALD
DAVIE
DOROTHY
HEWETT
DYLAN
THOMAS
EDGAR
LEE MASTERS
EDITH
SITWELL
EDMUND
BLUNDEN
EDNA
ST VINCENT MILLAY
EDWARD
DORN
EDWARD
THOMAS
EDWIN
ARLINGTON ROBINSON
EDWIN
DENBY
EDWIN
MORGAN
EDWIN
MUIR
EE
CUMMINGS
ELIZABETH
BISHOP
ELIZABETH
JENNINGS
EZRA
POUND
FRANK
O’HARA
FS
FLINT
FT
PRINCE
GAEL
TURNBULL
GEORGE
BARKER
GEORGE
MACBETH
GEORGE
MACKAY BROWN
GEORGE
OPPEN
GREGORY
CORSO
GWENDOLYN
BROOKS
HAROLD
MONRO
HART
CRANE
HAYDEN
CARRUTH
HENRY
LAWSON
HENRY
REED
HENRY
TREECE
HILDA
DOOLITTLE
HUGH
MACDIARMID
IAN
HAMILTON FINLAY
IRVING
LAYTON
ISAAC
ROSENBERG
JACK
SPICER
JAMES
K BAXTER
JAMES
MERRILL
JAMES
WRIGHT
JAY
MACPHERSON
JF
HENDRY
JOAN
MURRAY
JOHN
BERRYMAN
JOHN
BETJEMAN
JOHN
CROWE RANSOM
JOHN
GLASSCO
JOHN
HEATH-STUBBS
JON
SILKIN
JUDITH
WRIGHT
KARL
SHAPIRO
KATHLEEN
RAINE
KEITH
DOUGLAS
KEN
SMITH
KENNETH
FEARING
KENNETH
KOCH
KENNETH
REXROTH
KINGSLEY
AMIS
LANGSTON
HUGHES
LAURA
RIDING
LAWRENCE
DURRELL
LEROI
JONES/AMIRI BARAKA
LOUIS
DUDEK
LOUIS
MACNEICE
LOUIS
ZUKOFSKY
LYNETTE
ROBERTS
MALCOLM
LOWRY
MARGARET
AVISON
MARIANNE
MOORE
MELVIN
B TOLSON
MICHAEL
DONAGHY
MILTON
ACORN
MINA
LOY
MIRIAM
WADDINGTON
NICHOLAS
MOORE
NOEL
COWARD
NORMAN
MACCAIG
PAT
LOWTHER
PATRICK
KAVANGH
PETER
PORTER
PETER
REDGROVE
PHILIP
LARKIN
PK
PAGE
RANDALL
JARRELL
RAYMOND
CARVER
REBECCA
ELSON
RF
LANGLEY
RICHARD
EBERHART
RICHARD
OUTRAM
ROBERT
ALLEN
ROBERT
CREELEY
ROBERT
DUNCAN
ROBERT
FROST
ROBERT
GRAVES
ROBERT
LOWELL
ROBERT
PENN WARREN
ROBINSON
JEFFERS
ROY
FULLER
RS
THOMAS
RUDYARD
KIPLING
RUPERT
BROOKE
SEAMUS
HEANEY
SEAN
RAFFERTY
SEBASTIAN
BARKER
SIDNEY
KEYES
SORLEY
MACLEAN
STANLEY
KUNITZ
STEPHEN
SPENDER
STEVIE
SMITH
SYLVIA
PLATH
TE
HULME
TED
BERRIGAN
TED
HUGHES
TERENCE
TILLER
THEODORE
ROETHKE
THOM
GUNN
THOMAS
HARDY
TS
ELIOT
UA
FANTHORPE
VACHEL
LINDSAY
VALENTINE
ACKLAND
VERONICA
FORREST-THOMSON
WALLACE
STEVENS
WALTER
DE LA MARE
WB
YEATS
WD
SNODGRASS
WELDON
KEES
WH
AUDEN
WILFRID
OWEN
WILLIAM
CARLOS WILLIAMS
WILLIAM
EMPSON
WS
GRAHAM
WWE
ROSS
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