Poetry uses a particular style and rhythm to communicate experiences, emotions, and ideas with great intensity. Poetry has always been an integral part of literature of the United Kingdom. If we talk about the world’s great poets, there are some most famous poets from the United Kingdom.
From the ancient period to the present day, poets have attracted readers with their unique styles, themes, and perspectives. Poems are intersubjective, meaning that they embody the individual experiences of multiple minds.
In this article, we will be highlighting 11 most famous poets from the United Kingdom.
So let’s get started…
Table of Contents
11. Robert Browning
Robert Browning was a talented and intelligent English poet and playwright whose works were initially met with mixed reviews. His early poetry was criticized for its intense and morbid self-consciousness, leading him to write more objectively in his later works.
Browning’s meeting with Elizabeth Barrett, a more established poet, proved to be a turning point in his career. The couple married and moved to Italy, where they both wrote extensively.
However,
It was after Elizabeth’s death that Browning’s publication of “The Ring and the Book” brought him widespread recognition as one of the foremost poet of Victorian Era.
Browning’s legacy is one of great poetic skill and innovation. His works dealt with complex psychological themes, exploring the inner workings of the human mind with a depth and nuance that was ahead of its time.
Browning’s mastery of the dramatic monologue allowed him to give voice to a diverse array of characters and perspectives, making him one of the most versatile poets of his era.
His influence can still be felt in modern poetry, where his innovative use of language and structure continues to inspire new generations of writers.
Robert Browning’s contribution to English literature is one of immense value, confirming his place in the canon of most famous poets from the United Kingdom.
| POEM | PUBLISHED |
| The Pied Piper of Hameline | 1842 |
| Fra Lippo Lippi | 1855 |
| My Last Duchess | 1842 |
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10. Alfred Tennyson
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, born in England in 1809, was a talented writer from an early age. His father tutored him in classical and modern languages, but suffered from mental breakdowns and alcoholism.
Tennyson escaped to attend Trinity College, Cambridge, where he and his brother published a book of poems that caught the attention of the “Apostles”, a literary club.
The sudden death of his best friend, Arthur Henry Hallam, inspired many of Tennyson’s poems, including the long elegy “In Memoriam”. Although his early books of poetry were criticized for being obscure and affected, Tennyson’s Poems in two volumes was a critical and popular success in 1842.
His popularity grew with the publication of “In Memoriam” in 1850, and he was appointed poet laureate of Britain. Tennyson’s appearance and booming voice added to his notoriety.
He continued to publish successful works, including “Idylls of the Kings,” and was awarded a peerage in 1884. Tennyson died in 1892 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
| POEM | PUBLISHED |
| Maud | 1855 |
| Crossing the Bar | 1889 |
| The Princess | 1847 |
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9. W. B. Yeats
William Butler Yeats was a prominent figure in the Irish literary revival and one of the most influential poets of the 20th century.
His early works were heavily focused on drama and Irish legends, while his later works incorporated highly poetical and esoteric styles, influenced by the Japanese Noh plays.
Although he was a patriot, he denounced the bigotry and hatred of the Nationalist movement and expressed his protests through his poetry.
Yeats was appointed to the Irish Senate in 1922 and continued to write and publish until his death in 1939. His lyric achievement, particularly in volumes such as The Wild Swans at Coole, Michael Robartes and the Dancer, and The Tower, made him a renowned poet, recognized with the Nobel Prize.
Yeats’ recurrent themes of art and life, cyclical theories, masks, and beauty and ceremony still resonate today and continue to inspire poets and readers alike.
| POEM | PUBLISHED |
| A Prayer for my Daughter | 1921 |
| The Second Coming | 1920 |
| When You are Old | 1892 |
8. Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer was a celebrated English poet, diplomat, and civil servant, widely regarded as the “Father of English literature“. He is considered as one of the most famous poets from the United Kingdom.
His works had a significant impact on the development of the English language and literature. Chaucer was born to an affluent family in London and received a broad education that included French, Latin, and Italian.
He held several positions throughout his life, serving as a courtier, diplomat, and civil servant, and was heavily influenced by his travels to Italy and the works of Dante, Giovanni Boccaccio, and Petrarch.
Chaucer’s writing style was unique for its time, as he wrote in the English vernacular while court poetry was still being written in Anglo-Norman or Latin.
