There are 24-hour news broadcasts, social media sites, and blogs competing for space in people’s minds. However, it seems that the traditional forms of art are fighting back and among them is poetry. According to research, the annual sales of poetry books has been growing in the United States since 2015. 

This has made it one of the fastest-growing categories in the publishing industry. Almost half of these books have been written by Insta-poets. Most of the buyers of such books are teenage girls and young women. Here, we’ve presented the most popular poets who’ve gained tremendous popularity through Instagram.

1. Lang Leav

This Thailand-born and New Zealand-based novelist and poet is known for her writings on love, loss, and women’s empowerment. According to her, Instagram is a great medium for uploading snippets of work. The only problem she has with a social media platform is that it shouldn’t define a literary genre. When her first book came out, it sat next to Shakespeare and Poe on the shelves. 

The world of literature was mostly dominated by men, the white, and the privileged. Her first book Love & Misadventure, which was released in 2013, was a welcome change. She believes that women of colour are now dominating the modern poetry scene. The reason, according to her, is that an increasing number of readers want more diverse views of the world.

2. Leticia Sala

This Spanish law graduate and former UN worker say that she had no expectations. In 2015, she decided to start posting her poems on Instagram. She just thought it would be interesting to use Instagram a bit differently. Back in the day, everyone published images and she thought of publishing her writings. 

In her opinion, it’s a shame to criticize Insta-poets so heavily. Today, it seems that the literary world is strongly opposed to this innovative approach. Leticia believes that the poetry coming from social media platforms are the purest. 

It’s not edited, corrected, or polished by anyone and is therefore raw and honest. She thinks that these poems are brave and genuine. Perhaps, this is why such poems resonate so much in recent times. People today spend endless hours living in the virtual world of vanity. 

They are constantly scrolling for entertainment and information. According to Leticia, the best feeling is when readers comment to say that they relate to the poem.

3. Rupi Kaur

In 2016, her first book Milk & Honey astonishingly outsold Homer’s The Odyssey. This book of poetry was on the New York Times bestseller list for over 100 consecutive weeks. Rupi Kaur had then begun leading the charge. Her book has been translated into more than 35 languages. 

In 2017, her second book The Sun and Her Flowers had sold a million copies. It happened within the first three months of the book being released. Rupi Kaur is now considered one of the social media’s biggest success stories.

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1. Charles Bukowski loved cats

Once declared by Time magazine as the ‘laureate of American lowlife’, Charles Bukowski had a soft spot for felines. This German-American poet owned a pet cat named ‘Minx’. He even wrote a poem on his felines called ‘My Cats’. In the poem, he describes how he was inspired by the courage of his cats. He mentioned that their courage gave him strength whenever he was feeling low.

2. Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s last words were very sweet

Many poems of this author from the Victorian era were inspired by her beloved husband, Robert Browning. Elizabeth was known for her romantic poems like How Do I Love Thee? He was also a poet. Most of her life was spent in poor health, but the romance in her never died. 

When she was dying at the age of 55, her husband held her in his arms. He then asked her how she was feeling. Her final word in response was, “Beautiful”.

3. Pablo Neruda preferred handwriting his poems using green ink

Pablo Neruda was a Pulitzer Prize winner from Chile. He was a poet who blended politics and surrealism into his poetry. It is popularly believed that he saw green as a colour of hope. Perhaps this is the reason why he favoured writing his poems with a fountain pen filled with green ink.

4. E.E. Cummings once called out those who spurned him in a dedication page

The American writer E.E. Cummings’s collection of 70 poems was rejected by several publishers. This happened despite him being a published author and having released a novel, poetry collections, and plays. He finally managed to publish the collection in 1935 with the help of a loan from his mother. It had two revisions that were noteworthy. 

In the first revision, he changed its title to ‘No Thanks’. This was a reference to the letters of dismissal that he had received. On the dedication page, he printed a concrete poem. It was written in the shape of a funeral urn. What’s truly interesting is that the poem listed the names of all publishers who had rejected him.

