Jonathan Dimbleby, broadcaster
An Arundel Tomb by Philip Larkin
Amid the gloom which so often encircles that wonderful poet, I find this tentative affirmation of hope reassuring.
Edwina Currie, former politician and novelist
To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell
This was read at our wedding in 2001, when I became Mrs Jones, and helps explain why a couple of middle-aged sex-fiend loonies felt they couldn't wait ("Time's wingèd chariot", et cetera, et cetera).
Olivia Shean, journalist
Close close all night by Elizabeth Bishop
In the silent calm of this beautiful poem, Bishop's tender images convey a wordless intimacy and understanding between two lovers. I find this ever enchanting.
Margaret Drabble, novelist
Elderhouse by Peter Redgrove
Redgrove was a poet of Wordsworthian genius and here he captures the transfiguration of daily life, in a tumbler of tap water ceremoniously poured for him by an elderly waitress in a Falmouth café.
Clive Stafford Smith, human-rights lawyer
There has to be one about love (Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress marginally pips Elizabeth Barrett Browning's How do I love thee?), and one about other emotions (inevitably, Wilfred Owen's Futility, as the war on terror rages).
Trevor McDonald, broadcaster
I Think Continually of Those Who Were Truly Great by Stephen Spender
I have never ceased to love and admire the extraordinary beauty of the language and emotion of Stephen Spender's marvellous poem.Reports from the front line of language
Toby Young, writer and journalist
Aubade by Philip Larkin
It captures in such an unsentimental, clear-eyed way exactly why death is something to be afraid of. You wouldn't have thought that that is something anyone needs to be reminded about, but I like being reminded of it. It's salutary.
Hilary Mantel, novelist
Welsh Incident by Robert Graves
I think if I were a painter I could spend the rest of my life working over Graves's poem, painting the Harlech Silver Band, the mayor of Criccieth, and the shapeless, coloured but colourless dream-objects.
Barbara Gunnell, associate editor, New Statesman
Thank You, Fog by W H Auden
When I came across it I was both amused and moved at the originality of his thought. Who but Auden would thank fog?
Julian Clary, comedian
To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell
I've always liked vulgarity, especially when it's dressed up to seem elegant. The subtext here is: "Get your knickers off!"
Jon Snow, broadcaster
Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
Pounding with optimism, courage, defiance and her important voice - certainly one for the desert island!
Michael Winner, film director
I Think to Myself, I Play to Myself by A A Milne
From Now We Are Six. This is a great poem. The ultimate statement of the outsider. Someone who looks around, baffled by the world. But lives quite happily in his own mind.
Martin Bright, political editor, New Statesman
Barbara by Jacques Prévert
When I lived in France in the early 1990s, a line from this poem - "Quelle connerie la guerre" - was the slogan of the anti-Iraq war demonstrations. This work is a very personal cry of pain about the small horrors of war. It always makes me well up.
Rowan Pelling, journalist
One Art by Elizabeth Bishop
It's a funny yet melancholy poem, which poses a subtle question: perhaps loss itself is not the tragedy, but the fact we so readily survive it. It always makes me ponder the reality behind the oft-repeated pledge: "I cannot live without you!"
Pablo Ganguli, arts festival organiser
Saddest Poem by Pablo Neruda
Why? He was the master of words. The poem beautifully conveys the true emotion that a man feels for his former lover. Every time I read it, I feel melancholic that the person I was passionately in love with many years ago might now be somebody else's. The New Faber Book of Love Poems, edited by James Fenton, features lovers and lyricists such as Richard Herrick and Ben Jonson.
Boris Johnson, politician
The Iliad by Homer
Of course it's The Iliad, not just because of its profound and convincing account of man's place in the universe, but also because of its huge relevance to the problems of modern education. There is no heroism without death. There is no joy without despair. There is no success without failure. That is the cosmic truth that needs to be drummed into the skull of every educationalist in the country.
Ben Davies, editor, newstatesman.com
Your Laughter by Pablo Neruda
Neruda's poems are sexy and full of humour, and reflect his belief in political struggle. Here, the laughter of his lover restores his hope, his revolutionary fervour - and, let's face it, he's also one of the greatest poets of the past century.
Don Paterson, poet
Birches by Robert Frost
It's one of those poems that seem to engage the whole being, the head and the heart - but the truth is that the best poems render us speechless. I don't think one should be able to say what makes them great.
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