After Baudelaire, comes Arthur Rimbaud, a poet who has inspired legions of writers and artists including T.S. Eliot, Bob Dylan and Jim Morrison. This is Dionysian poetry at its best and most reckless.

Mallarme is not as dark as Baudelaire and Verlaine but equally important. Like being lost in an absinthe dream, this is the poetry to read on LSD.

The 20th century's great French poet. Timeless poems that will lift you into flight.

After Mitchell, Edward Snow is the other great translator of Rilke. These New Poems are Rilke's attempts to break away from his post-romantic sensibilities.

Michael Hamburger takes you into the world of Holderlin, the great German romantic poet. This book is a rich gift, a means to discover the isolated but gifted world of a poet beyond the Olympian stature of Goethe.

In the wake of Holocaust, Celan is the conscience of the Germany poets and artists. Like Trakl, he is a wanderer in the dark refuse of a tormented landscape.

If there is any reason to brush up on your Spanish it is to read Lorca in the original. Here is a monumental collection, going beyond the Selected Poems. A keeper.

Machado had a big influence on Lorca and many poets of the Generation of '27. A must if you want to know about 20th century Spanish poetry.

Hernandez was a shepherd boy who learned to write beautiful poetry. He fought in the Spanish Civil War and died in prison. His poems are breathtaking and essential.

If you love Eugene Onegin, you'll love his shorter narrative and lyrical works, especially 'The Bronze Horseman'.

Artists suffered under Stalin and Osip Mandelstam was no different. A sensitive soul who was eventually sent to the Gulag. Heartbreaking, human and courageous.

Cavafy has a zest for the great Greek past. His poetry is not to be overlooked.