5. Sappho, the archaic Greek poet, might’ve been a popular songwriter

The ancient texts described Sappho’s writing as ‘mele’, which literally translates as ‘songs’. The debate about how her works were performed still goes on among historians. The description suggests that her poems were set to music. This means that Sappho might’ve been a popular songwriter. 

There have been speculations that Sappho’s fans copied her lyrics into papyrus and pottery. In this way, her talent and verses were preserved for thousands of years.

6. Shel Silverstein was an award-winning songwriter

This American humorist is best known for his illustrated poetry books for children. The best examples would be Where The Sidewalk Ends and A Light In the Attic. It is worth noting that he also earned Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations. 
In 1991, he received nominations for his song I’m Checking Out. It was performed at the end of the movie Postcards From the Edge by Meryl Streep. About two decades earlier, he had won the Grammy for Best Country Song. This was for writing A Boy Named Sue.

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However, the ability to write poetry is certainly not a personality trait. The famous poets may be more eccentric and creative, but writing poetry is a learned skill. Of course, it can’t be denied that some poets do have personality traits that help them write better poems. It’s more like certain people who have a natural talent for physics, horticulture, singing, and dancing. 

You may have natural strengths and abilities that feed a certain passion or skill. You can also have the ability to improve on whatever natural talent you possess. If you feel you’re not a natural poet, but want to write good poems, then you can definitely learn. If you practice the basics and keep moving forward, you will certainly improve your skills. 

You’ll see that whether or not you have the personality traits of a poet would become less important. All that would really matter is your ability to retain the childlike awe and wonder and keep writing. Now let’s see what the three greatest qualities of every poet are:

1. A knack for rhythm and pattern

Writers and poets can see patterns not only in their writing but in life as well. A poet sees rhythm and patterns in all the lines and verses of a poem. In fact, it may seem to him or her that every word has a certain rhyme and rhythm. The essence of pattern and rhythm is a poet’s personality. 

A verse or poem that lacks pattern is utter chaos. ‘Batching’ is the term used by productivity experts to describe this. For a blogger, this would mean collecting a dozen images at once.

2. Protective of their time

It’s quite interesting to see that the most successful published poets are not ‘people pleasers’. They certainly know how to say ‘no’. Successful poets know how to close their doors so that they can work in peace. They’re extremely good at prioritizing their writing and avoiding distractions. Most of the published writers and poets simplify their lives to make more time to write. 

This means saying ‘no’ to family members, friends, colleagues, neighbours, and strangers. Some people don’t understand the need to set boundaries. Such people don’t really possess the personality traits and passion required for writing poems.

3. Motivated from within

Almost all successful poets have much-needed inspiration and internal motivation. They write for themselves and can do that for hours without the greed for material gains. They’re driven mostly by their own experiences. Such poets are the ones who wish to share their insights to help readers live fulfilling lives. Internal motivation is one of the key personality traits of all the successful individuals in the world. 

This simply means that if you do something out of your own internal motivation, you’re more likely to achieve success. You’ll certainly lose your drive if you’re trying to chase certain trends or please others. This would eventually lead to failure.

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Poetry can be highly subjective just like art. It would only be worthy if it connects emotionally with the audience. It’s quite difficult, therefore, to judge poetry solely on the basis of its technical merits. Another great mistake would be to rank one poet against the other. 

Nevertheless, there are poets who have made significant achievements in several forms of poetry. Some have also influenced literary movements or left a lasting impression on popular culture. Here, we’ve listed some of the greatest poets who influenced the world:

1. William Shakespeare

He is among the best-known poets of all time. In recent times, William Shakespeare has gotten a lot of attention with his Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet. Not many know the fact that his original fame came as a result of his poetry. This had even earned him the nickname of ‘the bard’. 

He had written 154 sonnets during his career. Among them were love poems, such as Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? or sonnet 18. The narrative poem Venus and Adonis is also included in his body of work. This poem tells the tale of unrequited love between a hunter and a goddess.

