The most famous poets. The world's first poet: who wrote the first poem? Russian: Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin

It is believed that the oldest author's poems in the world were written as far back as the 23rd century. BC. Enkheduanna - this is how the name of that first poetess sounds, whose creations have survived to this day. She is believed to have been a priestess and Akkadian princess at the time.

The works of the first poetess were discovered relatively recently, in the 1920s, by an archaeologist from England. His find was a translucent disc made of alabaster. On one side of this disc there is an image of a priestess, but on the other side there is cuneiform.

The oldest author's works in written history are "Hymns to Inanna". These religious poems are dedicated to the main female deity, the goddess Inanna. The third work of the poetess is the temple hymns, which narrate about the sanctuaries and the gods who dwell in them. All her works are notable for the fact that the legend in them is conducted on behalf of the author, that is, from the first person.

It is surprising that a lot of facts have survived about Enheduanna herself. For example, it is known that the poetess was the daughter of Sargon, who was the first ruler of the united northern and southern Mesopotamia.

The Akkadian ruler himself wrote that his mother was a priestess. She hid the fact of the birth of her son and decided to hide her newborn son in a reed basket. The priestess lowered this basket into the river, which brought the child to Akka. She was discovered by a farmer who raised the baby as his son. Sargon wrote that he worked in the garden, and the goddess Ishtar rewarded him with the royal rank.

All this became known during archaeological excavations in Ur. It was in 1927 that people managed to see not only the cuneiform, but also how the poet herself looked. Thanks to her, since then, in addition to the names of the rulers, the names of the priestesses began to be mentioned in the cuneiforms.

Many years have been spent translating Enheduanna's most famous work, which praises Inanna. This work was fully translated only in 1968.

The beginning of the anthem is 65 lines from the descriptions. All epithets were carefully selected by the poetess and served to characterize the goddess. Then, in the hymn, there is a description of the goddess of battles, where the poetess herself compares the goddess with a storm bird, and the younger gods with bats.

Later, Enheduanna was exiled from the greatest temple of antiquity, which was destroyed by a rebel. It is also known that this very rebel even molested the priestess.

100 great poets of the world from different eras

A list of the most famous poets in the world and their years of life, presented by centuries and historical eras.

Ancient world

Homer (c. VIII century BC)
David (X Century BC)
Solomon (c. 965 - c. 928 BC)
Hesiod (late VIII - early VII century BC)
Archilochus (VII Century BC)
Sappho (c. 612 BC - c. 572 BC)
Valmiki (between v-iv centuries BC)
Guy Valerius Catullus (87 or 84-54 BC)
Publius Virgil Maron (70-19 BC)
Quintus Horace Flaccus (65-8 BC)
Publius Ovid Nazon (43 BC - 17 or 18 BC)
Qu Yuan (about 340 - about 278 BC)

Middle Ages

Kalidasa (about 5th century)
Li Bo (701-762)
Doo Fu (712-770)
Abu Abdallah Jafar Rudaki (about 860-941)
Abulkasim Ferdowsi (between 932 and 941-1020 or 1030)
Omar Khayyam (1048-1123)
Li Qing-Zhao (1084-1151)
Peter Borislavich (XII Century)
Shota Rustaveli (XII Century)
Chretien de Trois (about 1130 - about 1191)
Nizami Ganjavi (1141-1209)
Saadi Muslihiddin Shirazi (between 1203 and 1210-1292)
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)
Hafiz Shamsiddin (1325-1389 or 1390)
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340? -1400)

Renaissance

Francois Villon (1431 or 1432-1463)
Alisher Navoi (1441-1501)
Sebastian Brunt (about 1458-1521)
Ludo vico Ariosto (1474-1533)
Luis Vazha Di Camões (1524 or 1525-1580)
Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585)
Torquato Tasso (1544-1595)
François de Malebe (about 1555-1628)
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

17th century

John Milton (1608-1674)
Savignen Cyrano De Bergerac (1619-1655)
Jean Lafontaine (1621-1695)
Nicola Boileau-Depreo (1636-1711)
Jean Racine (1639-1699)
Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)

XVIII century

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724-1803)
Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774)
James Macpherson (1736-1796)
Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin (1743-1816)
Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1746-1832)
Evariste Guys (1753-1814)
William Blake (1757-1827)
Robert Burns (1759-1796)
Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805)
André Marie Chénier (1762-1794)

19th century

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
Pierre Jean Beranger (1780-1857)
Adelbert von Chamisso (1781-1838)
Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky (1783-1852)
George Gordo n Byron (1788-1824)
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
John Keats (1795-1821)
Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855)
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin (1799-1837)
Fedor Ivanovich Tyutchev (1803-1873)
Henry Longfellow (1807-1882)
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)
Alfred de Musset (1810-1857)
Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov (1814-1841)
Taras Grigorievich Shevchenko (1814-1861)
Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817-1875)
Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet (1820-1892)
Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867)
Nikolay Alekseevich Nekrasov (1821-1877 / 1878)
Apollon Nikolaevich Maikov (1821-1897)
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Stephen Mallarmé (1842-1898)
Paul Marie Verlaine (1844-1896)
Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891)
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

