Goodreads Top 100 Poems of All Time
100 poems recommended by Goodreads Serious Literature Group offered for voting by Goodreaders.
1 Shakespeare's Sonnets
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4.25 of 5 stars 4.25 avg rating — 35,301 ratings
2 The Road Not Taken and Othe...
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4.22 of 5 stars 4.22 avg rating — 12,583 ratings
3 Complete Poems
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4.34 of 5 stars 4.34 avg rating — 3,276 ratings
4 Complete Poems of Emily Dic...
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4.19 of 5 stars 4.19 avg rating — 35,409 ratings
5 Leaves of Grass
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4.12 of 5 stars 4.12 avg rating — 37,606 ratings
6 The Canterbury Tales
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3.45 of 5 stars 3.45 avg rating — 82,034 ratings
7 A Poetry Collection
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4.35 of 5 stars 4.35 avg rating — 85 ratings
8 Songs of Innocence and of E...
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4.11 of 5 stars 4.11 avg rating — 15,219 ratings
9 Do Not Go Gentle Into That ...
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4.45 of 5 stars 4.45 avg rating — 78 ratings
10 Works of William Butler Yeats
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4.27 of 5 stars 4.27 avg rating — 15,719 ratings
11 The Annotated Waste Land wi...
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4.25 of 5 stars 4.25 avg rating — 96 ratings
12 The Complete Poems
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4.27 of 5 stars 4.27 avg rating — 2,842 ratings
13 The Iliad & The Odyssey
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4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 avg rating — 18,741 ratings
14 The Divine Comedy
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4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 avg rating — 41,480 ratings
15 The Works of John Donne
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4.32 of 5 stars 4.32 avg rating — 192 ratings
16 My Last Duchess and Other P...
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4.03 of 5 stars 4.03 avg rating — 1,930 ratings
17 Beowulf: A New Verse Transl...
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3.35 of 5 stars 3.35 avg rating — 97,959 ratings
18 Stopping By Woods on a Snow...
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4.36 of 5 stars 4.36 avg rating — 4,052 ratings
19 The Complete Poems
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4.24 of 5 stars 4.24 avg rating — 9,231 ratings
20 The Love Song of J. Alfred ...
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4.32 of 5 stars 4.32 avg rating — 6,628 ratings
21 The Rime of the Ancient Mar...
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3.87 of 5 stars 3.87 avg rating — 19,351 ratings
22 John Keats: The Major Works...
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4.42 of 5 stars 4.42 avg rating — 193 ratings
23 Goblin Market
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4.1 of 5 stars 4.10 avg rating — 3,102 ratings
24 Poems and Other Writings (L...
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4.02 of 5 stars 4.02 avg rating — 210 ratings
25 Collected Poems
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4.21 of 5 stars 4.21 avg rating — 4,251 ratings
26 The Complete Sonnets and Poems
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4.25 of 5 stars 4.25 avg rating — 35,301 ratings
27 Paradise Lost
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3.75 of 5 stars 3.75 avg rating — 55,883 ratings
28 The Unwords
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4.32 of 5 stars 4.32 avg rating — 91 ratings
29 Lorca: Selected Poems
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3.5 of 5 stars 3.50 avg rating — 4 ratings
30 Illuminations
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4.42 of 5 stars 4.42 avg rating — 3,253 ratings
31 Collected Works Of Edna St....
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4.63 of 5 stars 4.63 avg rating — 65 ratings
32 An Elegy Written In A Count...
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3.99 of 5 stars 3.99 avg rating — 134 ratings
32 The Collected Poems
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4.28 of 5 stars 4.28 avg rating — 7,278 ratings
34 Poems
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4.24 of 5 stars 4.24 avg rating — 1,354 ratings
35 The Complete Poems
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4.24 of 5 stars 4.24 avg rating — 1,541 ratings
36 The Major Works
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3.97 of 5 stars 3.97 avg rating — 3,040 ratings
37 Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins
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4.33 of 5 stars 4.33 avg rating — 604 ratings
38 The Flowers of Evil (The 10...
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4.27 of 5 stars 4.27 avg rating — 15,766 ratings
39 Howl
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4.19 of 5 stars 4.19 avg rating — 1,243 ratings
40 Dover Beach and Other Poems
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3.8 of 5 stars 3.80 avg rating — 422 ratings
41 The Odyssey
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3.64 of 5 stars 3.64 avg rating — 451,539 ratings
42 The Second Coming
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4.35 of 5 stars 4.35 avg rating — 26 ratings
43 The Emperor of Ice-Cream an...
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4.19 of 5 stars 4.19 avg rating — 95 ratings
43 Idylls of the King
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3.91 of 5 stars 3.91 avg rating — 3,760 ratings
45 Robert Browning's Poetry (N...
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3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 avg rating — 1,980 ratings
46 Chicago Poems
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3.98 of 5 stars 3.98 avg rating — 984 ratings
47 The Lady Of Shalott
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4.16 of 5 stars 4.16 avg rating — 6,966 ratings
48 Easter 1916 and Other Poems
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4.13 of 5 stars 4.13 avg rating — 134 ratings
49 The Complete Poems
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4.03 of 5 stars 4.03 avg rating — 3,606 ratings
50 The Writings of Henry David...
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4.62 of 5 stars 4.62 avg rating — 8 ratings
51 She Walks in Beauty
