TIME Presents 30 Portraits of Poets for World Poetry Day

To celebrate the UN-designated World Poetry Day, TIME Magazine presents 30 portraits of poets from the LIFE archives. "No matter what people may think about poetry as a concept, it's hard not to react when confronted with a great poem," write Lily Rothman and Liz Ronk. To wit:

One piece of evidence of that appreciation of poetry can be found in the pages of LIFE Magazine, where — though the magazine only occasionally ran actual poetry, usually in the course of news about poets and the poetry business — readers came face to face with some of the modern world's most well-regarded poets. In one such instance, for a story about Robert Frost, the magazine quoted the poet Paul Engle's statement that the best way to "praise a poet" was to write a poem. LIFE, however, was better known for photography than for poetry, and so the magazine gave credit in its own way to the men and women who crafted the century's best-loved verses.

Poets featured include Marianne Moore, Leonard Cohen, T.S. Eliot, Dorothy Parker, Sarojini Naidu, Edith Sitwell, Gregory Corso, and more. See them all here.