Creativity and imagination can be expressed through all forms of literature. Writers spend hours, days, even years, meticulously pondering over which medium can vividly convey their emotions to their chosen audience. There is a constant struggle between the writer gathering their ideas and being able to write something that captures all of their goals and feelings. Arguably, poetry is the most representative medium. What makes poetry stand out, in comparison to something like novels or films, is that the writer can take an extensive amount of liberties to convey their thoughts. Through the use of symbolism, imagery, metaphors, and much more, poets can capture so many different emotions. Throughout history, many famous poets have stood out for their mastery of language and composition: Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Maya Angelou, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Francis Scott Key, Edgar Allen Poe, among others. However, seeing as April is National Poetry Month, I believe it is time to focus on some more underrated poets who deserve a chance in the spotlight. Here are 10 of the most underrated poets, who you probably haven’t heard of before.

10. DantE

  Starting off our list is the famous Dante, a writer who first became renowned during the Renaissance. Although Dante has reached critical acclaim in the modern era for his contributions to philosophy, something that is often overlooked is his contributions to poetry. Dante wrote The Divine Comedy, an Italian narrative poem detailing his travels through Hell and Purgatory, accompanied by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. The Divine Comedy took over 12 years to write, and Dante only completed it a year before his own death. However, it has reached prestige throughout the centuries for its thought provoking symbolism and ghastly imagery. This single poem is enough to make Dante one of the greatest poets of all time. ​

9. Alexander PushkiN

Generally considered by many to be the founder of modern Russian literature, Alexander Pushkin was a writer and poet who became famous during the onset of the Romanticism era. Despite being born into nobility, Pushkin’s life was one of strife and struggle. His controversial political ideologies led to his exile and subsequent death as a result of a duel. His works were heavily censored and under the supervision of the royal family, leading him to be unable to publish many of them. However, throughout his life, Pushkin created numerous plays, novels, and poems, each of which is a testament to his genius. He is credited with over 100 poems.

8. Sylvia Plath

Although critically known for her 1963 semi-autobiographical psychological novel, The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath has become overlooked in the modern era of poetry. This is perhaps due to her untimely death. However, in the past few years, her works have gained a multitude of followers, who recognized her vivid attempts to create an image of despair, hurt imagination, violence, mental turmoil, and death, among others. Sylvia’s writing is special due to its exclusion of any personal bias or feelings related to contemporary society. It focuses solely on the emotional aspects and elemental forces driving human nature. Some of her most famous poems include “Daddy,” “Lady Lazarus,”  and “Tulips.” ​

7. Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatly has always been an interesting case. Having been sold into slavery as a child, she was brought to colonial America and raised in Massachusetts. Her owners were seen as progressive for that time period, and strongly encouraged her to learn about literature and improve her writing skills. Phillis Wheatley became famous for her poems, which challenged racism and invoked a spiritual connection to religion. One of her most famous works is “On Being Brought From Africa To America”, published in 1768. Phillis Wheatley was also the third colonial American woman to ever have her works published.

6. Thomas Chatterton ​

Often considered to be a child prodigy, Thomas Chatterton lived a life of tragedy, ultimately cultimating in his suicide at the tender age of 17. He was born in 1752, and had already reached a substantial amount of popularity by the time he turned 10 years old. No one believed that he wrote his poems, though, and he was often accused of plagiarism. Despite the heavy proof that he was in fact the actual writer, allegations continued to tarnish his reputation. Eventually, he could not stand this envy any longer, and chose to take his own life at the age of 17.

5. Elizabeth Acevedo

​Bringing us into the modern era, a key figure in the present-day poetry movement is Elizabeth Acevedo. Born in New York and of Dominican descent, Acevedo has made a name for herself as the author of several critically acclaimed novels, such as Clap When You Land (2020), With the Fire on High (2019), and The Poet X (2018), the last of which is a New York Times Bestseller, National Book Award Winner, and Carnegie Medal winner. Beyond her novels, Acevedo is a poet known for her use of alliteration and assonance. She regularly writes about tradition and stereotypes concerning her culture. Examples of her works that are worth reading include Names, Stoop-Sitting, Rat Ode, and Hair.

4. Gwendolyn Brooks

Gwendolyn Brooks isn’t underrated at all. She literally has an entire school (which is the one where this magazine is based from) and a prize named after her. However, people tend to forget her meticulous use of symbolism in her poetry. That alone makes her deserving of a spot on this list. Generally, in modern times, Gwendolyn Brooks is often left out of conversations about the greatest poets– most likely due to people not being able to understand what she’s trying to convey, or the subject matter of her poems. Gwendolyn Brooks popularized the use of literary techniques such as enjambment, which is the continuation of a sentence without a pause. A lot of the students at Brooks have never even read a poem by the school’s namesake, so I figured this would be a good addition. Some of her famous works include “We Real Cool”, “a song in the front yard”, “A Sunset of the City”, and “when you have forgotten Sunday: a love story.”

3. Jamila Woods

​Known as “a modern-day Renaissance woman” (a title given to her by the Chicago Sun-Times), Jamila Woods has a multitude of talents, being a poet, singer, and artist. She is the associate artistic director of Young Chicago Authors and a founding member of its Teaching Artist Corps. Woods also serves as a member of Dark Noise, a collective of poets & educators of color. She is also a member of the Chicago-based soul duo M&O. In 2015, she was awarded a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation. Some of her famous poems include Daddy Dozens, Beverly, Huh, and Ghazal for White Hen Pantry.

2. Amanda Gorman ​

Amanda Gorman is the most recent poet to gain critical acclaim featured on this list. She is the author of the poetry book The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough (2015). Her poetry focuses on issues of oppression, feminism, race, and marginalization, as well as the African diaspora. Amanda also graduated from Harvard with a degree in sociology. In 2014, Gorman was named the first Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles, and in 2017 was named the first US National Youth Poet Laureate. She has performed at many prominent venues, including the Obama White House, the Library of Congress, Lincoln Center, and on CBS This Morning. She has written for the New York Times newsletter, The Edit, and penned the manifesto for Nike's 2020 Black History Month campaign. Gorman is the recipient of the Poets & Writers “Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award,” and is the youngest board member of 826 National. In 2021, she was selected by Joe Biden to read her original poem, The Hill We Climb, at his presidential  inauguration.

1. Hanif Abdurraqib

The final entry on this list, and one of the most underrated poets of our generation, in my opinion, is Hanif Abdurraqib. Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, Hanif is a poet, author, social critic, and essayist who gained traction following the publication of his 2016 poetry book The Crown Ain't Worth Much, the collection of essays entitled A Fortune for Your Disaster (2019), and They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us (2017). In addition to this, he is also the author of the social critic book Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest (2019), which was named as a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His poetry has been published in various journals. Abdurraqib’s works are mostly non-fiction and include extended metaphors, which he mostly uses to emphasize his personal feelings about events, places, and people. 

What sets him apart from all of these other poets, is his ability to send thought provoking messages through things that the average person wouldn’t consider special in the slightest. Not many writers are capable of performing such a feat. Some of his famous works include When I Say That Loving Me Is Kind Of Like Being A Chicago Bulls Fan, For the Dogs Who Barked at Me on the Sidewalks in Connecticut, It Is Maybe Time to Admit That Michael Jordan Definitely Pushed Off, and Watching a Fight at the New Haven Dog Park, First Two Dogs and Then Their Owners. 

Chase Jones