Tennyson

One poet that can take time to get into is Tennyson [1809-1892]. After having to read him in school, many people then abandon him--but he's got a lot of gems. His famous last lines in the poem "Ulysses" of 'to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield' are classic, but there's much more great stuff in his catalogue.

I hope this inspires people to enjoy more of his work. I want to highlight his poem "Morte d'Arthur" [Death of Arthur, ie. the legend of King Arthur] for its beautiful imagery and the emotional way it draws you in to the legend, there's more here

Here's an excerpt:
[...]
And dropping bitter tears against his brow
  Striped with dark blood: for all his face was white
  And colourless, and like the wither'd moon
  Smote by the fresh beam of the springing east;
  And all his greaves and cuisses dash'd with drops
  Of onset; and the light and lustrous curls—
  That made his forehead like a rising sun
  High from the daïs-throne—were parch'd with dust;
  Or, clotted into points and hanging loose,
  Mix'd with the knightly growth that fringed his lips.
  So like a shatter'd column lay the King;
  Not like that Arthur who, with lance in rest,
  From spur to plume a star of tournament,
  Shot thro' the lists at Camelot, and charged
  Before the eyes of ladies and of kings.
[...]