XX century

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
Ivan Alekseevich Bunin (1870-1953)
Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov (1873-1924)
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)
Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918)
Alexander Alexandrovich Blok (1880-1921)
Juan Ramon Jimenez (1881-1958)
Velimir Khlebnikov (1885-1922)
Thomas Eliot (1888-1965)
Anna Andreevna Akhmatova (1889-1966)
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (1890-1960)
Osip Emilievich Mandelstam (1891-1938)
Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva (1892-1941)
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (1893-1930)
Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin (1895-1925)
Paul Eluard (1895-1952)
Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936)
Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)
Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky (1910-1971)
Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky (1940 - 1996)

30 best poets in the world of all time

according to the edition of the portal Selection

When compiling the rating, the following factors were taken into account: world fame of the poet, national popularity and significance, historical influence on world and national poetry, the number of publications of the poet's works in all countries and for all time, places in authoritative ratings and voting

1. William Shakespeare
2. Homer
3. Dante Alighieri
4. George Gordon Byron
5. Alexander Pushkin
6. Rabindranath Tagore
7. Virgil
8. Lee Bo
9. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
10. William Wordsworth
11. Francesco Petrarca
12. Heinrich Heine
13. Ferdowsi
14. Matsuo Basho
15. Rainer Maria Rilke
16. Percy Bysshe Shelley
17.Mikhail Lermontov
18. John Keats
19. Robert Frost
20. Charles Baudelaire
21. William Blake
22. Horace
23. Doo Fu
24. William Butler Yeats
25. Paul Verlaine
26. Friedrich Schiller
27. Federico Garcia Lorca
28. Saadi
29. Ovid
30. Emily Dickinson

The 100 Greatest Poets of All Time (Ranker List)

List 100 best poets of all times compiled on the basis of votes of Internet users from different countries of the world and sorted by the number of votes of participants.

Voting organized by a well-known media company Ranker(USA). Ranker media resources attract over 50 million unique visitors per month. Company rankings and opinion data for netizens are regularly cited in reputable media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, The Hollywood Reporter, and USA Today, among many others.

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare is an English poet, playwright and actor, considered the greatest writer in the English language and the world's foremost playwright.

Homer, the legendary Greek poet, is the author of the Iliad and The Odyssey.

The ancient Greeks believed that he was the first and greatest of the poets-poets.

Dante Alighieri

Durante degli Alighieri, simply called Dante, is the greatest Italian poet of the late Middle Ages.

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe - American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic, spokesman for American Romanticism

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is a German writer and statesman. His works include epic and lyric poetry, written in different meters and styles; prosaic and poetic drama; memoirs.

William Blake

William Blake was an English painter, poet and printmaker. Largely unrecognized during his life, Blake is now considered a significant figure in the history of poetry and visual arts.

William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and one of the most prominent literary figures of the 20th century.

Walt whitman

Walter Walt Whitman was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. A humanist, he was part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism in American poetry.

Rudyard Kipling

Joseph Redyard Kipling was an English writer, poet and novelist. He wrote stories and poems related to India and stories for children.

Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born into a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a largely secluded life.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Rene Karl Wilhelm Johann Joseph Maria Rilke, known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist, one of the most recognized lyric poets in Europe

Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Johan Ibsen was a prominent 19th century Norwegian playwright, theater director and poet. He is often called the "father of realism" and one of the founders of modernism.

Alexander Pushkin

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was a Russian poet and writer of the Romantic era, considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet.

Robert Frost

Robert Lee Frost was an American poet. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life.

Pablo Neruda

Pablo Neruda was the pseudonym and later the official name of the Chilean poet-diplomat and politician Ricardo Elieser Neftali Reyes Basoalto

Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore is an Indian writer, poet, composer, artist, public figure. His work has shaped the literature and music of Bengal.

George Gordon Byron

George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, commonly known simply as Lord Byron, was an English poet and a leading figure in the romantic movement.

Robert Burns

Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and lyricist.

He is considered the main national poet of Scotland, the most famous of the poets who wrote in Scottish

Giovanni Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian writer, poet, friend of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. The author of poems on the subjects of ancient mythology, pastorals, sonnets, the author of the famous book of short stories "The Decameron"

Friedrich Schiller

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian and playwright.

Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, was a poet laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during the reign of Queen Victoria and remains one of the most popular British poets.

Jeffrey Chaucer

Jeffrey Chaucer, known as the “Father of English Poetry,” author of the Canterbury Tales collection of poems, is considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages.

Thomas Eliot

Thomas Sterns Eliot, better known as TS Eliot, was an essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic, modernist poet and "one of the great poets of the twentieth century."

John Keats

John Keats was an English romantic poet. He was one of the main figures of the second generation of romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Novalis is the pseudonym of Baron Friedrich von Hardenberg, a philosopher, writer and poet of early German romanticism.

William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth is a major English romantic poet, the main author of the collection "Lyric Ballads", conventionally referred to as the so-called. "Lake school".

Charles Baudelaire

Charles Pierre Baudelaire was a French poet who is also known as the essayist, art critic and pioneering translator Edgar Allan Poe.

Friedrich Hölderlin

Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin was a major German lyric poet associated with the Romantic movement.

Dylan Thomas

Dylan Marley Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer whose most famous works include the poems "And Death Remains Powerless" and "Do Not Go Meekly Into the Twilight of Eternal Darkness."

