Who, in your opinion, is the best Modern Poet of the 20th century?

I'll go for Yeats. -- Quote ....he is remembered as an important cultural leader, as a major playwright (he was one of the founders of the famous Abbey Theatre in Dublin), and as one of the very greatest poets—in any language—of the century. W.B.Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1923 and died in 1939 at the age of 73.

-- /Quote poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/117 I'm sure a case can be made for many, but he's the one that means the most to me, for things like this... -- Quote He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. -- /Quote http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/jmiles/entry/poetrylovers_masterclass_he.

I've got to go with Sage Francis on this one. Yeah, he ended up adapting his poetry to music (and why not? ), but he started out as a poet poet, and he's written some of the finest poems I've read from any poet in the 20th century.

I nominate Sage Francis because, despite the fact that there's been many great poets in the last century (E.E. Cummings, Jack Kerouac, and Maya Angelou to name a few), all of whom attained a fair measure of political significance through their works, Sage Francis just seems to have what I look for in a modern poet. Political message is important (and he's got a staunchly leftist viewpoint). The meters used in the poem should be complementary (and his are).

The content should be witty and yet precise, and he delivers both wit and precision with pretty much every piece he's ever written. Here's an example of what I'm talking about. These are the lyrics to the poem "Slow Down Gandhi", which also got made into a song.

I will post the song so you can listen to it. Here goes: "There once was a song called "Arrest The President. " Contemporary music, a hit with the kids!

It was a top ten. I wasn't pop then, so I missed the bus a bit. But politics, it was on everybody's hot this summer list.

The cool kids were all rocking votes. I shit you not, I was pistol whippin' cops for hip hop. On my soap box yelling into megaphones.

Killing hard rocks using carcasses as stepping stones. Had to promise that I'd stop holding my marches, The day that Chris Columbus got crucified on golden arches. My pedestal was too tall to climb off.In fact that's the reason for the high horse.

And from up here I see Marines and Hummers on a conquest; Underdogs with wonderbras in a push-up contest, All for the sake of military recruitment. It felt like Kent State the way they targeted the students. I galloped off, whistling "Ohio.

" The rest of them, stuck doing stand up at a cricket convention. What would they die for? What would they die for?

Is it the same machine that leaves the quality of life poor? An abominable colony of cyborgs? Clogging up the property that I bought with eyesores?

That clever ad campaign ain't worth the time taken from minimum wage labor. I don't care how half-naked or fake she looks. She smells like dirty cash and aged-paper books!

What would she die for? Slow down, Gandhi. You're killing 'em Slow down, Gandhi.

You're killing 'em. Now it's whistle blower vs. the pistol holder. Case dismissed, they'll lock you up and throw away the key witness!

Justice is the whim of a judge, check his chest density. It leaves much room for error, and the rest left to destiny. The "West Memphis 3" lost paradise!

It's Death Penalty vs. Suicidal Tendencies. All I wanted was a f***ing Pepsi.Institution. Making you think you're crazy is a billion dollar industry!

If they could sell sanity in a bottle, they'd be charging for compressed air, and marketing healthcare. They demonize welfare. Middle-class eliminated, the rich get richer til the poor get educated.

But some of y'all still haven’t grown into your face, and your face doesn't quite match your head. And I'm waiting for a brain to fill the dead space that's left! You're all, "Give me ethnicity or give me dreads!

" Trustafundian rebel, without a cause for alarm. Cause when push turns to shove, you jump into your forefathers arms. He's a banker, you're part of the system, Off go the dreadlocks in comes the income.

The briefcase, the freebase. The sickness, the symptom. When the cameras start rolling, stay the f*** outta the picture, Pilgrim!

The briefcase, the freebase! The sickness, the symptoms! When the cameras start rolling, slow down, Gandhi!

You're killing 'em.Mr. "Save The World", spare us the details. Save the females from losing interest.

And Miss "Save The Universe", You're a damsel in distress. Tied down to a track of isolated incidents. Generalize my disease.

I need a taste of what it's like. Living off the fat of kings, I play the scab at your hunger strike. Slow down Gandhi, you're killing 'em.

One love, one life, one too many victims. Republicrat, Democran, one party system. Media goes in a frenzy.

They're stripped of their credentials. Presidential candidates can't debate over this instrumental. Let 'em freestyle, winner-takes-all.

When the music’s dead, I'll have Ted Nugent’s head hanging on my wall! Kill one of ours, we'll kill one of yours, with some friendly fire. That’s a funny term, like "civil war".

Six in the morning, police at my crib. Now my nights consist of two toothpicks and eyelids. The crucifix and vitamins, the music that is pirated.

New flavored food made of mutated hybrids. Uh, they tell me that it's not that bad. It fucks you up good, but its "not that bad".

They hold on to these tales till it's the dog that wags. God save us all if he lets the cat out the bag. Who's the one to blame for this strain in my vocal chords?

Who can pen a hateful threat but can't hold a sword? It's the same who complain about the global war, But can't overthrow the local joker that they voted for. They call the shots, but they're not in the line of fire.

I'd call the cops, but they're breaking the line of duty. Lets call a stop to the abuse of authority. The truth keeps callin' me, and I'mma live to tell the story.So look for truth.

Quit seeking forgiveness. You need to cut the noose, but you don't believe in scissors. You support the troops?

By wearing yellow ribbons? Just bring home my motherf***ing Brothers and Sisters! Cause they don't call the shots, but they're in the line of fire!

I'd like to call the cops, but they're breaking the line of duty! It's time to call a stop to the abuse of authority! The truth keeps calling me, and I'mma live to tell the story.

" Eliot, Cummings, Kerouac, Angelou...they were brilliant poets, but they also were the voice of their times. I think Sage Francis or poets like him, politically charged ones, is the voice of my time. Or at least one of the most significant.

Saul Williams also ranks pretty high up there.

My answer is Laurie Darroch-Meekis. She isn't well know but she is one of the best modern poets alive today.

T.S. Eliot, Nobel Laureate Poet 1948, has my vote for best Modern Poet. S poems challenged societal views and brought forward a different way of examining certain issues. He was also responsible for co-authoring Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, upon which the Andrew Lloyd Webber production of CATS was based.In particular, the poem The Naming of Cats (video clip below) was Eliot's creation.

He was not my favorite, however. Ogden Nash is the poet whom I found most entertaining. Mostly humorous, easy reads.

He won't ever win critical acclaim and his poems won't change the world, but he has brought laughter and happiness into some dark times.

If you are asking about poets from the Modernist Period, I would say Ezra Pound. I only say this because he did so much to support, champion, and develop the careers of the other Moderns--Yeats and Eliot, first and foremost. However, if by "modern poet of the 20th Century" you mean, any poet who lived through that century, then I'd have to say Allen Ginsberg.

He is the poet who kept pace with the twentieth century the best. This had a lot to do with the luck historical placement and the parents he was born to. I mean, Ginsberg wrote poetry through a World War, the Nazis, and the dropping of the Atomic bomb.

S mother was mentally ill and subjected to a barbaric mental health system, as was Allen himself at a young age. He wrote his two greatest poems about these experiences: "Howl" and "Kaddish. " He wrote as an outed homosexual before the concept existed.

He was involved in the antiwar movement during Vietnam, the Civil Rights Movement, the Anti-Nuke Movement--and wrote poetry through all of it. He even helped to establish a school of poetry in Boulder Colorado. And, as a parting nod, his death earned him a centerfold story in Rolling Stone--and he died a millionaire.

He became a millionaire by writing poetry in the United States of America. Come on, that's greatness.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.