A poem about poets

Come with me on a journey
Through history and time 
Exploring the world's best poets 
And the whole thing's going to rhyme … hmm, hopefully. 

First to ancient Greece
And one guy we've got to see
The famous poet Homer 
Who wrote The Iliad and Odyssey.

Spanning nearly twenty years 
These two epic tales
Show a king's heroic journey
Through monsters, storms and gales.

Now leaving Greece for China 
The country of this poet's birth
Li Bai was thought of as a god
Exiled from heaven to earth.

Children still memorise his poems
To this very day
And it's believed nearly a thousand
Were written along the way.

Now you probably know this next guy 
For his works upon the stage
But did you also know 
He was the poet of his age?

Shakespeare's collection of sonnets
Numbered over one hundred and fifty
And he made up words we still use today
Which I think's pretty nifty. 

And now to my personal favourite
My fellow Scotsman, Robert Burns, 
Whose most famous poem, Auld Lang Syne, 
Each New Year's Eve returns. 

He even has a national day 
Where he is celebrated
With haggis, whisky and recitals
Of poems he created.

Some poets are renowned in their lifetimes
And are popular far and wide 
But others like Emily Dickinson
Found more fame once they had died.

Only ten of her poems were published
While she was alive
But now one thousand eight hundred 
Of her amazing poems survive.

And to a poet who's a doctor 
Well, not a proper one that's true
He brought us The Cat in the Hat
and Horton Hears a Who!

His colourful stories 
Were fun and amusing
But like Green Eggs and Ham 
They were sometimes confusing.

This poet and author 
Wrote of singing caged birds
Spoke out on oppression 
And urged change with her words.

'You may write me down in history
With your bitter twisted lies
You may trod me in the very dirt 
But still like dust I'll rise.'

Our final poet shows us
That with passion we can succeed
When he left school aged just thirteen 
He could neither write nor read.

Birmingham's dreadlocked bard
Or Benjamin Zephaniah 
Uses humour in his poems
To educate and inspire.

Poems can be beautiful or powerful 
And whether they rhyme or not
I think they're pretty amazing 
And now, folks, that's your lot.

© BBC