Vazha-Pshavela

Vazha-Pshavela is the pseudonym of the 19th century Georgian poet and writer Luka Razikashvili, a recognized classic of Georgian literature

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the main English romantic poets and is considered by some critics as the best lyric poet in the English language.

Wisten Hugh Auden

Wystan Hugh Auden was a British-American poet who was born in Great Britain, then a citizen of the United States, and many critics call him one of the greatest poets of the 20th century.

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Fingal O "Flagherty Wills Wilde was an Irish author, playwright and poet. One of the most famous playwrights of the late Victorian period, one of the key figures in aestheticism and European modernism.

Francesco Petrarca

Francesco Petrarca - Italian poet, head of the older generation of humanists, one of the greatest figures of the Italian Proto-Renaissance

Joseph von Eichendorf

Baron Joseph Karl Benedict von Eichendorf (Eichendorf) was a German poet and novelist of the late German Romantic school. Eichendorf is considered one of the most important German romantics, his lyrical works have been transcribed to music about 5,000 times

Annette von Droste-Hülshoff

Annette von Droste-Hülshoff is a 19th century German poet and novelist.

August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben

August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben is a German Germanist and songwriter. He is best known for the fact that in August 1841 he wrote the text to the "Song of the Germans" ("Deutschland, Deutschland über alles").

Charles Bukowski

Henry Charles Bukowski is an American writer, poet, novelist and journalist of German descent. Representative of the so-called "dirty realism"

Vladimir Vysotsky

Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky was a Russian singer-songwriter, poet and actor, whose work had a huge impact on Soviet and Russian culture.

Virgil

Publius Virgil Maron was a famous Roman poet during the reign of Emperor Augustus. Nicknamed "Mantuan swan". He is known for three major works of Latin literature - "Bucolics", "Georgics", "Aeneid"

John Milton

John Milton is an English poet, thinker, author of political pamphlets and religious treatises, and a politician during the time of Oliver Cromwell.

Luis de Camões

Luis Vaz de Camões (Luís de Camões) is a Portuguese poet, the largest representative of the Renaissance literature in Portugal in the 16th century, the author of the national epic poem "Lusiada", one of the founders of the modern Portuguese language.

Edward Astlin Cummings

Edward Astlin Cummings is an American poet, writer, artist, and essayist. It is generally accepted that Cummings preferred to write his last name and initials with a small letter (like e.e.cummings).

Jalaladdin Rumi

Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, commonly known as Rumi or Mevlana, is an eminent Persian Sufi poet of the 13th century, a lawyer.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, literary critic and philosopher, one of the founders of the romantic movement in England and a prominent representative of the "lake school"

Quintus Horace Flaccus, better known simply as Horace, is the great ancient Roman poet of the "golden age" of Roman literature.

Hans Sachs

Hans Sachs is a German poet, meistersinger and playwright, an important representative of the burgher urban culture of the Renaissance.

Pindar, one of the most significant lyric poets of Ancient Greece, was included in the canonical list of the Nine Lyricists by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria.

Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath is an American poet and writer, considered one of the founders of the genre of "confessional poetry" in English literature

Ulrich von Lichtenstein

Ulrich von Lichtenstein is a medieval German poet of the late Minnesang period, captain (head of the land) of Styria.

Omar Khayyam

Omar Khayyam Nishapuri - famous Persian philosopher, mathematician, astronomer and poet

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson is an American essayist and lecturer poet who led the mid-19th century transcendental movement.

Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope is an English poet of the 18th century, one of the greatest authors of British classicism. He is known for his satirical poems as well as translations of Homer.

Giacomo Leopardi

Giacomo Leopardi was an Italian poet, philosopher, essayist and philologist who lived in the 19th century.

Mikhail Lermontov

Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov is a Russian poet and writer, one of the most important Russian poets after the death of Alexander Pushkin in 1837 and the greatest figure in Russian romanticism.

Sir Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott is a world famous Scottish novelist, poet, historian, collector of antiquities. He is considered the founder of the genre of the historical novel.

Heinrich Heine

Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was a German poet, journalist, essayist and literary critic. Heine is considered the last poet of the "romantic era" and at the same time its head.

John Donne

John Donne - English poet and preacher, rector of London's Cathedral of St. Paul, He is considered an outstanding representative of the literature of the English Baroque ("metaphysical school").

Wallace Stevens

Wallace Stevens is an American modernist poet of German-Dutch descent.

Torquato Tasso

Torquato Tasso - Italian poet of the 16th century, author of the poem "Jerusalem Liberated" (1575).

Guy Valerius Catullus was a Latin poet of the late Roman republic who wrote in the neotic style of poetry. His surviving works are still widely read and continue to influence the poetry of other authors.

Victor Hugo

Victor Marie Hugo was a French poet, novelist, one of the main figures of French romanticism. He is considered one of the greatest and most famous French writers.

David Herbert Lawrence

David Herbert Richards Lawrence is one of the key English writers of the early 20th century. In addition to novels, he also wrote essays, poems, plays, travel notes and stories.

Paul Verlaine

Paul Marí Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of fin de siècle (“end of the century”) in international and French poetry.

