Further to the earlier correspondence about the greatest English writers, which I’ve already shared on the Ink Desk, I’ve received a follow-up e-mail, which I’ve also decided to share. This time, my correspondent asked for a list purely of poets. By way of clarification and justification, I should probably confess that my “top ten poets” is tinged or tainted by favouritism, which is to say that I’ve allowed myself to be swayed by my own subjective preferences and have not necessarily sought to provide an objective list. If I had tried to be strictly objective, I would have been forced reluctantly to put Milton on the list and, less reluctantly, Donne, Herbert and Tennyson.

Here’s the note from my correspondent:   

I love Joseph’s list. But I think you almost have to have a separate list

for poets.  Hopkins is the only pure non-prose writer in the list.  If you

had a separate list purely for poets who would be the top 5.  I’m most

familiar with Hopkins and believe him to be one of a kind.  Who else

deserves to be in top 5?  Newman’s verse is good and Lead Kindly Light is

great but I’m not sure his other poetry ranks as the best of the best.

 

And here’s my response:

Another great question, though surely Shakespeare and Chaucer can be considered poets. My top ten:

1. Shakespeare

2. Chaucer

3. Hopkins

4. Keats

5. Coleridge

7. Wordsworth

8. Crashaw

9. Belloc

10. Francis Thompson

Chesterton is also hovering on the edge of the list, as are Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. 

And how could I have left out Dryden!