The 444 Greatest Works of Poetry

222 Greatest Short Poems | 111 Greatest Long Poems | 111 Greatest Poetry Collections

The Greatest Poetry may be the most difficult literary list to compile. Poetry comes in all shapes, styles and sizes—with no reigning definition of what even constitutes a poem. Even less consensus exists as to what makes a good poem.

Another problem is that readers tend to avoid verse originally created in other tongues. Most English-language anthologies, criticism, and other lists of the supposed greatest poetry in the world focus on British, American and related works, seldom considering more than a few token works translated into English. This list aims to be as inclusive as possible. It is the result of consulting experts, anthologies, college reading lists, readers and reviewers from around the world regarding poetry of diverse origins and eras.

It has also become necessary to split this list of poems three ways, firstly into categories of short and long verse (perhaps analogous to the separation of prose fictions into stories and novels). This distinction helps us avoid the ludicrous situation of having book-length epics, single-verse poems and everything in-between thrown into the same list.

Further we are distinguishing single poems from collections of poems, giving us three different "greatest" lists for poetry.

Of course, the categories of short poems, long poems and poetry collections often overlap and they are sometimes difficult to distinguish. We have some rules of thumb to determine which group a given work of poetry falls into but it occasionally comes down to a subjective judgment call. Our overall aim, though, is to ensure that every deserving greatest work of poetry appears on at least one of the lists.

The short poems listed below can generally be read and appreciated in a single sitting—in as little as minute to as long as an hour or two. Such poems are generally under a dozen pages long and tend to present single moods and thoughts, featuring unitary themes with compact, cohesive storylines.

This list, like others, is subject to revisions and updates, as new works are acclaimed and old works are reassessed by poetry lovers.

222 Greatest Short Poems | 111 Greatest Long Poems | 111 Greatest Poetry Collections

The greatest short poems of all time

See also:

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