Lewis Carroll

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English writer, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous works are "Alice in Wonderland" and "Alice Through the Looking Glass"

Johann Gottfried Herder

Johann Gottfried von Herder is a German philosopher, theologian, poet and literary critic. One of the leading figures of the late Enlightenment

Nikoloz Baratashvili

Prince Nikoloz Baratashvili is a famous Georgian romantic poet. He is called the "classic of Georgian literature"

Thomas Murner

Thomas Murner - German satirist, Franciscan friar, Doctor of Theology and Law

Philip Larkin

Philip Arthur Larkin is a 20th century British poet, writer and jazz critic.

Ana Kalandadze

Ana Kalandadze is a Georgian Soviet poet, one of the most influential women in modern Georgian literature.

Ferenc Kazintsi

Ferenc Kazinczy is a Hungarian writer, public figure, ideologist of the Hungarian Enlightenment and reformer of Hungarian literature and the Hungarian language.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Lawrence Ferlinghetti is an American poet, artist, liberal activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. Author of translations, fiction, theater, art criticism

Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick was a 17th century English lyric poet and cleric. Representative of the group so-called. "Cavalier poets", supporters of King Charles I.

Vladimir Mayakovsky

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was a Russian Soviet poet, playwright, artist and stage and film actor. In 1913-1917. considered one of the leaders of the Russian futurist movement

Ezra Pound

Ezra Weston Loomis Pound is an American poet, translator, and literary critic. One of the founders of English-language modernist literature.

Sappho was a Greek lyric poet born on the island of Lesvos. She was included in the Alexandrian canonical list of the Nine Lyric Poets.

John Ronald Ruel Tolkien

John Ronald Ruel Tolkin is an English writer and poet, translator, linguist, philologist. The author of famous books about the hobbits.

William Carlos Williams

William Carlos Williams is one of the greatest poets in the United States, closely associated with modernism.

Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorn Clemens, better known by his pseudonym Mark Twain, was an American writer and humorist. He wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its sequel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Edmund Spencer

Edmund Spencer is an English poet of the Elizabethan era, an older contemporary of Shakespeare, who for the first time instilled sweetness and musicality in English verse. In England he was called "The Prince of Poets".

Seamus Heaney

Seamus Justin Heeney was an Irish poet, playwright, translator and teacher, and a 1995 Nobel Prize winner in literature.

Li Bai, also known as Li Bo - Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty, known as "the immortal in poetry" One of the most revered poets in the history of Chinese literature

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Father Gerard Manley Hopkins was an English poet and Jesuit priest whose posthumous fame placed him among the leading Victorian poets.

Francois Villon

François Villon is the first French lyricist of the late Middle Ages.

Du Fu was a prominent Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty. Along with Li Bo, he is often referred to as the greatest of Chinese poets.

Maya Angelou

Maya Angelow is an American writer and poet. Has published seven autobiographies, five books of essays, several collections of poetry.

Andrew Marvell

Andrew Marvell was an English poet and Member of Parliament at various times between 1659 and 1678. One of the last representatives of the school of metaphysics and one of the first masters of the poetry of English classicism.

Langston Hughes

James Murcer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the pioneers of a new form of literary art called jazz poetry.

Alfred Edward Houseman

Alfred Edward Housman, commonly known as AE Housman, is one of the most popular Edwardian poets, author of the collection of poems "The Shropshire Boy", which became widely known during the First World War.

Christopher Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe. He strongly influenced William Shakespeare

Matthew Arnold

Matthew Arnold is an English poet and cultural scientist, one of the most respected literary critics and essayists of the Victorian period. He was at the origin of the movement to renew the Church of England.

Christina Rossetti

Christina Georgina Rossetti is an English poet, sister of the painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti. She has written many romantic and children's poems.

George Herbert

George Herbert was a 16th century Welsh and English poet, orator, and Anglican priest. Herbert's poetry is associated with the works of metaphysical poets.

Jan Kochanowski

Jan Kochanowski was a poet of the Polish Renaissance who created poetic expressions that will become an integral part of the Polish literary language. Considered Poland's first great national poet.

Boris Pasternak

Boris Leonidovich Pasternak is a Russian poet, writer, and literary translator. One of the greatest poets of the 20th century.

Guillaume Apollinaire

Guillaume Apollinaire was a French poet, playwright, storyteller, novelist and art critic of Polish origin. Apollinaire is considered one of the most influential figures in the European avant-garde of the early 20th century.

John Dryden

John Dryden was an English poet, literary critic, translator and playwright.

His influence on his contemporaries was so comprehensive that the period from 1660 to 1700 in the history of English literature is commonly referred to as the "Dryden Age."

Miguel de Cervantes

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, known simply as Cervantes, was a Spanish writer, poet and playwright. First of all, he is known as the author of one of the greatest works of world literature - the novel "The cunning hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha", which is considered the first modern European novel.

Wang Wei was a Chinese poet, musician, artist and statesman. Along with Li Bo and Du Fu, he is the most famous representative of the Chinese poetry of the Tang era.

Lucretius

Titus Lucretius Car Roman poet and philosopher. He is considered one of the brightest adherents of atomistic materialism, a follower of the teachings of Epicurus. Author of the famous epic philosophical poem "On the Nature of Things" (lat. De rerum natura)

List of Top 100 Famous Poets in History by PoetrySoup

A list of the best poets of all time, selected by PoetrySoup members.

