Who is the Most Famous Poet Ever?

[UselessBlueprint]

but wasn't shakespeare paid for his poetry which was arguably not of his own hand?
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when i said famous poet i meant a poet that the most people had heard of or recognised as a poet.

my choice would be the likes of basho who was known through the ages by many in his own country and many elsewhere. same with yosa buson and  kobyashi issa.

Does being paid disqualify one from being famous or a poet?

From my experience, any circle of non-writers I'm familiar with would not know Basho, Buson, or any Asian poet. Now I should specify that most of my circles consist of Americans in their mid-20s, but I think the poet they'd most recognize "as a poet" would be Shakespeare or Frost. Yes, Shakespeare is most known as a playwright, but many of my friends and associates would recognize one of Shakespeare's sonnets before they could recognize any poem of Whitman, and we have many more roads and buildings named for Whitman. Regarding non-English poetry, there's very that little anyone I know personally would recognize.

Fame will often depend on location and language, so perhaps that needs to be addressed more clearly as well. But there may be some small investigation we can do.