15 Most Influential Female Poets

Angelou_at_Clinton_inauguration photo by Clinton Library-Wikimedia

15 Most Influential Female Poets

Poetry has long enjoyed contributions from numerous energetic, prolific, and controversial writers. We have a wide variety to choose from while selecting pieces of art to indulge our literal senses. Here are the 15 Most Influential Female Poets.

1.  Maya Angelou.

She was born in 1924 in St. Louis Missouri. Her life as a memoirist, poet and civil rights activist spanned over five decades leaving behind a rich literal and cultural legacy. She is known to have published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, and several books of poetry.

She is also credited with writing a list of plays, movies, and television shows. It is not a simple task to determine which of her works is considered ‘ the best ‘ with different people having diverse opinions.

She was a great composer of poetry with captivating and uplifting works such as ‘And Still I Rise ‘. She was married twice to Enistasions Tosh Angelos and Paul Du Feu. Her colourful life came to an end on the 28th of May 2014 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

2. Sappho

 She was a Greek lyric poet who was born about 620 BCE in Lesbos, Greece. She was admired for the beauty of her writing style. Her poems were composed to be accompanied by music.

She received acclaim for being one of the greatest poets of the ancient era and christened names such as “The Poetess” and “The Tenth Muse”. The only known surviving complete poem is her “Ode to Aphrodite” since most of her work is now lost.

She is also considered a symbol of relations between woman and woman as she was rumoured to be a homosexual with the term “Lesbian” credited to her place of origin. Legend has it that she suffered a tragic death after leaping off the Leucadian cliffs due to her love for the ferryman Phaon.  

3. Sylvia Plath

 An American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She was born on the 27th of October 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts. Her career began at a tender age when she published her first poem at eight in the Boston Herald’s children’s section.

Plath was known to have an IQ of around 160 and graduated from Smith College in Massachusetts and the University of Cambridge. She married Ted Hughes and had two children before eventually separating.

She is known for two of her best-published collections “The Colossus and Other Poems” and “Ariel“. She earned a Pulitzer Prize in 1982 for “The Collected Poems“. She is the fourth to receive this honour posthumously as she died from suicide at age 30 on the 11th of February 1963 in Primrose Hill, London.

 4. Rupi Kaur

Rupi_Kaur photo_by_Baljit_Singh-Wikimedia

 She was born in Punjab, India in 1992. She later immigrated to Canada with her parents, began performing in 2009, and rose to fame on Instagram. She wrote a viral critique of Instagram’s action to delete her photos of menstrual blood stains on her clothes and sheets.

This gave her career traction and she took the opportunity to publish three great literal collections. She continues to grow as a female poet and only time will tell what is in store for her.

5. Gwendolyn Brooks

She was an American poet, writer, and teacher born in Topeka, Kansas on June 7th, 1917. Her works brought to light the struggles experienced by the ordinary people around her. She was the first African American woman to receive a Pulitzer Prize and was appointed the Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968. Some of her greatest poetic contributions include Winnie, Aloneness and In The Mecca to mention but a few. After a long and healthy life, she was laid to rest in Lincoln Cemetery, Chicago in 2000.

 6. Elizabeth Barret Browning 

She was an English poet of the Victorian era born on 6th March 1806 in Coxhoe, UK. Elizabeth enjoyed fame at home and across the pond in the United States.

Her first adult collection was published in 1838. She also wrote prolifically between 1841 and 1844 and enjoyed great success which attracted her husband Robert Browning. The pair got married and had one child. Elizabeth died in Florence, Italy on the 29th of June 1861 aged 55.

7. Emily Dickinson

The_Life_and_Letters_of_Emily_Dickinson_photo by Martha Dickinson Bianchi-Wikimedia

 An American born on 10th December 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. She lived a rather odd life wearing only white clothing and even refusing to greet guests. She eventually went into total isolation completely refusing to leave her bedroom. Out of her nearly 1800 poems, only 10 were published.