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4.33 of 5 stars 4.33 avg rating — 24 ratings
52 Old Possum's Book of Practi...
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4.06 of 5 stars 4.06 avg rating — 8,706 ratings
53 As I Walked Out One Evening...
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4.25 of 5 stars 4.25 avg rating — 167 ratings
54 Complete Poems
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4.02 of 5 stars 4.02 avg rating — 1,246 ratings
55 The Cantos
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3.87 of 5 stars 3.87 avg rating — 2,557 ratings
56 The Complete Poems
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4.02 of 5 stars 4.02 avg rating — 1,636 ratings
57 Tennyson: Including Lotos E...
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4.11 of 5 stars 4.11 avg rating — 37 ratings
58 To A Sky Lark (Phoenix 60p ...
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4.24 of 5 stars 4.24 avg rating — 21 ratings
59 Sonnets from the Portuguese
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4.12 of 5 stars 4.12 avg rating — 5,080 ratings
60 Fernando Pessoa and Co.: Se...
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4.44 of 5 stars 4.44 avg rating — 349 ratings
61 Tennyson's Poetry
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4.03 of 5 stars 4.03 avg rating — 3,152 ratings
62 Fern Hill
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4.05 of 5 stars 4.05 avg rating — 21 ratings
63 The Darkling Thrush
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4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 avg rating — 25 ratings
64 The Works of William Wordsw...
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4.15 of 5 stars 4.15 avg rating — 578 ratings
65 Ode on a Grecian Urn, the E...
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4.07 of 5 stars 4.07 avg rating — 15 ratings
66 Invictus
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4.58 of 5 stars 4.58 avg rating — 111 ratings
67 A Red, Red Rose.  The Love ...
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4.1 of 5 stars 4.10 avg rating — 10 ratings
67 Just Give Me a Cool Drink o...
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4.2 of 5 stars 4.20 avg rating — 231 ratings
69 Sir Gawain and the Green Kn...
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3.63 of 5 stars 3.63 avg rating — 21,795 ratings
70 Childe Harolde's Pilgrimage...
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3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 avg rating — 444 ratings
71 Duino Elegies/The Sonnets o...
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4.52 of 5 stars 4.52 avg rating — 754 ratings
72 Collected Narrative and Lyr...
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4.36 of 5 stars 4.36 avg rating — 118 ratings
73 The Faerie Queene
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3.49 of 5 stars 3.49 avg rating — 7,148 ratings
74 Irish Fairy and Folk Tales
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4.06 of 5 stars 4.06 avg rating — 1,733 ratings
75 Pied Beauty: A Selection Of...
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4.33 of 5 stars 4.33 avg rating — 6 ratings
76 The Works of Algernon Charl...
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3.91 of 5 stars 3.91 avg rating — 92 ratings
77 Ode: Intimations of Immorta...
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4.32 of 5 stars 4.32 avg rating — 154 ratings
78 A Coney Island of the Mind
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4.16 of 5 stars 4.16 avg rating — 5,137 ratings
79 Twenty Love Poems and a Son...
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4.41 of 5 stars 4.41 avg rating — 14,589 ratings
80 Collected Poems
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4.3 of 5 stars 4.30 avg rating — 189 ratings
81 A Season in Hell/The Drunke...
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4.33 of 5 stars 4.33 avg rating — 4,001 ratings
82 The Vision of Piers Plowman
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3.34 of 5 stars 3.34 avg rating — 1,010 ratings
83 Troilus and Criseyde
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3.74 of 5 stars 3.74 avg rating — 2,524 ratings
84 The Metaphysical Poets
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4.2 of 5 stars 4.20 avg rating — 330 ratings
85 The Selected Poetry
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4.3 of 5 stars 4.30 avg rating — 498 ratings
86 The Listeners and Other Poems
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4.55 of 5 stars 4.55 avg rating — 11 ratings
87 Collected Poems
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4.22 of 5 stars 4.22 avg rating — 3,872 ratings
88 Love is a Dog from Hell
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4.2 of 5 stars 4.20 avg rating — 8,705 ratings
89 Don Juan
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3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 avg rating — 3,138 ratings
90 The Best Cigarette
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4.46 of 5 stars 4.46 avg rating — 123 ratings
91 Save Twilight: Selected Poems
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4.15 of 5 stars 4.15 avg rating — 138 ratings
92 Selected Poems
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4.3 of 5 stars 4.30 avg rating — 2,615 ratings
93 Collected Poems, 1917-1982
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3.96 of 5 stars 3.96 avg rating — 26 ratings
94 The Penguin Book of First W...
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4.12 of 5 stars 4.12 avg rating — 384 ratings
95 The Carrier of Ladders
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4.31 of 5 stars 4.31 avg rating — 87 ratings
96 My Night Version and other ...
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4.5 of 5 stars 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings
96 The Divine Comedy
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4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 avg rating — 41,480 ratings
96 Familial: Selected Poems
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5.0 of 5 stars 5.00 avg rating — 4 ratings
96 The Poet Blossomed
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4.4 of 5 stars 4.40 avg rating — 5 ratings
96 Call Me by My True Names: T...
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4.27 of 5 stars 4.27 avg rating — 143 ratings
160 books · 79 voters · list created September 25th, 2011 by David Lentz (votes) .
 · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 500 seconds.


