steepholm is drawing up a list of good novelists who also wrote good poems. It's surprisingly long.One might also draw up a list of good novelists who wrote- and published- rubbish poems- but it would be a thankless task- because who has the energy or patience to wade through volumes of dead-alive verse to make sure it's really as awful as one suspects?
Has anyone here read any of George Eliot's verse? There's a lot of it.
James Joyce wrote lyrics. They're horrible. Twee, post-pre-Raphaelite noodlings. I've wondered if he was taking the piss, but apparently not.
Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a lot of poems. I've dipped, read a stanza or two, promptly forgotten all about them.
Ford Madox Ford rated himself as a poet. I've a suspicion that might be worth following up. I've seen him in anthologies...