Her family and close friends published more edited collections posthumously upon discovery. Her works can be found in the collection titled “The Poems of Emily Dickinson” published in 1955.

8. Phillis Wheatley

A fascinating female poet whose life seemed doomed from the beginning. She was an enslaved and educated poet born in West Africa and educated in her master’s household John Wheatley.

Despite her status as a slave; she was privileged enough to have been taught how to read and write by her master’s children and wife. Her literal works attracted the attention of prominent people of the era such as Voltaire and George Washington.

She was the first African American to have a published book of poems. She employed religious, classical and abstract themes in her works.

A famous piece is “On Being Brought from Africa to America” which touches on slavery. Her poetry was used as evidence that black people were intelligent and creative subsequently calling for the abolition of slavery altogether.

After emancipation from her former enslavers, her life experienced a nose dive with her last days on earth spent in abject poverty. She died while working as a scullery maid.

9. Sarojini Naidu

 She was a poet, political activist and feminist born in  Hyderbad State on 13th February 1879. She served as the first Governor of The United Provinces as well as the President of the Indian National Congress.

She wrote lyric poetry in the fashion of traditional British Romanticism. Some of her poems include the golden threshold and the bird of time among others. Her birthday is celebrated as Women’s Day in honour of the women who have fought for equity in India.

10. Christina Rosetti

Christina was born in London, England on 5th December 1830. She grew up to become an influential artist and poet. She was educated at home by her mother through religious works, classics, fairy tales and novels.

She started writing and dating her works in 1842. In 1847 she began to explore sonnets, hymns and ballads. She romanticized death and loss.

Her first two published pieces were “Death’s Chill Between” and “Heart’s Chill Between” in a magazine. She used a pseudonym, Ellen Alleyne.

Her first commercial publication was Goblin Market and Other Poems which appeared in 1862 when she was 31. It was widely acclaimed and she was considered the foremost female poet of the day.

11. Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver was an American poet whose works are weaved by an inspiration brought from observing nature and in 2007 she has declared the best-selling poet of the country.

Mary was known to enjoy solitary walks and listened for inspiration to ignite her spring of words and in it sprung poetry that is still read in awe today. She has been described as an “Indefatigable guide to the natural world “.

She has won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer award. Some of her famous poems are Wild, The Journey and the Summer.

12. Audre Lorde

Audrey was an American writer feminist, poet and civil rights activist. She was a passionate poet and couldn’t stand the social injustices that were unfolding during her time, she became a voice against oppression and dedicated her life to confronting injustices of racism, homophobia and classism.

Her poetry is intriguing and is appreciated for its technical mastery of emotional expression as she brings to the world the injustices she observed in the world around her without fear.

She wasn’t just a poet who wrote, she was a spoken word artist and many describe her way of expressing her work as intense and powerful and captivating to the human soul.

Some of her famous works are, A woman speaks, Recreation and who said it was simple.

13. Edna St. Vincent Millay

Edna was an American lyrical poet and Playwright. She was a prominent social figure during the roaring twenties and wrote most of her poems under the pseudonym Nacy Boyd.

She was the first woman and the second person to win the 1923 Pulitzer prize for poetry and was also the second woman to be awarded the Frost medal for her lifetime contribution to American poetry.

Some of her famous works are Ballad of the Harp–Weaver, Departure and the Penitent.

14. Adrienne Rich

Adrienne Cecile Rich was an American Poet, essayist and devoted feminist. She was described as “ One of the most widely read and influential poets of the half of the second century”.

Her poetry is straightforward and addresses the oppression of women and was an anti-war individual who advocated for peace and equality.

Some of her notable works are, A mark of resistance, What kind of time are these and Planetarium.

15. Rita dove

Rita dove was an American poet and essayist whose poetry is free of confinement, she poetically captures complex emotions and defies easy categorization.
She was the first African American to have been appointed as a poet Laureate Consultant in poetry to the library of Congress. She has achieved many Honours and awards to her name.
Some of her famous works are,” Thomas and Beulah and Sonata Mulattica.