Around the world in 16 poets’ graves

In honor of World Poet’s Day, Musement takes a look at 16 poet gravesites around the world.

Ah poets. The commemorations of these wonderous wordsmiths are often just as memorable as the verses they’ve crafted. In honor of World Poets Day (March 21), here are 16 gravesites where you can pay homage to where some of our favorite late bards.

1. Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey, London

London is undoubtedly one of the world’s most profound literary cities. This cozy little nook of Westminster Abbey‘s South Transept is not only the final resting place of such literary legends, including poets like Chaucer, Edmund Spenser, and Alfred (Lord) Tennyson, but also a commemoration site for countless others such as Lord Bryon, Dylan Thomas, and Robert Burns.

2. Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris

This Paris cemetery located in the 20th arrondissement is the world’s most visited. Père Lachaise‘s most famous interred person is rock-and-roll legend and self-declared poet, Jim Morrison. You can also see the final resting place of Oscar Wilde, marked d by a distinct headstone covered in kiss marks as well the French poets Molière and Charles Baudelaire.

3. The Protestant Cemetary, Rome

Two emblems of the Romantic movement, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats are interred at the Protestant Cemetary in Rome‘s Testaccio quarter.

4. Harleigh Cemetary, Camden, NJ

Walt Whitman, the esteemed American poet, is laid to rest in Harleigh Cemetery in Camden, New Jersey, just across the river from Philadelphia, where he spent his final years. Today, his former home, The Walt Whitman House, is open to the public.

5. Tomb of Dante, Ravenna

Even if you’ve never read it, you’d undoubtedly heard of Dante’s Divine Comedy, the Italian narrative poem divided into three parts: Heaven, Purgatory and Hell (Paradiso, Purgatorio, and Inferno, the latter being the inspiration for Dan Brown’s book of the same name. . The inimitable Dante Alighieri is buried in a tomb adjacent to Basilica of San Francesco in Ravenna, the town where he spent the last few years of life in what’s now Emilia-Romagna.

6. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Harlem

An icon of the Harlem Renaissance as one of the creators of jazz poetry, Langston Hughes is a New York legend so it’s fitting that his ashes were interred at this Harlem institution, beneath a spot in the floor engraved with words from his poem, The Negro Speaks of Rivers.

7. University of Maryland School of Law, Baltimore

The master of mystery and macabre, Edgar Allen Poe is interred in Baltimore‘s Westminster Hall & Burying Ground, today part of the University of Maryland School of Law. He passed in 1849 and was moved to his current resting spot, a large monument, in 1875.

8. Green Hills Memorial Park, California

Charles Bukowski, a German-born writer, immortalized Amerian society in both his poetry and prose. His fans drop by Green Hills Memorial Park near Los Angeles, to pay their respects. His philosophy, “Don’t Try” is etched into his tombstone.

9. English Cemetary, Florence

Even if you haven’t read Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese, you’re likely familiar with the first line of number 43: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Her grave is in the English Cememberary in Florence where she lived for nearly 15 years with her husband, poet Robert Browning. He’s buried in the previously mentioned Poets’ Corner, where she’s also commemorated.

10. Isla Negra, Chile

The Chilean poet owned three houses, all of which are public museums, and his grave can be found at Casa de Isla Negra in Isla Negra, an oceanside town about 90minutes west of Santiago. Here he rests beside his third wife, Matilde Urrutia, a poet as well.

11. Drumcliff Cemetary, County Sligo, Ireland

Ireland’s National Poet, William Butler Yeats, is buried in Sligo, the place of his choosing. He had died in Menton, France and was originally buried there before being exhumed and transferred in 1948.

12. Holy Assumption Monastery, Pskov Oblast, Russia

The grave of Alexander Pushkin, the Romantic era scribe considered Russia’s best poet, can be found Holy Assumption Monastery, nearly a six-hour drive south of Saint Petersburg. He died from injuries sustained during a duel.

13. Piedigrotta, Naples

The Ancient Roman poet who penned three of the most epic Latin poems is Virgil’s Tomb, a burial tomb in Piedigrotta, an area of Naples, that’s believed to be Virgil’s resting place.

14. St Thomas A. Beckett Churchyard, Heptonstall

American poet Sylvia Plath is buried at this cemetery in Yorkshire, the ancestral home of her husband, poet Ted Hughes.

15. Island of Ios

The legendary author of the historic epic poems, The Illiad and The Odyssey definitely did die on the island of Ios. While his gravesite might be under question, it’s still worth a visit, if anything for the view.

16. Church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon

Last but not least, the man, the myth, the legend himself William Shakespeare. The world’s most famous poet rests in the Church of the Holy Trinity in his hometown, Stratford-upon-Avon.