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Comments (showing 1-12 of 12) (12 new)

dateDown_arrow    newest »

message 1: by David (new)

David Lentz Dear CR,
Only a very wise man understands that, compared to what remains still to be read of value, precious time should be focused on reading only the best.


message 2: by Susanna (new)

Susanna You want me to clean this one, David? I see it has 105 books at present.


message 3: by David (new)

David Lentz Susanna wrote: "You want me to clean this one, David? I see it has 105 books at present."

Dear Susanna,
Yes, please. Some good new entries I must admit. But let's see where our original list takes us. Thank you, Susanna.


message 4: by Robert (last edited Oct 22, 2011 03:11pm) (new)

Robert Time for some debate: How does Longfellow get multiple entries but the Gawain poet and Ted Hughes get none?


message 5: by David (new)

David Lentz Dear Robert,
Your suggestion has great merit. I added Sir Gawain. We need a worthy Ted Hughes poem. And I think we should open this excellent list up to everyone soon to see how it could be further improved by smart suggestions like Robert's.


message 6: by Robert (new)

Robert Hawk Roosting is my favourite Ted Hughes poem but there are many other worthy ones.


message 7: by Susanna (new)

Susanna Do you want me to remove the "please do not add books to this list" message in the list description?


message 8: by David (new)

David Lentz Dear Susanna,
I've got this one, thanks. Let's bring into the mix the intellectual capital of Goodreaders to this great list started by the Serious Literature Group.


message 9: by Susanna (new)

Susanna Okey dokey.


message 10: by Beth A. (new)

Beth A. Love this list...I have a more studential one with similar tastes here:

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/19...


message 11: by Jo (new)

Jo Preston Ted Hughes The crow; birthday letters; or the individual poem The Fox all worthy contenders.
I would also vote for Wendy Cope's making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis


message 12: by Lit Bug (new)

Lit Bug What about Emily Dickinson? I loved her 'Much Madness is Divinest Sense', 'Pain Has An Element of Blank' and 'Success Is Counted Sweetest'.


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