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100 poems recommended by Goodreads Serious Literature Group offered for voting by Goodreaders.
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260 books · 233 voters · list created September 25th, 2011 by David Lentz (votes) .
91 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


David 895 books
1899 friends
Karin 4204 books
35 friends
Autumn 3441 books
208 friends
Sergio 150 books
46 friends
Mo 4553 books
99 friends
Manny 6170 books
4949 friends
Charleen 1480 books
189 friends
Robb 717 books
199 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-20 of 20 (20 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by David (new)

David Lentz 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.


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads You want me to clean this one, David? I see it has 105 books at present.


message 3: by David (new)

David Lentz 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.


message 4: by Robert (last edited Oct 22, 2011 03:11PM) (new)

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


message 5: by David (new)

David Lentz 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.


message 6: by Robert (new)

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


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads Do you want me to remove the "please do not add books to this list" message in the list description?


message 8: by David (new)

David Lentz 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.


message 10: by Beth A. (new)

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

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


message 11: by Jo (new)

Jo 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


message 12: by Lit Bug (Foram) (new)

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


message 13: by Pamela (new)

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


message 14: by Robert (new)

Robert 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.


message 15: by Pamela (new)

Pamela 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


message 16: by Robert (new)

Robert 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.


message 17: by Pamela (new)

Pamela That was me, I just added him!


message 18: by Robert (new)

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

Aha! Good for you!


message 19: by BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) (last edited Sep 27, 2014 12:49AM) (new)

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) 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?


BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) There's a lot more than 'just' 100 poems on here...


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