Modern European poets

Oskar Loerke

Oskar Loerke (1884–1941) was a German poet, prose writer, critic, and editor in Berlin whose lyric work ranks among the most influential in twentieth-century German poetry.

Otokar Březina

Otokar Březina, born Václav Jebavý, was a Czech lyric poet, essayist, and schoolteacher who led Czech symbolism with five poetry collections written between 1895 and 1901.

Oton Župančič

Oton Župančič (1878–1949) was a Slovenian poet, dramatist, essayist, and translator, a leading figure of the Slovenian moderna and, with Ivan Cankar, an authority of his generation.

Otto Ernst

Otto Ernst was the pen name of Otto Ernst Schmidt (1862–1926), a Hamburg schoolteacher turned writer whose 1900 comedy Flachsmann als Erzieher satirized the authoritarian German schoolmaster.

Ovid Densusianu

Ovid Densusianu (Ovid Densușianu) was a Romanian philologist, linguist, and poet, a professor at the University of Bucharest who founded the Bucharest linguistic school and promoted symbolism.

Paal Brekke

Paal Brekke (1923–1993) was a Norwegian poet, novelist, and translator who introduced high modernism into Norwegian poetry in the 1940s and 1950s and defended it in the tungetaledebatten.

Paavo Haavikko

Paavo Haavikko (1931–2008) was a Finnish poet, writer, and publisher, a central figure of the 1950s modernist breakthrough in Finnish poetry who won the Neustadt International Prize in 1984.

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973), born Neftalí Reyes Basoalto, Chilean poet-diplomat and 1971 Nobel laureate; author of Veinte poemas de amor, Residencia en la tierra, and Canto general; his 1973 death remains under investigation.

Pashko Vasa

Pashko Vasa (1825–1892) was an Albanian writer and Ottoman administrator, a leading ideologue of the Albanian National Renaissance and author of the patriotic poem "O moj Shqypni."

Patrick Kavanagh

Patrick Kavanagh (1904-1967), Irish poet and novelist from Inniskeen, County Monaghan, author of The Great Hunger, Tarry Flynn, and On Raglan Road; major Irish poet after Yeats.

Paul Celan

Paul Celan, born Paul Antschel (1920–1970), was a Romanian-born German-language Jewish poet and translator who survived the Holocaust, settled in Paris in 1948, and became known for "Todesfuge."

Paul Claudel

Paul Claudel was a French poet, playwright, and diplomat who spent forty-five years in the foreign service, serving as ambassador to Japan, the United States, and Belgium.

Paul Éluard

Paul Éluard (1895–1952), born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel, was a French poet and founder of surrealism, known for his surrealist love poetry and Resistance poem "Liberté".

Paul Valéry

Paul Valéry (1871–1945), French poet and essayist: author of La Jeune Parque, Le Cimetière marin, and Charmes; wrote the daily Cahiers, held the Collège de France Chair of Poetics, and joined the Académie française in 1925 in Anatole France's seat.

Paul van Ostaijen

Paul van Ostaijen (1896–1928) was a Flemish modernist poet who introduced expressionism and dada into Dutch literature through his typographically experimental 1921 Antwerp collection Bezette stad.

Paul Verlaine

Paul Verlaine (1844-1896), French lyric poet born at Metz, author of Poèmes saturniens, Fêtes galantes, Romances sans paroles, Sagesse, and Les Poètes maudits; the musical Symbolist precursor, elected Prince des Poètes in 1894.

Pavlo Tychyna

Pavlo Tychyna (Павло Тичина, 1891–1967) was a Ukrainian modernist poet, translator, and scholar whose 1918 collection Clarinets of the Sun created clarinetism, though he later produced Soviet conformist verse.

Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav

Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav, born Pavol Országh, was a Slovak poet, dramatist, translator, and lawyer (1849–1921) whose Realist work laid the foundations of modern Slovak poetry.

Pedro Salinas

Born in Madrid and dying in Boston, Pedro Salinas (1891–1951) was a Spanish poet, professor, and literary critic of the Generation of '27, noted for his love poetry.

Pencho Slaveykov

Pencho Slaveykov (Пенчо П. Славейков, 1866–1912) was a Bulgarian modernist poet, essayist, and translator, son of the writer Petko Slaveykov, nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1912.

Pentti Saarikoski

Pentti Saarikoski (1937–1983) was a Finnish poet, translator, and journalist and a central figure of twentieth-century Finnish literature, famous for his 1962 collection What Really Happens? and for translating Homer, Joyce, and Salinger into Finnish.