PoetrySoup is a huge international community of more than 30,000 poets. PoetrySoup contains over 500,000 poems written by a wide variety of amateurs, professionals and renowned poets. PoetrySoup offers many services through its website and its members promote and organize frequent poetry contests.

Moreover, the organizers of the vote. note that the use of the term "best poets" is probably not entirely correct for this list, because the list was determined by visitors to the Western-leaning website. In addition, it is likely that preference was given more to contemporary poets.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

List of all poets in the world on Wikipedia (in English)

William Shakespeare

England's national poet William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the world's greatest playwright. His works have been translated into almost all languages ​​of the world. Therefore, many believe that he is the most famous poet in the world.

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564. His career began in 1585 when he moved to London. He became a successful actor and playwright, and eventually co-owner of a theater company.

His early plays were comedies and chronicles. He raised these genres to the pinnacle of sophistication. Then came the turn of tragedies such as Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. At the end of his life, Shakespeare wrote several tragicomedies.

This English playwright gained real popularity only in the 19th century. He was especially revered by the Victorians and representatives of romanticism. But be that as it may, Shakespeare played an important role in the development of drama (before his "Romeo and Juliet" no one wrote a tragedy about love).

The most famous of the ancient Greek poets in the world

Homer is one of the earliest poets. This ancient Greek storyteller is still popular today. Everyone knows his works "Iliad" and "Odyssey". Homer lived in the 8th century BC. His birthplace is unknown. He died on the island of Ios (Cyclades archipelago).

Traditionally, this poet is portrayed as a blind person, although in real life he might not have been such (it's just that all the singers and soothsayers of that time were blind). Also, contemporaries have doubts about the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey, because at the time of Homer there was still no written language and these works could only be transmitted orally. But, be that as it may, Homer is the oldest known poet in the world.

The most famous Russian poet in the world

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was born in 1799 in Moscow. It came from the ancient noble family of the Pushkins, whose genealogical tree begins with Ratmir, the warrior of Alexander Nevsky. Ratmir is mentioned in "The Tale of the Life of Alexander Nevsky" as one of the six main characters of the legendary battle. On the other hand, his maternal great-grandfather was Abram Petrovich Hannibal, a servant and pupil of Peter I, later an engineer and general. Pushkin repeatedly described his genealogy and mentioned his family as true aristocrats who honestly served the fatherland, but did not win favor.

He himself was also not loved by the Russian emperor, although during his lifetime he was very popular in Russia.

This is what the greatest writers and critics have written about him.

Culture

This list contains the names of the greatest writers of all time from different nations who wrote in different languages. Those who are at least somehow interested in literature are undoubtedly familiar with them from their wonderful creations.

Today I would like to remember those who remained on the pages of history as outstanding authors of great works that have been in demand for many years, decades, centuries and even millennia.

1) Latin: Publius Virgil Maron

Other great authors who wrote in the same language: Mark Tullius Cicero, Guy Julius Caesar, Publius Ovid Nazon, Quintus Horace Flaccus

You should know Virgil from his famous epic "Aeneid", which is dedicated to the fall of Troy. Virgil is probably the strictest perfectionist in literary history. He wrote his poem at an astonishingly slow rate - only 3 lines a day. He didn’t want to do it faster, to be sure that it’s impossible to write these three lines better.

In Latin, a subordinate clause, dependent or independent, can be written in any order, with a few exceptions. Thus, the poet has a lot of freedom in defining how his poetry sounds, without changing the meaning in any way. Virgil considered any option at every stage.

Virgil also wrote two more works in Latin - "Bucolics"(38 BC) and "Georgiki"(29 BC). "Georgiki"- 4 partially didactic poems about agriculture, including all sorts of advice, for example, that you should not plant grapes next to olive trees: olive leaves are very flammable, and at the end of a dry summer, they can catch fire, like everything else, due to a lightning strike.

He also praised Aristeus, the god of beekeeping, because honey was the only sugar source for the European world until sugarcane was brought to Europe from the Caribbean. Bees were deified, and Virgil explained how to get a hive if the farmer does not have one: kill a deer, boar or bear, rip up their belly and leave them in the forest, praying to God Aristeus. In a week, he will send a bee hive to the carcass of the animal.

Virgil wrote that he would like his poem "Aeneid" burned after his death, as it remained unfinished. However, the emperor of Rome, Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus, refused to do this, thanks to which the poem has survived to this day.

2) Ancient Greek: Homer

Other great authors who wrote in the same language: Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, Apostle Paul, Euripides, Aristophanes

Homer, perhaps, can be called the greatest writer of all times and peoples, but not much is known about him. He was probably a blind man who told stories that were recorded 400 years later. Or, in fact, a whole group of writers worked on the poems, adding something about the Trojan War and the Odyssey.

Anyway, "Iliad" and "Odyssey" were written in ancient Greek, a dialect that came to be called Homeric as opposed to Attic, which followed later and which replaced it. "Iliad" describes the last 10 years of the struggle of the Greeks with the Trojans outside the walls of Troy. The main character is Achilles. He is enraged that King Agamemnon treats him and his trophies as his property. Achilles refused to participate in a war that had lasted for 10 years and in which the Greeks lost thousands of their soldiers in the fight for Troy.