Chaucer’s most famous work “The Canterbury Tales”, presents a vivid picture of late-medieval English society through the eyes of twenty-nine characters. His writing is characterized by insight and humor, and he pioneered the use of the decasyllabic couplet and regular iambic pentameter.
Chaucer’s influence on English literature cannot be overstated, and he continues to be celebrated to this day. He died in 1400 and was buried in the chapel of St. Benedict at Westminster Abbey.
His legacy is honored through the tradition of the “Poets’ Corner” at the Abbey, where many other famous poets and writers are also buried or memorialized.
| POEM | PUBLISHED |
| Troilus and Criseyde | 1380s |
| The Nun’s Priest’s Tale | 1390s |
| Parlement of Foules | 1380s |
7. John Donne
John Donne was a significant figure in the development of English poetry, particularly as the founder of the Metaphysical Poets. He used the conceit as an extended metaphor to create startling and innovative images, which challenged the reader’s perspective.
His poetry was influenced by his tumultuous relationship with religion and his personal experiences, including his marriage to Anne More and the death of his wife and children.
Donne’s poetry and prose often examined themes of mortality and his own impending death, which he reflected on in his private prayers, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions.
Despite facing social and financial instability throughout his life, Donne continued to write and became a highly influential presence in London as a preacher and theologian.
His legacy as a poet and writer continues to be celebrated and studied today which make him one of the most famous poets from the United Kingdom.
| POEM | PUBLISHED |
| The Flea | 1633 |
| Holly Sonnets | 1633 |
| A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning | 1633 |
6. John Keats
John Keats, one of the greatest English poets, had a brief and tragic life. Despite receiving harsh criticism during his lifetime, he continued to produce masterpieces of poetry.
His work, which includes “The Eve of St. Agnes,” “Ode to a Nightingale,” and “To Autumn,” is renowned for its sensuousness, vivid imagery, and technical mastery.
Keats died at the young age of 25, just as his reputation was beginning to grow. In the years following his death, his poetry was rediscovered and celebrated by later generations of writers and critics, cementing his place in the pantheon of English literature.
Today, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential and accomplished poets of the Romantic Era. His life and work continue to inspire and captivate readers around the world.
| POEM | PUBLISHED |
| To Autumn | 1820 |
| Ode to a Nightingale | 1819 |
| When I Have Fears | 1848 |
5. Lord Byron
Lord Byron was a larger-than-life figure whose exploits and writings drew both adoration and criticism. Despite his confession of having no interest in society, he became a celebrity in fashionable circles after the publication of the first part of his long narrative poem, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, in 1812.
With his noticeable limp and striking face, Byron’s physical presence also commanded attention. He was notoriously protective of his image, directing his publisher to destroy any engravings of himself that he disliked.
However, he endorsed a portrait completed by the artist Thomas Phillips in 1813. Byron’s life was full of controversy, from his keeping of a pet bear to the rumours of a sexual relationship with his half-sister.
He also supported the freedom of the Greeks in their War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire, which ultimately proved deadly when he died from a fever and infection contracted while awaiting battle in Greece in 1824.
Despite the criticism and scandal that surrounded him during his lifetime, Byron’s celebrity only grew after his death, and he is still remembered today as one of the most famous poets from the United Kingdom and a major figure in English literature.
| POEM | PUBLISHED |
| Don Juan | 1819 |
| She Walks in Beauty | 1814 |
| Darkness | 1816 |
4. T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns Eliot was a highly influential poet and literary figure of the 20th century. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he moved to England where he worked as a schoolmaster, bank clerk, and eventually became the literary editor for Faber & Faber.
Eliot was known for his daring innovation in poetry, never compromising with language or the public, and believing that poetry should represent the complexities of modern civilization. Despite the difficulty of his poetry, his influence on modern poetic diction has been immense.
Eliot’s work reflects his development as a Christian writer, with his early work being essentially negative and his later work showing a more visible higher world. Although he never intended to become a “religious poet,” his dramas Murder in the Cathedral and The Family Reunion are more openly Christian apologies.
In his essays, Eliot advocates traditionalism in religion, society, and literature. He believed that tradition is a living organism that comprises the past and present in constant mutual interaction.
Eliot’s legacy is marked by his significant contribution to literature, through his plays and poetry, and his influence on the literary world as a whole.
