- Simon Armitage (born 1963), British poet, playwright, and novelist
- Richard Armour (1906–1989), American poet and author
- Ernst Moritz Arndt (1769–1860), German patriotic author and poet
- Bettina von Arnim (1785–1859), German writer, publisher, composer, singer and visual artist
- Ludwig Achim von Arnim (1781–1831), German poet and novelist
- Renée Ashley, American poet and novelist.
- Anton Aškerc (1856–1912), Slovenian language poet and Roman Catholic priest
- Margaret Atwood (born 1939), poet, novelist, essayist
- W. H. Auden (1907–1973), Anglo-American poet, essayist
- Joseph Auslander (1897–1965), American poet, anthologist, translator of poems, and novelist; US Poet Laureate, 1937–1941
- Ausonius (c. 310 – 395), Latin poet and teacher of rhetoric at Burdigala (Bordeaux, France)
- Joseph M. Bachelor (aka Joseph Morris; 1889–1947), American author, poet, editor and educator
- Harivansh Rai Bachchan 20th century, Hindi poet
- Ingeborg Bachmann (1926–1973), Austrian poet and author
- Sutardji Calzoum Bachri (born 1941), Indonesian Poet
- George Bacovia (1881–1957), Romanian poet
- Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński (1921–1944), Polish poet and soldier
- Mahnaz Badihian (aka Oba), Iranian-American poet
- Julio Baghy (1891–1967), Hungarian actor and one of the leading authors of the Esperanto movement; wrote Esperanto poetry
- Bai Juyi (772–846), Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty
- Joanna Baillie (1762–1851), Scottish poet and dramatist
- Vyt Bakaitis (born 1940), Lithuanian-American translator, editor, and poet
- Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1743–1825), English poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, and children’s author
- Porfirio Barba-Jacob (1883–1942), Colombian poet and writer
- John Barbour (c. 1320 – 1395), Scottish poet and the first major named literary figure to write in Scots
- Alexander Barclay (c. 1476 – 1552), English/Scottish poet.
- George Barker (1913–1991), English poet and author
- Les Barker (born 1947), English poet
- Coleman Barks (born 1937), American poet
- Mary Barnard (1909–2001), American poet, biographer and translator
- Djuna Barnes (1892–1982), American writer
- William Barnes (1801–1886), English writer, poet, minister, and philologist
- Ellen Bass (born 1947), American poet
- Arlo Bates (1850–1918), American author, poet, educator and newspaperman
- David Bates (1809–1870), American poet
- Joseph Bathanti (born 1953), American poet, writer, professor; North Carolina Poet Laureate
- János Batsányi (1763–1845), Hungarian poet
- Joshua Beckman, American poet
- Matija Bećković (born 1939), Serbian writer and poet
- Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836–1870), Spanish post-romanticist writer of poetry and short stories
- Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803–1849), English poet, dramatist and physician
- Patricia Beer (1919–1999), English poet and critic
- Aphra Behn (1640–1689), English Restoration dramatist; one of first English professional female writers
- Erin Belieu (born 1967), American poet
- Marvin Bell (born 1937), American poet and teacher who was the first Poet Laureate of the State of Iowa
- Gwendolyn B. Bennett (1902–1981), African-American writer and poet
- Jim Bennett (born 1951), Liverpool poet best known for his work during the era of punk.
- Bo Bergman (1869–1967), Swedish writer, literary critic and member of the Swedish Academy
- İlhan Berk (1918–2008), Turkish poet
- Charles Bernstein, (born 1950), American poet, theorist, editor, and literary scholar; prominent Language poet
- Béroul (12th century), Norman poet who wrote the episodic poem Tristan
- Daniel Berrigan (born 1921), American Catholic priest, peace activist, and poet
- Ted Berrigan (1934–1983), American poet
- Ludovico Ariosto (1474–1533), Italian poet
- Aristophanes (c. 446 – c. 386 BC), Greek dramatic poet
- Rae Armantrout (born 1947), American Language poet