50 Years of Poetry

I love poetry, and I know I’m not alone. Poets have been pouring a lot of meaning into only a few words for centuries, and they continue today. Did you know that April is National Poetry Month? Whether you prefer Billy Collins, Rupi Kaur or Shel Silverstein, we’ve got you covered. Here are some of our most beloved poetry books written in the last 50 years.


  1. Epistle to a Godson, by W.H. Auden
  2. The Human Season, by Archibald MacLeish
  3. You Get So Alone at Times that It Just Makes Sense, by Charles Bukowski
  4. And Still I Rise, by Maya Angelou
  5. Collected Poems, by John Betjeman
  6. Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day, by Nikki Giovanni
  7. The Poetry of Pablo Neruda, by Pablo Neruda
  8. Waiting for My Life, by Linda Pastan
  9. A Light in the Attic, by Shel Siverstein
  10. The Changing Light at Sandover, by James Merrill
  11. Whispering to Fool the Wind, by Alberto Rios
  12. Love Death and the Changing of the Seasons, by Marilyn Hacker
  13. White Shroud, by Allen Ginsberg
  14. Thomas and Beulah, by Rita Dove
  15. The Reproduction of Profiles, by Rosmarie Waldrop
  16. Selected Poems by Grwendolyn Brooks, by Gwendolyn Brooks
  17. The Selected Poems of Ted Berrigan, by Ted Berrigan
  18. Selected Poems, by Robert Creeley
  19. Alias Bob Dylan, by Stephen Scobie
  20. The Shout, by Simon Armitage
  21. The Simple Truth, by Philip Levine
  22. Atlantis, by Mark Doty
  23. Paradiso Diaspora, by John Yau
  24. The Descent of Alette, by Alice Notley
  25. Tales from Ovid, by Ted Hughes
  26. Journey through Heartsongs, by Mattie Stepanex
  27. The World’s Wife, by Carol Ann Duffy
  28. The Smallest Muscle in the Human Body, by Alberto Rios
  29. Iguanas in the Snow, by Francisco X. Alarcon
  30. Birthplace with Buried Stones, by Meena Alexander
  31. The Fatalist, by Lyn Hejinian
  32. Owls and Other Fantasies, by Mary Oliver
  33. The Trouble with Poetry, by Billy Collins
  34. Book of Longing, by Leonard Cohen
  35. Duende, by Tracy K. Smith
  36. The Earth in the Attic, by Fady Jourdah
  37. Coming in to Land, by Andrew Motion
  38. Horoscopes for the Dead, by Billy Collins
  39. An American Sunrise, by Joy Harjo
  40. No Matter the Wreckage, by Sarah Kay
  41. Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth, by Warsan Shire
  42. Bright Dead Things, by Ada Limon
  43. Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jaqueline Woodson
  44. Night Sky with Exit Wounds, by Ocean Vuong
  45. the sun and her flowers, by rupi kaur
  46. Jabberwalking, by Juan Felipe Herrera
  47. Oceanic, by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
  48. Nouns & Verbs, by Campbell McGrath
  49. Playlist for the Apocalypse, by Rita Dove
  50. Call Us What We Carry, by Amanda Gorman

Find more of your favorite poems and poets at your local HPB or HPB.com. Sound off on your sonnet of choice in the comments.