His plays and poems continue to be studied and analyzed by scholars and readers alike, and his work has left an indelible mark on the literary world.
| POEM | PUBLISHED |
| The Waste Land | 1922 |
| The Hollow Men | 1925 |
| Journey of the Magi | 1927 |
3. William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was a significant figure in the Romantic Age of English literature, known for his poetry and his close friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
His most famous work, The Prelude, was not published during his lifetime, but became an important posthumous publication. Wordsworth’s early poetry was supported by a legacy from Raisley Calvert, which allowed him to pursue his writing.
His close collaboration with Coleridge resulted in the production of Lyrical Ballads, an important work that helped to launch the Romantic movement. Wordsworth’s contributions to this work included his famous poem “Tintern Abbey” and the preface, which became a central work of Romantic literary theory.
Throughout his life, Wordsworth continued to revise and expand his work, leaving a lasting legacy that continues to be studied and celebrated today. After his death from pleurisy in 1850, his wife published The Prelude, cementing his place as one of the great poets of English literature.
| POEM | PUBLISHED |
| The Prelude | 1850 |
| My Heart Leaps Up | 1807 |
| The Lucy Poems | 1798 |
2. William Blake
William Blake was a visionary poet, artist, and engraver who defied convention and privilege imagination over reason in his work. He was born in London in 1757, and from early childhood, he spoke of having visions that would inspire his poetry and art throughout his career.
Although he learned to read and write at home, his parents sent him to drawing school at age ten, and he began writing poetry two years later. Blake’s work often protested against war, tyranny, and political and social oppression, and he associated with some of the leading radical thinkers of his time.
Blake’s most popular collections of poetry were “Songs of Innocence” and “Songs of Experience”, both printed in an illustrated format that resembled illuminated manuscripts.
His mature work, the great visionary epics written and etched between about 1804 and 1820, envisioned a new and higher kind of innocence – the human spirit triumphing over reason.
Blake believed that his poetry could be understood by common people, but he was determined not to sacrifice his vision to become popular.
In his final years, Blake lived in great poverty but was cheered by the admiring friendship of a group of younger artists who called themselves “the Ancients.” John Linnell, a young artist, helped him financially and created new interest in his work.
It was Linnell who commissioned Blake to design illustrations for Dante’s Divine Comedy, the cycle of drawings that Blake worked on until his death in 1827.
Although Blake’s work was not well-known by the general public during his lifetime, he is now recognized as a major figure in the Romantic movement and his legacy continues to inspire and influence artists and writers today.
| POEM | PUBLISHED |
| The Tyger | 1794 |
| The Chimney Sweeper | 1789 |
| A Poison Tree | 1794 |
1. William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare’s life and works have had a profound impact on the English language and literature. His plays, sonnets, and poems continue to be studied and performed around the world, and his legacy endures to this day.
Although no original manuscripts of his plays are known to exist, we have a collection of his works thanks to the efforts of his fellow actors who collected and published them after his death.
Shakespeare’s plays have been adapted countless times and have had a lasting presence in popular culture. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare is a testament to his prolific writing, and his influence can be seen in the work of countless other writers and artists.
Shakespeare died in 1616 at the age of 52, but his impact on literature and culture has continued for centuries. His contributions in English Literature makes him the most famous poets from the United Kingdom.
His burial in the sanctuary of the parish church, Holy Trinity, in his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon serves as a reminder of his enduring legacy.
| POEM | PUBLISHED |
| The Phoenix and the Turtle | 1601 |
| The Rape of Lucrece | 1594 |
| Venus and Adonis | 1593 |
FAQ : Related to 11 most famous poets from the United Kingdom
Que. Who are the 11 most famous poets from the United Kingdom ?
Ans. William Shakespeare, William Blake, William Wordsworth, T. S. Eliot, Lord Byron, John Keats, John Donne, Geoffrey Chaucer, W. B. Yeats, Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning are considered as most famous poets from the United Kingdom.
Que. Who is the most famous poet of Britain ?
Ans. William Shakespeare is considered as the most famous poet of Britain.
Que. Who is the father of English Poetry ?
Ans. Geoffrey Chaucer is known as the father of English Poetry.
Que. What is a Poet Laureate ?
Ans. According to Wikipedia, The British Poet Laureate is an honorary position appointed by the monarch of the United Kingdom, currently on the advice of the prime minister.
Who is your Favorite in the list of the most famous poets from the United Kingdom ?
Let me know about how much do you like British Poetry and your favorite poet in the comment below. Also, mention the name of other poets who deserve to be in the list of most famous poets from the United Kingdom.
