I am a ballady type.. the Rime of the Ancient Mariner is way up in the top ten... "A painted ship upon a painted ocean".. or "Water, water, everywhere" .. a couple of my favourite verses.

Besides the poets some of you have already mentioned, one of my all time favorites was, and always will be, e.e.cummings.
W.H. Auden would also be at the top of my list along with W.B. Yeats.

My favorite poets are (not necessarily in order):
~John Donne (particularly the Holy Sonnets and "The Good Morrow," but also lighter verse like "The Flea")
~Lord Byron (like him the best of the Romantics, probably because of his clever wit, his neoclassical leanings, and the fact that he does not seem to take himself too seriously. Oh how I love Byron!)
~George Herbert
~Alexander Pope (amazing how much he can say in verse)
~Lord Alfred Tennyson (nothing has moved me as deeply as "In Memoriam." I still cry when I read it)
~Rumi
~Stephen Crane (He's not known for his poetry, but I love it. Very terse, very concise, not at all ornamental--but boy does it pack a punch!)
~ Edgar Allen Poe, often criticized for only being "technically perfect," as if that were not a great feat in itself, as if the sound of poetry was the least improtant aspect! Love the sound of "The Bells" especially, but much more.

Lacked feeling?!? The metaphysical poets are some of the most feeling poets I can imagine. Yes, sometimes they write with dry wit ("The Flea," "On His Mistress Going to Bed," etc.), but I am deeply moved by Donne's Holy Sonnets, his "Good Morrow," and by Herbert's "Love" and "The Collar."

Easy question - my husband (who most of you know as Maynooth). He is a brilliant poet and I am not at all biased! He's had quite a bit of his work published and been paid for it in some cases! (Not that there's any money in it really).

My favourite poets would have to be Sylvia Plath, Rainer Maria Rilke, and William Blake.
Although, i adore poetic prose.
So, Anais Nin, Virginia Woolf, Janet Fitch.

What's the name of the fellow who wrote that limerick about the man from Nantucket?

Or even Westphalia?

I'm a fan of classic poem
Famous poets, the unknown
It may therefore seem rather rash
My favourite here is Ogden Nash!

I like poetry full stop! I have trouble remembering who wrote what though..just like when I hear a song on the radio 'Ooh I like that..who is it' (for the fifth time) I have a poetry book written by Jewel who is also a singer and I pick that up a lot. I like Christina Rosetti's Hurt No Living Thing and many many more......

I love all kinds of poetry but my all time favourite would have to be Rudyard Kipling. The ballads are great sweeping sagas and down to earth emotion, manly emotion not that girlie stuff!
The story goes that "If" was crumpled up by Rudyard and thrown in the bin. Someone retrieved it and sent it to a publisher (maybe a newspaper) and it became a resounding success.

Of course Banjo Patterson and Henry Lawson are greats too!

cheers
Maynooth

I like an enormous variety of poets from the metaphysicals Andrew Marvell 'To His Coy Mistress' being a favourite through the romantics 'Marmion' by Sir Walter Scott through to more modern day poets like John Betjeman, Philip Larkin, John Hegley etc I even like some Americans like Walt Whitman and Theodore Roethke 'The Waking'. Regards, Tin