All American Literature and British Literature students must select a poet whose nationality fits with the class. To make it easier, we’ve compiled a list of every poet on the POL website, and have noted their heritage and eligibility for our junior and senior classrooms.
POL Poets by Nationality (list updated in September 2012)
(If you are seeking an eligible poet for your British and World Literature class, check this condensed list: British & World Poets)
Italics = Poet introduced or reintroduced to POL in 2012-13
| Name | Nationality | Notes |
| Abani, Chris | Nigerian | Lives in America |
| Adair, Virginia Hamilton | American | |
| Addonizio, Kim | American | |
| Ai | American | |
| Aiken, Conrad | American | |
| Alexander, Elizabeth | American | |
| Alexie, Sherman | Native American | |
| Ali, Agha Shahid | Indian | Lives in America |
| Allen, Dick | American | |
| Ammons, A.R. | American | |
| Angelou, Maya | American | |
| Armitage, Simon | British | |
| Arnold, Matthew | British | |
| Ashbery, John | American | |
| Atwood, Margaret | Canadian | |
| Baca, Jimmy Santiago | American | Native American Descent |
| Baer, William | American | |
| Baker, David | American | |
| Baraka, Amiri | American | |
| Bargen, Walter | American | |
| Barnard, Mary | American | |
| Bass, Kate | British | |
| Beeder, Amy | American | Has lived extensively abroad |
| Behn, Aphra | British | |
| Bell, Marvin | American | |
| Benet, Stephen Vincent | American | Lived briefly in Paris |
| Bentley, Elizabeth | British | |
| Bernstein, Charles | American | |
| Berry, Wendell | American | |
| Berryman, John | American | |
| Bierce, Ambrose | American | |
| Bierds, Linda | American | |
| Bilgere, George | American | |
| Bishop, Elizabeth | American | Lived abroad |
| Blake, William | British | |
| Blanco, Richard | Cuban | Lives in America |
| Bly, Robert | American | |
| Bogan, Louise | American | |
| Boland, Eavan | Irish | |
| Bontemps, Arna | American | |
| Bottoms, David | American | |
| Bowers, Edgar | American | |
| Bowles, William Lisle | British | |
| Bradley, Larry | American | |
| Bradstreet, Anne | American | Published during Colonial times |
| Braithewaite, William | American | |
| Brehm, John | American | |
| Bridges, Robert | British | |
| Bringhurst, Robert | Canadian | |
| Brolaski, Julian | American | |
| Bronte, Charlotte | British | |
| Bronte, Emily | British | |
| Brooke, Rupert | British | |
| Brooks, Gwendolyn | American | |
| Browning, Elizabeth | British | |
| Browning, Robert | British | |
| Buffam, Suzanne | Canadian | Lives in America |
| Bunting, Basil | British | |
| Bunyan, John | British | |
| Burns, Robert | British | |
| Bynner, Witter | American | |
| Byron, Lord | British | |
| Cairns, Scott | American | |
| Campana, Joseph | American | |
| Campion, Thomas | British | |
| Carew, Thomas | British | |
| Carlyle, Thomas | British | |
| Carroll, Lewis | British | |
| Carruth, Hayden | American | |
| Cary, Alice | American | |
| Cardenas, Brenda | American | Spanish descent |
| Cervantes, Lorna Dee | American | Mexican & Nat. American descent |
| Chesterton, G.K. | British | |
| Christian, Marcus | American | |
| Clampitt, Amy | American | |
| Clare, John | British | |
| Clifton, Lucille | American | |
| Clough, Arthur Hugh | British | |
| Coleridge, Samuel Taylor | British | |
| Collins, Billy | American | |
| Collom, Jack | American | |
| Cooper, Jane | American | |
| Cornish, Mary | American | |
| Cowper, William | British | |
| Crane, Hart | American | |
| Crane, Stephen | American | |
| Crapsey, Adelaide | American | |
| Creeley, Robert | American | |
| Cruz, Victor Hernandez | Puerto Rican | Lives in America |
| Cullen, Countee | American | |
| Cummings, E.E. | American | |
| Cunningham, J. V. | American | |
| “H.D” (Hilda Doolittle) | American | |
| Davie, Donald | British | |
| Davis, Frank Marshall | American | |
| DeLaMare, Walter | British | |
| DeLuna, Blas Manuel | Mexican | Lives in America |
| Dennis, Carl | American | |
| Derricotte, Toi | American | |
