Favourite Poems of the 20th Century

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Lists, by their very nature, can strip cultural artefacts or artistic works of their substance. They also run the risk of placing in opposition or competition pieces of literature which were created to be consumed on their own merit. And they will always draw attention to the important omissions as much as to the inclusions.

All that said, I am a compulsive reader and compiler of lists, and have been thinking about this particular topic for a few days now. I am sure more will occur to me, but here is an early draft. Where available, I've linked each title to a website where it can be read in its entirety.

 
T. S. Eliot - The Hollow Men
Keith Douglas - Vergissmeinnicht
Elizabeth Bishop - One Art
Adrienne Rich - Diving into the Wreck
William Empson - Let it Go
Thomas Hardy - The Voice
Thom Gunn - Considering the Snail
Philip Larkin - Aubade
Geoffrey Hill - Genesis
Edwin Muir - The Horses
Wilfred Owen - Insensibility
R. S. Thomas - Tramp
D. H. Lawrence - Snake
Simon Armitage - Poem
Theodore Roethke - My Papa's Waltz
Robert Frost - Tree at my Window
Philip Larkin - An Arundel Tomb
Robert Lowell - Beyond the Alps
e. e. cummings - [Buffalo Bill's]
Robert Frost - 'Out, Out-' 


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