03-27-2019, 07:22 AM
My own take on the question, i.e. trying to understand what was meant by it rather than begging it with both hands...
"Famous" = known to many from his (or her) time to, and including, ours, which does *not* imply any of the many having read his or her work, and
"Poet" = famous principally for being a poet (though poetry was not necessarily the person's principal occupation).
By this composite definition, I'd include Homer (despite his likely being a composite himself) though not Shakespeare (principally known as a playwright), Carl Sandburg but not David or Mao (principally known as rulers), Tennyson and Byron but not PBUH (principally known for founding a religion, though this is a close call due to his generally accepted excellence as a poet).
We do have the problem of languages. Schiller or Byron? Omar Khayaam or Tennyson? Vergil or Li Bai? (I got that last one straight from DuckDuckGo, never heard of him before, but probably known to more human beings, living or dead, than any other poet.)
One test might be that when you say one name, everyone thinks "poet" (another reason Shakespeare doesn't make the cut). And then there's the issue of quality ignored: some of us may think Whitman was better than Tennyson, but more have heard of T than W as a poet.
So, in the Anglosphere, I suspect a survey would turn up Tennyson, Kipling, and Homer among those who were asked to "name a poet" without providing a list for multiple choice, with the nod perhaps going to Homer. Fame is just, well, fame.
"Famous" = known to many from his (or her) time to, and including, ours, which does *not* imply any of the many having read his or her work, and
"Poet" = famous principally for being a poet (though poetry was not necessarily the person's principal occupation).
By this composite definition, I'd include Homer (despite his likely being a composite himself) though not Shakespeare (principally known as a playwright), Carl Sandburg but not David or Mao (principally known as rulers), Tennyson and Byron but not PBUH (principally known for founding a religion, though this is a close call due to his generally accepted excellence as a poet).
We do have the problem of languages. Schiller or Byron? Omar Khayaam or Tennyson? Vergil or Li Bai? (I got that last one straight from DuckDuckGo, never heard of him before, but probably known to more human beings, living or dead, than any other poet.)
One test might be that when you say one name, everyone thinks "poet" (another reason Shakespeare doesn't make the cut). And then there's the issue of quality ignored: some of us may think Whitman was better than Tennyson, but more have heard of T than W as a poet.
So, in the Anglosphere, I suspect a survey would turn up Tennyson, Kipling, and Homer among those who were asked to "name a poet" without providing a list for multiple choice, with the nod perhaps going to Homer. Fame is just, well, fame.
Non-practicing atheist