| Deutsch, Babette | American | |
| DiPiero, W.S. | American | |
| Dickey, James | American | |
| Dickinson, Emily | American | |
| Djanikian, Gregory | American | Armenian descent |
| Donaghy, Michael | American | Lived in England |
| Donne, John | British | |
| Doty, Mark | American | |
| Dove, Rita | American | |
| Dowson, Ernest | British | |
| Drayton, Michael | British | |
| Dryden, John | British | |
| DuBois, W.E.B. | American | |
| Dugan, Alan | American | |
| Dugdale, Sasha | British | |
| Duhamel, Denise | American | |
| Dunbar, Paul Laurence | American | |
| Dunbar-Nelson, Alice | American | Native American & Creole descent |
| Duncan, Robert | American | |
| Dunn, Stephen | American | |
| Dybek, Stuart | American | Polish Descent |
| Eady, Cornelius | American | |
| Ehrhart, W. D. | American | |
| Eliot, George | British | |
| Eliot, T.S. | American | Lived extensively in England |
| Elizabeth I (Queen) | British | |
| Emerson, Ralph Waldo | American | |
| Engle, Paul | American | |
| Espada, Martin | Puerto Rican | Lives in America |
| Espaillat, Rhina | Dominican | Lives in America |
| Fairchild, B.H. | American | |
| Ferlinghetti, Lawrence | American | |
| Ferry, David | American | |
| Finch, Anne (Countess) | British | |
| Fitzgerald, Robert | American | |
| Flynn, Nick | American | |
| Forbes, Calvin | American | |
| Fordham, Mary Weston | American | |
| Francis, Robert | American | |
| Freneau, Philip | American | |
| Frost, Robert | American | |
| Fuller, Margaret | American | |
| Fulton, Alice | American | |
| Ginsberg, Allen | American | |
| Gioia, Dana | American | |
| Goldbarth, Albert | American | |
| Goodan, Kevin | Native American | |
| Gotshall, Karin | American | |
| Graham, Jorie | American | Raised in Europe |
| Graves, Robert | British | |
| Gray, Thomas | British | |
| Gregerson, Linda | American | |
| Gregg, Linda | American | |
| Greville, Fulke | British | |
| Grotz, Jennifer | American | Lived in France & Poland |
| Guest, Barbara | American | |
| Guest, Edgar Albert | American | |
| Gunn, Thomas | American | |
| Gwynn, R.S. | American | |
| Hacker, Marilyn | American | Lived in Paris |
| Haines, John | American | |
| Hall, Donald | American | Educated in England |
| Hands, Elizabeth | British | |
| Hardy, Thomas | British | |
| Harjo, Joy | Native American | |
| Harper, Frances | American | |
| Harper, Michael | American | |
| Hass, Robert | American | |
| Hayden, Robert | American | |
| Hayes, Terrance | American | |
| Hedin, Robert | American | |
| Henley, William Ernest | British | |
| Herbert, George | British | |
| Herrick, Robert | British | |
| Hicok, Bob | American | |
| Hilbert, Ernest | American | |
| Hillman, Brenda | American | |
| Hine, Daryl | Canadian | Lives in America |
| Hirsch, Edward | American | |
| Hirshfield, Jane | American | |
| Hoagland, Tony | American | |
| Holmes, Meredith | American | |
| Holmes, Oliver Wendell | American | |
| Hongo, Garrett | American | Asian descent |
| Hood, Thomas | British | |
| Hopkins, Gerard Manley | British | |
| Horton, George Moses | American | African descent |
| Housman, A. E. | British | |
| Howe, Julia Ward | American | |
| Hudgins, Andrew | American | |
| Hughes, Langston | American | |
| Hugo, Richard | American | |
| Hunt, Leigh | British | |
| Ignatow, David | American | |
| Jacobson, Josephine | Canadian | |
| Jarman, Mark | American | |
| Jarnot, Lisa | American | |
| Jeffers, Robinson | American | |
| Jenkins, Louis | American | |
| Jewett, Sarah Orne | American | |
| Jin, Ha | Chinese | Lives in America |
| Johnson, James | American | |
| Jones, Rodney | American | |
| Jonson, Ben | British | |
| Jordan, June | American | Jamaican descent |
| Kaminsky, Ilya | Russian | Lives in America |
| Karr, Mary | American | |
| Keats, John | British | |
| Kees, Weldon | American | |
| Keely, Brigit | American | |
| Kennedy, X.J. | American | He was our judge in 2011! |
| Kenyon, Jane | American | |
| Killigrew, Anne | British | |
| Kim, Suji Kwock | Korean | Lives in America |
