epiminondas writes:

RPW was primarily known as a prose writer. His masterpiece was All the King’s Men, a uniquely American story of personal and political corruption. It was filmed twice. But his presence in American film and television went far beyond that one novel. So it is not surprising that so many people, otherwise not of a literary persuasion, know his name and associate him with the pantheon of great American writers.

But RPW was really a poet. Poetry is what drove him, and it is through poetry that we begin to see the brilliance of his mind. I’m not here to give a symposium on the poetry of RPW. If you like poetry, you will discover for yourself that RPW was a great poet who also happened to write good prose.  (Faulkner was a great novelist who happened to also write good poetry.)

I direct your attention to two fabulous short pieces by RPW on the two Roman emperors, Tiberius and Domitian. You will appreciate both pieces better after perusing the Wikipedia articles I linked. I hope you enjoy these poems as much as I have.