Actually, I had originally added Ahkmatova to my list, but then hesitated and made a more general statement, since I've read very little by her, and of course, Russian is out of my ken. I am attracted by the idea of a sort of binomial nomenclature of greatness--Great Major poets, Lesser Major poets (Ovid, for instance, for me, would be a Major poet of the second rank), Great Minor poets, Lesser Minor poets... (Minor and Major in the Auden sense). A fairly large number of my favorite poems are by the beloved Great Minors. And of course, even Great has its gradations.
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