| Kinnell, Galway | American | |
| Kinsella, John | Australian | |
| Kipling, Rudyard | British | Lived in America |
| Kirby, David | American | Lived extensively abroad |
| Kizer, Carolyn | American | |
| Knight, Etheridge | American | |
| Koch, Kenneth | American | |
| Komunyakaa, Yusef | American | |
| Kooser, Ted | American | |
| Kumin, Maxine | American | |
| Kunitz, Stanley | American | |
| Kuusisto, Stephen | American | |
| Lamb, Charles | British | |
| Lamb, Mary | British | |
| Landon, Letitia Elizabeth | British | |
| Landor, Walter Savage | British | |
| Larkin, Philip | British | |
| Lasdun, James | British | Lives in America |
| Lawrence, D.H. | British | |
| Lazarus, Emma | American | |
| Lee, Li-Young | Chinese | Lives in America |
| Leigh, Helen | British | |
| Leithauser, Hailey | American | |
| Levertov, Denise | British | Lived in America |
| Levine, Philip | American | Russian descent |
| Levis, Larry | American | |
| Lewis, Janet Loxley | American | |
| Lim, Shirley Geok-Lin | Malaysian | Lives in America |
| Lindenberg, Rebecca | American | |
| Lindsay, Vachel | American | |
| Longfellow, Henry | American | |
| Lorde, Audre | American | West Indian descent |
| Lovelace, Richard | British | |
| Lowell, Amy | American | |
| Lowell, Robert | American | |
| Loy, Mina | British | Lived in America |
| Lux, Thomas | American | |
| Lynch, Thomas | American | Irish descent |
| Mackowski, Joanie | American | |
| MacLeish, Archibald | American | |
| MacNeice, Louis | British | |
| Markham, E.A. | West Indian | |
| Markham, Edwin | American | |
| Marlowe, Christopher | British | |
| Martinez, Dionisio | Cuban | Lives in America |
| Marvell, Andrew | British | |
| Masefield, John | British | |
| Mason, David | American | |
| Masters, Edgar Lee | American | |
| Matthews, William | American | |
| Mazur, Gail | American | |
| McClure, Michael | American | |
| McGrath, Thomas | American | |
| McHugh, Heather | American | Canadian descent |
| McKay, Claude | Jamaican | Lived in America |
| McPherson, Sandra | American | |
| Mehigan, Joshua | American | |
| Melville, Herman | American | |
| Menashe, Samuel | American | |
| Menken, Adah Isaacs | American | African and Creole descent |
| Meredith, George | British | |
| Meredith, William | American | |
| Merriam, Eve | American | |
| Merrill, James | American | |
| Merwin, W.S. | American | |
| Mew, Charlotte | British | |
| Miles, Josephine | American | |
| Millay, Edna St Millay | American | |
| Miller, Jane | American | |
| Milton, John | British | |
| Momaday, N. Scott | Native American | |
| Moody, Elizabeth | British | |
| Moore, Thomas | Irish | |
| Moss, Stanley | American | Moved to Europe |
| Mueller, Lisa | German | Lived in America |
| Murphy, Timothy | American | |
| Murray, Joan | American | |
| Muske-Dukes, Carol | American | |
| Nelson, Joel | American | Lived in England |
| Nemerov, Howard | American | |
| Niatum, Duane | Native American | |
| Niedecker, Lorine | American | |
| Noguchi, Yone | Japanese | |
| Norris, Kathleen | American | |
| Northrop, Kate | American | |
| Notley, Alice | American | Lives in France |
| Noyes, Alfred | British | |
| Nye, Naomi Shihab | American | Palestinian heritage |
| O’Driscoll, Dennis | Irish | |
| O’Rourke, Meghan | American | |
| O’Shaughnessy, Arthur | British | |
| Oppen, George | American | |
| Ortiz, Simon, J | Native American | |
| Owen, Wilfred | British | |
| Page, P.K. | British | Lived in America |
| Paley, Grace | American | |
| Pardlo, Gregory | American | |
| Parker, Dorothy | American | |
| Pastan, Linda | American | |
| Patchen, Kenneth | American | |
| Philips, Katherine | British | |
| Phillips, Carl | American | |
| Piercy, Marge | American | |
| Pinsky, Robert | American | |
| Plath, Sylvia | American | Lived in England |
| Poe, Edgar Allan | American | |
| Pope, Alexander | British | |
| Pound, Ezra | American | Lived extensively abroad |
| Ralegh, Sir Walter | British | |
| Ransom, John Crowe | American | Studied in England |
| Rios, Alberto | American | Mexican & British descent |
