--- title: World Poetry Day: Portraits of Poets From the LIFE Archives description: In honor of the March 21 observance, here are 30 timeless portraits of the men and women who made the 20th century sing. canonical: https://time.com/4700914/poets-portraits-life-magazine/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-21T12:30:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:50:22.357Z og:title: World Poetry Day: Portraits of Poets From the LIFE Archives og:description: World Poetry Day is March 21 og:url: https://time.com/4700914/poets-portraits-life-magazine/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc446d1ec027978d3/6988be4afb4eac07258911ba/05-ezra-pound.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Ezra Pound og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: World Poetry Day: Portraits of Poets From the LIFE Archives twitter:description: World Poetry Day is March 21 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc446d1ec027978d3/6988be4afb4eac07258911ba/05-ezra-pound.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'To Praise a Poet': 30 Portraits of Poets From the LIFE Archives by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/) and [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) Mar 21, 2017 12:30 PM UTC  Ezra Pound, 1970. Ezra Pound, 1970.David Lees—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/) and [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) Mar 21, 2017 12:30 PM UTC For nearly 20 years, the United Nations has [designated](http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/files/19160/10793708893PROCLAMATION1.pdf/PROCLAMATION1.pdf) March 21 as World Poetry Day, as part of UNESCO’s effort to “give poetry its rightful place in society” despite a “tendency in the media and among the general public to refuse to take the poet seriously.” But that feeling is much older than a few decades. LIFE Magazine [noted](https://books.google.com/books?id=21QEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA61&dq=robert%20frost&pg=PA60#v=onepage&q=robert%20frost&f=false) a similar sentiment in 1962, that it was easy to believe that Americans have a tendency to feel “somehow that [poetry](http://time.com/3695332/sylvia-plath-blame/) is high-flown talk and poets no real students of the world we know.” And yet, the magazine added, thanks largely to the poets whose [words](http://time.com/collection-post/3584689/poetry-voice-back-of-the-mind/) set the 20th century to new rhythms and who crafted the ideas that helped their readers see the modern world in a new way, that belief has often been proved false. No matter what people may think about poetry as a concept, it’s hard not to react when confronted with a great poem. One piece of evidence of that appreciation of poetry can be found in the pages of LIFE Magazine, where — though the magazine only occasionally ran actual poetry, usually [in the course of](https://books.google.com/books?id=tFIEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA102#v=twopage&q&f=false) news about poets and the poetry business — readers came face to face with some of the modern world’s most well-regarded poets. In one such instance, for a story about Robert Frost, the magazine [quoted](https://books.google.com/books?id=F0oEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA65&dq=poet&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjn6NmjzNbSAhXE7CYKHcutCJ8Q6AEIIjAC#v=onepage&q=poet&f=false) the poet Paul Engle’s statement that the best way to “praise a poet” was to write a poem. LIFE, however, was better known for photography than for poetry, and so the magazine gave credit in its own way to the men and women who crafted the century’s best-loved verses. In honor of World Poetry Day, here’s a look back at 30 of those timeless portraits of poets.  Dorothy Parker, 1940. Bob Landry—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Robert Frost, 1943. Eric Schaal—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  T.S. Eliot, 1951. Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Edna St. Vincent Millay, 1941. Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Ezra Pound, 1970. David Lees—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Carl Sandburg, 1953. Allan Grant—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  William Carlos Williams, 1954. Lisa Larsen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  W.H. Auden, 1969. Harry Redl—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Allen Ginsberg, 1966. John Loengard—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Langston Hughes, 1958. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Marianne Moore, 1953. Esther Bubley—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  John Berryman, 1967. Terence Spencer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Jorge Luis Borges and his wife, 1968. Charles H. Phillips—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Pablo Neruda, 1949. Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Leonard Cohen, 1960. James Burke—The LIFE Collection/Getty Images  Robinson Jeffers, 1948. Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Rod McKuen, 1967. Ralph Crane—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Gregory Corso, 1959. Loomis Dean—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Robert Lowell, 1956. Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Edith Sitwell, 1953. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Ogden Nash holding his daughter Jill, 1951. Mark Kauffman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Paul Valery, 1945. David E. Scherman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Sarojini Naidu, 1946. Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Robert Penn Warren, 1956. Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Lawrence Ferlinghetti, 1957. Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Archibald MacLeish, 1960. Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Evgeny Evtushenko, 1968. Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Wallace Stevens, 1950. Walter Sanders—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Louis Aragon, 1946. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Kenneth Rexroth, 1957. 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