But after persuasion, Achilles allowed his friend (and possibly lover) Patroclus, who no longer wanted to wait, to join the war. However, Patroclus was defeated and killed by Hector, the leader of the Trojan army. Achilles rushed into battle and forced the Trojan battalions to flee. Without assistance, he killed many enemies, fought with the god of the river Scamander. Ultimately, Achilles killed Hector, and the poem ends with funeral ceremonies.

"Odyssey"- an unsurpassed adventure masterpiece about the 10-year wanderings of Odysseus, who tried to return home after the end of the Trojan War with his people. The details of the fall of Troy are mentioned very briefly. When Odysseus dared to go to the Land of the Dead, where, among others, he finds Achilles.

These are just two of Homer's works that have survived and have come down to us, however, it is not known for sure whether there were others. However, these works form the basis of all European literature. The poems are written with a dactylic hexameter. Many poems were written in memory of Homer in the Western tradition.

3) French: Victor Hugo

Other great authors who wrote in the same language: René Descartes, Voltaire, Alexandre Dumas, Moliere, François Rabelais, Marcel Proust, Charles Baudelaire

The French have always been fans of long novels, the longest of which is the cycle "In Search of Lost Time" Marcel Proust. However, Victor Hugo is perhaps the most famous author of French prose and one of the greatest poets of the 19th century.

His most famous works are "Notre Dame Cathedral"(1831) and "Les Miserables"(1862). The first work even formed the basis of the famous cartoon "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" studios Walt disney pictures, however, in Hugo's real-life novel, it did not end so fabulously.

The hunchback Quasimodo was hopelessly in love with the gypsy Esmeralda, who treated him well. However, Frollo, a vicious priest, had his eye on the beauty. Frollo followed her and saw how she almost turned out to be the mistress of Captain Phoebus. As revenge, Frollo handed the gypsy woman to justice, accusing him of killing the captain, whom he himself had killed.

After being tortured, Esmeralda confessed that she had allegedly committed a crime and was to be hanged, but at the last moment she was saved by Quasimodo. In the end, Esmeralda was executed anyway, Frollo was thrown from the cathedral, and Quasimodo died of hunger, hugging the corpse of his beloved.

"Les Miserables" also not a particularly funny novel, at least one of the main characters - Cosette - survives, despite the fact that she had to suffer almost all her life, like all the heroines of the novel. This is a classic story of fanatical observance of the law, but almost no one can help those who really need help the most.

4) Spanish: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Other great authors who wrote in the same language: Jorge Luis Borges

Cervantes' main work is, of course, the famous novel "The cunning hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha"... He also wrote storybooks, a romantic novel "Galatea", novel "Persiles and Sikhismunda" and some other works.

Don Quixote is a rather hilarious character, even today, whose real name is Alonso Kehana. He read so much about warlike knights and their honest ladies that he began to consider himself a knight, traveling through the countryside and getting into all sorts of adventures, forcing everyone who meets him on the way to remember him for recklessness. He befriended an ordinary farmer, Sancho Panza, who is trying to bring Don Quixote back to reality.

It is known that Don Quixote tried to fight windmills, saved people who usually did not need his help, and was beaten many times. The second part of the book was published 10 years after the first and is the first work of modern literature. The characters all know about the story of Don Quixote, which is told in the first part.

Now everyone he meets is trying to ridicule him and Panso, testing their faith in the chivalrous spirit. Ultimately, he returns to reality when he loses his fight with the Knight of the White Moon, goes home, falls ill and dies, leaving all the money to his niece, provided she doesn't marry a man who reads reckless tales of chivalry.

5) Dutch: Jost van den Vondel

Other great authors who wrote in the same language: Peter Hooft, Jacob Kats

Vondel is the most prominent 17th century writer in Holland. He was a poet and playwright and represented the Golden Age of Dutch literature. His most famous play is "Geisbrecht of Amsterdam", a historical drama that was performed on New Year's Day at the city theater in Amsterdam from 1438 to 1968.

The play tells the story of Geisbrecht IV, who, according to the play, invaded Amsterdam in 1303 to restore the family's honor and return to the titled nobility. He founded a kind of baronial title in these places. Vondel's historical sources were incorrect. In fact, the invasion was carried out by Geisbrecht's son, Jan, who turned out to be a real hero, overthrowing the tyranny that reigned in Amsterdam. Today Geisbrecht is a national hero because of this writer's mistake.

Vondel also wrote another masterpiece - an epic poem called "John the Baptist"(1662) about the life of John. This work is the national epic of the Netherlands. Vondel is also the author of the play "Lucifer"(1654), which explores the soul of a biblical character, as well as his character and motives in order to answer the question of why he did what he did. This play inspired Englishman John Milton to write 13 years later Paradise Lost.

6) Portuguese: Luis de Camões

Other great authors who wrote in the same language: Jose Maria Esa de Queiroz, Fernando António Nugeira Pesoa

Camões is considered the greatest poet in Portugal. His most famous work is "Lusiad"(1572). The Lusiads are the people who inhabited the Roman region of Lusitania, in the place of which modern Portugal is located. The name comes from the name Luza (Lusus), he was a friend of the god of wine Bacchus, he is considered the progenitor of the Portuguese people. "Lusiad"- an epic poem consisting of 10 songs.