2. Dante Alighieri

Dante is renowned worldwide for his magnum opus called La Commedia or The Divine Comedy. It is considered one of the greatest poems in the Italian language and the world of literature. It took twelve years to complete. This Italian poet was born during the middle ages in Florence and grew up amid the aristocratic society. 

Under the apprenticeship of poet Brunetto Latini, he developed a fascination for literature. He presents himself as the protagonist in The Divine Comedy. It describes his journey through hell’s nine circles to purgatory and heaven. He remained in love with Beatrice Portinari despite being married to another woman. 

Upon the death of Beatrice in 1290, he was stricken with grief. Later, he committed himself to study the philosophies of Aristotle, Cicero, and Boethius. During this time, he also developed his own poetic voice in lyrical poems. A few years later, Beatrice was depicted as the subject of mythical love in his collection Vita Nuova.

3. Maya Angelou

An American poet, civil rights activist, and autobiographer, Maya Angelou was born on the 4th of April, 1928. She had worked for Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Most of her poems delves into feminism, race, and black beauty. An example of all three would be her famous poem Still I Rise. 

She also wrote poetry on the anti-Vietnam war. For her poem Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘fore I Diiie, she was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Maya Angelou was a singer, playwright, dancer, and editor besides being a poet. In the year 1988, she became the first black director in Hollywood. 

During her lifetime, she received more than fifty honorary degrees. Maya Angelou was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Clinton. She was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

4. Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson is considered one of the all-time great poets of the United States today. It may come as a surprise to many that she was not so well-known during her lifetime. Emily was born during the 19th century in Massachusetts to a well-connected family. She studied at Amherst Academy and Mount Holyoke Female Seminary but returned to lead the life of a recluse at her family home. 

She barely left her bedroom even as the years passed. It was during these days of isolation that she wrote almost 1,800 poems. Only ten of her heavily edited poems were published while she was alive. After her death, a cache of her poetry was discovered by her sister Lavinia. This led to a huge surge in the publication of her poems. The major themes of her poetry were Christianity, love, and death.

5. Jalal ad-Din Mohammad Rumi

Renowned worldwide simply as ‘Rumi’, he was a Persian poet and Islamic scholar from the 13th century. His poems have been translated into many different languages of the world. This earned him the nickname of the ‘most popular poet’. Translated versions of his poems are extremely popular in the United States, South Asia, Turkey, and Azerbaijan. 

Although he wrote mainly in Persian, Rumi had also dabbled in Arabic, Turkish, and Greek languages. His best-known work is Masnavi, which is a series of spiritual poetry books. Its 25,000 verses have been written to teach Sufis how to love God truly. Many also consider it as the greatest work of poetry in the Persian language.

6. Homer

Very little information is available about Homer. Some are not even sure whether he existed or not. Literary scholars are of the opinion that Homer was the single author behind two epic poems. They are The Iliad and The Odyssey, which form the foundations of ancient Greek literature. 

The accounts of Homer’s life suggest that he was a blind bard from Ionia. Today, it is a coastal area of Turkey. Scholars have clearly stated that The Iliad and The Odyssey are some of the most influential works ever written. The Iliad is set in the times of the siege of Troy. 

It focuses on the conflict that took place between the warrior Achilles and King Agamemnon. The Odyssey narrates the tale of Odysseus. He was the king of Ithaca. The epic poem tells the tale of his journey home after the fall of Troy.

7. Robert Frost

He was a famous American poet born in San Francisco. He achieved tremendous popularity during his lifetime and was also praised by critics. They loved his dramatic scenes and the realistic depictions of life in rural America. He is the only poet to have received four Pulitzer Prizes for poetry. 

Besides this honour, he was also awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. Two years before he died, Robert Frost was declared poet laureate of Vermont. He used New England as the setting for his poems frequently. They examine the philosophical and social themes in relation to nature.

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