I was surfing around the Internet and noticed that there aren't very many definitive lists of the most famous poems of all time. That’s surprising because poetry’s been around forever. Each poem here was ranked using the following criteria: cumulative view counts on Youtube, what their influence has been, and how well-studied they are in the academic community. Epic poetry and the plays of Shakespeare have been excluded, although I do feel that many of their passages challenge the best of these.
1. "The Raven" read by Christopher Walken; could anything possibly be more creepy? Our number one poem is unique because it is by far the favorite among the masses, yet it still has originality and complexity. A lot of the poems that get the most views on Youtube are short and simple, but for whatever reason people have clung to this one the most. I personally feel that The Raven is so popular today because we are in a time of cultural madness, and people need the madness of others to find solace. Christopher Walken's unique locution certainly adds flavor to that.
2. Song Of Songs, Anonymous (Old Testament)
Throughout history you’d think that the Song of Songs has deserved the title of Greatest Love Poem of All Time. But for a long time there was a debate in the Church about whether or not it was even about love. The debate focused on whether or not the Song of Songs is meant to be taken literally or metaphorically. I don’t claim to be a Christian (though I believe in God), but to me it clearly describes two people in an harmonious marriage, not a metaphorical relationship with God, though people who feel that way are entitled to.
It’s the only passage in The Bible that I read regularly, and it melts my heart every time. It’s beautiful, indulgent, and lusty: a risky combination that leaves many people scratching their heads as to how it could even be in The Bible. But it is, so the chaste fundamentalists will just have to deal with it. I think the point of leaving it in was not only to show us the importance of love, but to show us how the divinity of marriage can make us all feel holy and complete.
3. The Waste Land, TS Eliot.
Arguably the greatest poem of the 20th century, "The Waste Land" came out at a time in which two pivotal periods changed the direction of history: World War 1 and the modernist movement in art. It describes that ominous no-man’s land between the wars, when people were frightened of technological possibilities yet optimistic about progress. That’s what Eliot seems to think anyway. Like Joyce’s "Ulysses", the fame of "The Waste Land" has been relegated to the academic community. Few common readers would find it enjoyable (much less understandable) without a companion guide. For those interested you can watch the lecture below, in which a skilled professor breaks down the poem and each of its constituent parts. My favorite parts are The Chess Game and What The Thunder Said.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxF9xkB5o04
4. Sonnet 18, Shakespeare.
Better known as "Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day?"
5. Howl, Allen Ginsberg
I saw the greatest minds of my generation love this poem, fifty years after the fact. Howl was a response to the steamrolling consumerism that propelled America into an economic superpower in the 1950s. Its influence extends from beat poetry all the way to the modern generation of indie hipsters. Each subsequent generation of underground writers after ours will also feel its power, as the complexity of our species evolves and the traditional forms of our arts dissolve into one another.
To enjoy "Howl" you must read it without expectations, and read it fast. Fans of Howl are generally non-academic free thinkers: those who aren’t limited by tradition.
People like to blame the beat generation for the deterioration of quality poetry. But if you think about it, poetry has actually gotten stronger because a lot of it has simply been translated into popular music. The current generation of poets are filled with some of the best songwriters in the world, including Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and Thom Yorke.
6. Desiderata, Max Ehrmann
"Desiderata" is one of the most morally empowering anthems ever to hit the page. It’s one of those poems that everyone should wake up and recite daily. Some of its fans do it already.
More famous poems:
7. If, Rudyard Kipling
8. Song of Myself, Walt Whitman
9. Invictus, William Ernest Henley
10. Daffodils (I Wandered As A Lonely Cloud), William Wordsworth
11. Still I Rise, Maya Angelou
12. Bluebird, Charles Bukowski
13. The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost
14. Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, Dylan Thomas
15. In Memoriam AHH, Lord Alfred Tennyson
16. Annabel Lee, Edgar Allan Poe
17. I Carry Your Heart, EE Cummings
18. Daddy, Sylvia Plath
19. If You Forget Me, Pablo Neruda
20. O Captain! My Captain, Walt Whitman
21. An Essay On Criticism, Alexander Pope
22. The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats
23. How Do I Love Thee?, Elizabeth Barrett Browning
24. Dulce et Decorum Est, Wilfred Owen
25. Ode to a Nightingale, John Keats
26. Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening, Robert Frost
27. The Song of Hiawatha, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
28. The Hollow Men, TS Eliot
29. Bright Star, John Keats
30. When You Are Old, William Butler Yeats
31. The Charge of the Light Brigade, Lord Alfred Tennyson
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