Score

Dear CR,
Only a very wise man understands that, compared to what remains still to be read of value, precious time should be focused on reading only the best.

You want me to clean this one, David? I see it has 105 books at present.

Susanna wrote: "You want me to clean this one, David? I see it has 105 books at present."

Dear Susanna,
Yes, please. Some good new entries I must admit. But let's see where our original list takes us. Thank you, Susanna.

Time for some debate: How does Longfellow get multiple entries but the Gawain poet and Ted Hughes get none?

Dear Robert,
Your suggestion has great merit. I added Sir Gawain. We need a worthy Ted Hughes poem. And I think we should open this excellent list up to everyone soon to see how it could be further improved by smart suggestions like Robert's.

Hawk Roosting is my favourite Ted Hughes poem but there are many other worthy ones.

Do you want me to remove the "please do not add books to this list" message in the list description?

Dear Susanna,
I've got this one, thanks. Let's bring into the mix the intellectual capital of Goodreaders to this great list started by the Serious Literature Group.

Okey dokey.

Love this list...I have a more studential one with similar tastes here:

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/19...

Ted Hughes The crow; birthday letters; or the individual poem The Fox all worthy contenders.
I would also vote for Wendy Cope's making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis

What about Emily Dickinson? I loved her 'Much Madness is Divinest Sense', 'Pain Has An Element of Blank' and 'Success Is Counted Sweetest'.

No Seamus Heaney? Until his recent death, probably the greatest living poet in the English language. For shame!

Pamela wrote: "No Seamus Heaney? Until his recent death, probably the greatest living poet in the English language. For shame!"

But only since Ted Hughes and R.S. Thomas died, in my view. Still, having Longfellow but no Heaney seems strange to me.

Robert wrote: "Pamela wrote: "No Seamus Heaney? Until his recent death, probably the greatest living poet in the English language. For shame!"

But only since Ted Hughes and R.S. Thomas died, in my view. Still, h..."

Ah, but that still gave Heaney a good dozen or so years at the top! To be honest I think many of these lists contain works that are supposedly 'worthy' rather than having any actual merit

Pamela wrote: "Robert wrote: "Pamela wrote: "No Seamus Heaney? Until his recent death, probably the greatest living poet in the English language. For shame!"

But only since Ted Hughes and R.S. Thomas died, in my..."

Well, that can always happen - that's why I've only voted for things I've read. I haven't even voted for Gawain and the Green Knight because I have only read translations into modern English.

I notice that Heaney appears on page two of the list i.e. below the top 100.

That was me, I just added him!

Pamela wrote: "That was me, I just added him!"

Aha! Good for you!

A wonderful list! As the title clearly states though "Goodreads Top 100 Poems of All Time, I've taken the liberty of removing a few books for being novels, not poetry: The God of Small Things, The Inheritance of Loss and Midnight's Children.

@David Lentz
The titles mentions "Goodreads Top 100 Poems of All Time", still there are currently 176 titles on this list (after I'd removed 6 duplicates). Earlier on Susanna already noticed 105 titles. I haven't added any titles (yet), although I could see some great ones 'missing', but reading the discussion above, I'm guessing the title of the Listopia is no longer correct and one can add now?

There's a lot more than 'just' 100 poems on here...