Famous Poets

Poetry is almost as old as recorded history itself, said to have existed at the dawn of written language - dating back some three or more thousand years to the Epic of Gilgamesh. Since, famous poets have been a mainstay of every culture and era.

The earliest famous poets were the authors of epic poetry, ancient tales of the heroic virtues of god-like men. Homer was said to be the author of two famous epic poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey. Claimed by the Greeks to have been an actual person, today's historians believe Homer was not an actual person, given that the stories represented in his two epic poems were more likely the result of oral tradition. In the vein of Homer, Virgil was another famous poet who wrote epic poems centered in Roman culture. Unlike Homer, Virgil lived in Rome in the first century BCE, and was responsible for three main poetic works, of which the Aeneid was of particular note. In modernity, epic poems are less common, though still occasionally written.

The most popular form of poetry written by famous poets today is lyric poetry. Lyric poetry expresses personal thoughts and feelings, instead of being narrative driven as in epic poetry. Lyric poetry can be seen in the works of William Shakespeare and his sonnets, Emily Dickinson, and many others. Topics addressed by lyric poetry vary immensely, but may often involve love, war, politics, and even nature or religion. Lyric poetry, especially in later years, became much freer in form. Many famous funny poems are considered to be lyric poetry.

Poetry takes on many other forms, and many famous poets dabble in at least several of them.