The poem tells about all the famous Portuguese sea voyages for the discovery, conquest and colonization of new countries and cultures. She is somewhat similar to "Odyssey" Homer, Camões praises Homer and Virgil many times. The work begins with a description of Vasco da Gama's journey.

This is a historical poem that recreates many battles, the Revolution of 1383-85, the discovery of da Gama, trade with the city of Calcutta, India. The Louisiades were always watched over by the Greek gods, although da Gama, being a Catholic, prayed to his own God. At the end, the poem mentions Magellan and speaks of the glorious future of Portuguese navigation.

7) German: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Other great authors who wrote in the same language: Friedrich von Schiller, Arthur Schopenhauer, Heinrich Heine, Franz Kafka

Speaking of German music, one cannot fail to mention Bach, in the same way German literature would not be so complete without Goethe. Many great writers have written about him or used his ideas to shape their style. Goethe wrote four novels, a great many poems and documentaries, scientific essays.

Undoubtedly, his most famous work is the book "The Suffering of Young Werther"(1774). Goethe founded the German Romantic movement. Beethoven's 5th symphony completely coincides in mood with Goethe's "Werther".

novel "The Suffering of Young Werther" talks about the dissatisfied romanticism of the protagonist, which leads to his suicide. The story is told in the form of letters and made the epistolary novel popular for at least the next century and a half.

However, the masterpiece of Goethe's pen is still a poem "Faust", which consists of 2 parts. The first part was published in 1808, the second - in 1832, the year of the writer's death. The legend of Faust existed long before Goethe, but Goethe's dramatic story remains the most famous story about this hero.

Faust is a scientist whose incredible knowledge and wisdom pleased God. God sends Mephistopheles or the Devil to check Faust. The story of the deal with the devil has often been raised in literature, but the most famous is perhaps the story of Goethe's Faust. Faust signs an agreement with the Devil, promising his soul in exchange for the fact that the Devil will do on Earth what Faust wants.

He becomes young again and falls in love with the girl Gretchen. Gretchen takes a potion from Faust, which should help her mother from insomnia, but the potion poisons her. This drives Gretchen insane as she drowns her newborn baby by signing her death warrant. Faust and Mephistopheles break into the prison to rescue her, but Gretchen refuses to go with them. Faust and Mephistopheles hide, and God will grant Gretchen forgiveness while she awaits execution.

The second part is incredibly difficult to read, as the reader needs to be well versed in Greek mythology. This is a kind of continuation of the story that began in the first part. Faust, with the help of Mephistopheles, becomes incredibly strong and depraved until the very end of the story. He remembers the pleasure of being a good person and dies right there. Mephistopheles comes for his soul, but the angels take it for themselves, they stand up for the soul of Faust, who is reborn and ascends to Heaven.

8) Russian: Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin

Other great authors who wrote in the same language: Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Fyodor Dostoevsky

Today Pushkin is remembered as the father of primordial Russian literature, in contrast to that Russian literature, which had a clear tinge of Western influence. First of all, Pushkin was a poet, but he wrote in all genres. Drama is considered his masterpiece "Boris Godunov"(1831) and a poem "Eugene Onegin"(1825-32 years).

The first work is a play, the second is a novel in poetic form. "Onegin" written exclusively in sonnets, and Pushkin invented a new form of the sonnet, which distinguishes his work from the sonnets of Petrarch, Shakespeare and Edmund Spencer.

The main character of the poem - Eugene Onegin - is the model on which all Russian literary heroes are based. Onegin is treated as a person who does not meet any norms accepted in society. He wanders, gambles, fights duels, is called a sociopath, though not cruel or evil. This person, rather, does not care about the values ​​and rules that are accepted in society.

Many of Pushkin's poems formed the basis of ballets and operas. They are very difficult to translate into any other language, mostly because poetry simply cannot sound the same in another language. This is what distinguishes poetry from prose. Languages ​​often do not match the capabilities of words. It is known that in the Inuit language of the Eskimos there are 45 different words for snow.

Nevertheless, "Onegin" translated into many languages. Vladimir Nabokov translated the poem into English, but instead of one volume he got as many as 4. Nabokov retained all the definitions and descriptive details, but completely ignored the music of poetry.

All this is due to the fact that Pushkin had an incredibly unique style of writing, which allowed him to touch on all aspects of the Russian language, even inventing new syntactic and grammatical forms and words, establishing many rules that are used by almost all Russian writers even today.

9) Italian: Dante Alighieri

Other great authors who wrote in the same language: no

Name Durante in Latin means "hardy" or "eternal"... It was Dante who helped to streamline the various Italian dialects of his time into modern Italian. The dialect of the region of Tuscany, where Dante was born in Florence, is the standard for all Italians thanks to "Divine Comedy"(1321), a masterpiece by Dante Alighieri and one of the greatest works of world literature of all time.

At the time this work was written, the Italian regions each had their own dialect, which were quite different from each other. Today, when you want to learn Italian as a foreign language, you will almost always start with the Florentine version of Tuscany because of its importance in literature.