| Revard, Carter | Native American | |
| Rexroth, Kenneth | American | |
| Rich, Adrienne | American | |
| Riley, James Whitcomb | American | |
| Rivard, David | American | |
| Robinson, E. A. | American | |
| Robinson, Mary | British | |
| Roethke, Theodore | American | |
| Rogers, Pattiann | American | |
| Rosenberg, Isaac | British | |
| Rosser, J. Allyn | American | |
| Rossetti, Christina | British | |
| Rossetti, Dante | British | |
| Rukeyser, Muriel | American | |
| Ryan, Kay | American | |
| Ryan, Michael | American | |
| Saenz, Jacob | American | |
| Salter, Mary Jo | American | |
| Sandburg, Carl | American | |
| Sandy, Stephen | American | |
| Santos, Sherod | American | |
| Sarton, May | Belgian | Lived in America |
| Sassoon, Siegfried | British | |
| Saenz, Benjamin Alire | American | Mexican descent |
| Sanchez, Jorge | Cuban | Lives in America |
| Schulman, Grace | American | |
| Schuyler, James | American | |
| Schwartz, Delmore | American | Romanian descent |
| Seward, Anna | British | |
| Sexton, Anne | American | |
| Shakespeare, William | British | |
| Shankar, Ravi | American | |
| Shapiro, Karl | American | |
| Shelley, P.B. | British | |
| Sidney, Philip | British | |
| Simic, Charles | Yugoslavian | Lived in America |
| Simon, Maurya | American | Lived in India |
| Simpson, Louis | American | Lived in France |
| Smart, Christopher | British | |
| Smith, Charlotte | British | |
| Smith, Stevie | British | |
| Smith, Tracy | American | |
| Snodgrass, W.D. | American | |
| Snyder, Gary | American | |
| Song, Cathy | American | Asian descent |
| Soto, Gary | Mexican | Lives in America |
| Spender, Stephen | British | |
| Spenser, Edmund | British | |
| St. John, David | American | |
| Stafford, William | American | |
| Stallings, A.E. | American | Lives in Greece |
| Stanford, Frank | American | |
| Starbuck, George | American | |
| Stein, Gertrude | American | |
| Stern, Gerald | American | |
| Stevens, Wallace | American | |
| Stevenson, Anne | British | Lived in America |
| Stickney, Trumbull | American | Lived in Europe |
| Stone, Ruth | American | |
| Straley, John | American | |
| Strand, Mark | American | |
| Suarez, Virgil | Cuban | Lives in America |
| Swenson, May | American | |
| Symons, Arthur | British | |
| Synge, J.M. | Irish | |
| Tagore, Rabindrath | Indian | |
| Tanning, Dorothea | American | Lived in France extensively |
| Taylor, Ann | British | |
| Taylor, Henry | American | |
| Taylor, Jane | British | |
| Teasdale, Sara | American | |
| Tennyson, Alfred Lord | British | |
| Thomas, Dylan | Irish | |
| Thomas, Edward | British | |
| Thoreau, Henry | American | |
| Tolson, Melviin | American | Liberian descent |
| Tonge, Jennifer | American | |
| Toomer, Jean | American | |
| Traherne, Thomas | British | |
| Trethewey, Natasha | American | Canadian descent |
| Turcotte, Mark | Native American | |
| Twichell, Chase | American | |
| Urdang, Constance | American | |
| Uyematsu, Amy | American | Japanese descent |
| Valentine, Jean | American | |
| Very, Jones | American | |
| Wagoner, David | American | |
| Wakoksi, Diane | American | |
| Waldner, Liz | American | |
| Walker, Margaret | American | |
| Waller, Edmund | British | |
| Wanek, Connie | American | |
| Wharton, Edith | American | |
| Wheatley, Phillis | West Indian | Lived in America |
| Whitman, Sarah Helen | American | |
| Whitman, Walt | American | |
| Whittier, John Greenleaf | American | |
| Wilbur, Richard | American | |
| Wilcox, Ella Wheeler | American | |
| Williams, W.C. | American | |
| Wilner, Eleanor | American | |
| Wing, Catherine | American | |
| Winters, Yvor | American | |
| Wordsworth, Dorothy | British | |
| Wordsworth, William | British | |
| Wright, James | American | |
| Wright, Jay | American | |
| Wrigley, Robert | American | |
| Wyatt, Thomas | British | |
| Wylie, Elinor | American | |
| Yeats, W.B. | Irish | |
| Yezzi, David | American | |
| Young, Al | American | |
| Young, Dean | American |
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