Every individual ought to know at least one poet from cover to cover: if not as a guide through the world, then as a yardstick for the language.

Joseph Brodsky (1940 - 1996) Russian-US poet. Less Than One: Selected Essays, "To Please a Shadow," sct. 5 (1986; first published 1983). Brodsky recommended W. H. Auden as qualified on both counts.