10. Edgar Allan Poe
He was born in Boston, Mass and started writing short stories and poetry at a very young age. He struggled with depression and alcoholism and wrote what came to mind. He was famous for writing horror and detective fiction.
9. William Shakespeare
Born in Warwickshire, England wrote poetry, short stories, and plays, even participated in many. He wrote 38 plays and 154 sonnets in all of his lifetime, all of his poetry led questions to his religion, sexuality, and authorship of his works.
8. Langston Hughes
Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri. He was an American poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, and newspaper columnist. He gave out a tone of brotherhood and friendship and companionship between people, he showed that he was a proud African American.
7. Maya Angelou
She was born in St. Louis, Missouri. She's known across the nation for her extensive amount of talents.She's fluent in 6 languages, was a dancer, civil rights activist, film director, actress, poet, and a professor.
6. Shel Silverstein
Was born in Chicago, Illinois. He was a very talented poet, musician, song writer, cartoonist, and author of children's books. He sometimes liked to call him "Uncle Shelby" in some of his works. He had a very hard life deal with the death of his two daughters at a very young age but that's what kept inspired to write for children.
5. W.H Auden
He was born in York, England. He was an Anglo-American poet, his main topics when writing his poetry where love, politics ad citizenship, religion and morals, and the relationship between unique human beings and the anonymous, and the impersonal world of nature.
4. Sandra Cisneros
Born in Chicago, Illinois. She is famous for her stories and poetry. Before becoming a writer she was a professor and a councilor at a high school for dropouts. Her writing is very much influenced by her Mexican-American culture.
3. Sylvia Plath
She was born in Boston, Mass. She was an American poet, but she suffered from sever depression throughout her life time and was treated several times and was taken to mental hospitals during her time in high school. She wrote a lot of depressing poetry and expressed her ways through pen and paper. Eventually while living in London she committed suicide.
2. Emily Dickson
She was born in Amherst, Mass. She had a very unique taste when it came to poetry especially for the era, when she wrote she contained short lines, and often used slant rhyme, also unconventional capitalization and punctuation.
1. E.E Cummings
Born in Cambridge, Mass. He was an American poet, painter, essayist, and a playwright. In his lifetime he has written about 900 poems, including 2 novels and several plays and essays. His poems focused more on love and nature as well as the relationship of the individual to the masses and the world.
http://www.poetrysoup.com/biography