Dante travels to Hell and Purgatory to learn about the punishments that sinners are serving. There are different penalties for different crimes. Those who are accused of lust are eternally driven by the wind, despite their weariness, because during their lifetime the wind of voluptuousness drove them away.

Those whom Dante considers heretics are guilty of splitting the church into several branches, among them also the prophet Muhammad. They are sentenced to split from neck to groin, and the punishment is carried out by the devil with a sword. In such a ripped state, they walk in a circle.

V "Comedy" there are also descriptions of Paradise, which are also unforgettable. Dante uses Ptolemy's concept of paradise that Heaven consists of 9 concentric spheres, each of which brings the author and Beatrice, his beloved and guide, closer to God at the very top.

After meeting with various famous personalities from the Bible, Dante finds himself face to face with the Lord God, depicted as three beautiful circles of light merging into one, from which Jesus emerges, the embodiment of God on Earth.

Dante is also the author of other smaller poems and essays. One of the works - "On folk eloquence" talks about the importance of Italian as a spoken language. He also wrote a poem "New life" with passages in prose, in which he defends noble love. No other writer knew the language as flawlessly as Dante knew Italian.

10) English: William Shakespeare

Other great writers in the same language: John Milton, Samuel Beckett, Jeffrey Chaucer, Virginia Woolf, Charles Dickens

Voltaire called Shakespeare "this drunken fool", and his works "this huge dung heap"... Nevertheless, Shakespeare's influence on literature is undeniable and not only in English, but also in the literature of most other languages ​​of the world. Today Shakespeare is one of the most translated writers, his complete works have been translated into 70 languages, and various plays and poems - into more than 200.

About 60 percent of all catchphrases, quotes and idioms in the English language come from King James Bibles(English translation of the Bible), 30 percent from Shakespeare.

According to the rules of Shakespeare's time, tragedies at the end required the death of at least one main character, but in an ideal tragedy, everyone dies: "Hamlet" (1599-1602), "King Lear" (1660), "Othello" (1603), "Romeo and Juliet" (1597).

In contrast to the tragedy, there is a comedy in which someone is sure to marry at the end, and in an ideal comedy all the characters get married and get married: "A dream in a summer night" (1596), "Much ado about nothing" (1599), "Twelfth Night" (1601), "Windsor Ridiculous" (1602).

Shakespeare was adept at sharpening tensions between characters in a superb combination with plot. He was able, like no one else, to organically describe human nature. Shakespeare's real genius is the skepticism that permeates all of his works, sonnets, plays and poems. He praises the highest moral principles of humanity, as it should be, but these principles are always expressed in an ideal world.

Russia is a country rich in poets and writers, which has given the world many famous people. The best poems of great poets are those poems that many of us know from school, but there are also many lesser-known, but outstanding works of classical poets. This section of this site contains a selection of poems by Russian classics. Here are such names as Pushkin, Lermontov, Yesenin, Tyutchev, Bunin, Blok, Bryusov, Fet .... and others. The best poems of the classics of various directions of Russian poetry: romanticism and realism of the 19th century, symbolism, futurism and imagism of the poetry of the Silver Age.

The best classics

We always only remember about happiness.
And happiness is everywhere. Maybe it is -
This autumn garden behind the barn
And clean air pouring through the window.

In the bottomless sky with a light white edge
A cloud rises, shines. For a long time
I follow him ... We see little, we know
And happiness is given only to those who know.

I remember a wonderful moment:
You appeared before me
Like a fleeting vision
Like a genius of pure beauty.

In the languor of hopeless sadness
In the worries of a noisy bustle,

I sit behind bars in a damp dungeon.
A young eagle fed in captivity,
My sad comrade, waving his wing,
Bloody food pecks under the window,

Pecks and throws and looks out the window
As if he had one thing in mind with me;

We languish with spiritual thirst,
I dragged myself in the gloomy desert,
And the six-winged seraph
He appeared to me at the crossroads.
With fingers as light as a dream
He touched my apple:

The last cloud of the scattered storm!
Alone you rush along the clear azure,
You alone cast a dull shadow
Alone you sadden a jubilant day.

You recently wrapped around the sky,
And the lightning wrapped menacingly around you;

Not many paintings by old masters
I have always wanted to decorate my abode,
So that the visitor marvels at them superstitiously,
Listening to the important judgment of experts.

In my simple corner, in the midst of slow toil,
I wished to be a spectator of one painting forever,

Poet! do not value the love of the people.
The rapturous praise will pass the minute noise;
You will hear the judgment of a fool and the laughter of a cold crowd,
But you remain firm, calm and gloomy.

You are the king: live alone. On the free road

Crazy years faded fun
It's hard for me like a vague hangover.
But like wine is the sadness of days gone by
In my soul, the older, the stronger.
My path is dull. Promises me labor and sorrow
A turbulent sea to come.

But I don’t want to die, oh friends;
I want to live in order to think and suffer;

The whole room is amber shine
Illuminated. Merry bang
A flooded stove crackles.
Nice to think by the couch.
But you know: shouldn't you order to the sled
Turn the brown filly?

The star is burning, the ether is trembling,
The night lurks in the spans of arches.
How not to love this whole world
An incredible gift of yours?

You gave me five wrong senses
You gave me time and space