| 100% | PLATH | 5 | Poet who wrote "I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am" |
| 38% | DANTE | 5 | Poet who wrote "In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost" |
| 37% | TSELIOT | 7 | Poet who wrote "I grow old ... I grow old ... / I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled" |
| 35% | ELIOT | 5 | Poet who wrote, “Let us go then, you and I, / When the evening is spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherized upon a table” |
| 34% | DAVID | 5 | Director Lynch about whom Kyle MacLachlan wrote, "I will miss him more than the limits of my language can tell and my heart can bear" |
| 34% | POE | 3 | Who wrote "I dwelt alone / In a world of moan, / And my soul was a stagnant tide" |
| 33% | LETO | 4 | Jared ___, I'm the frontman of 30 Seconds to Mars and a film star born the day after Christmas. Who am I? |
| 33% | BACKWARDLOOKING | 15 | Give heed! And listen to my tale of the mad tyrant who decreed that all toilets in his realm be installed the wrong way, for he was the … |
| 32% | ALLEN | 5 | ___ Ginsberg, poet who wrote "Howl" and a major figure of the Beat Generation |
| 32% | WARSANSHIRE | 11 | Poet who wrote "no one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark" |
| 32% | PATCHADAMS | 10 | Doctor who said of Robin Williams, "he was the only actor I wanted to play me, and I think he did a fabulous job." |
| 32% | LBJ | 3 | Pres. who was older bother to Sam Houston and was born on a ranch on the banks of the Pedernales River (abbr.) |
| 32% | WEAREFAMILY | 11 | Sister Sledge classic whose second line is "I got all my sisters with me," and a hint to the starts of 17-, 24-, 39-, and 49-Across |
| 31% | POE | 3 | Who wrote "I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him" |
| 31% | NASH | 4 | Ogden ___, American poet who wrote "The Turtle" and is known as one of the foremost producers of humorous poetry |
| 31% | ADRIENNERICH | 12 | Poet and feminist who wrote “The moment of change is the only poem” |
| 31% | EMFORSTER | 9 | Edwardian novelist who said he was only able to write about “three types of people: the person I think I am, the people who irritate me, and the people I’d like to be” |
| 31% | BRONTE | 6 | Who wrote "Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same" |
| 31% | MEETMEHALFWAY | 13 | The Black Eyed Peas song from "The E.N.D." with the lyric, "Took my heart to the limit, and this is where I'll stay" (3 wds.) |
| 31% | WARSANSHIRE | 11 | Somali-British poet who wrote, “no one leaves home unless / home is the mouth of a shark” |
| 31% | DAN | 3 | I wrote the Robert Langdon series and three of my novels were adapted into films |
| 31% | MILAN | 5 | I'm a city in Italy and my nickname is "Fashion Capital of the World" |
| 31% | YEATS | 5 | Poet who wrote "I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree" |
| 31% | AIMECESAIRE | 11 | Poet and intellectual who was a founder of the Négritude movement |
| 31% | ALLENGINSBERG | 13 | Poet who wrote “Everything is holy! everybody’s holy! everywhere is holy!” in a “Footnote” to one of his poems |
| 30% | WOJNAROWICZ | 11 | Artist and AIDS activist David who wrote, “WHEN I WAS TOLD THAT I’D CONTRACTED THIS VIRUS IT DIDN’T TAKE ME LONG TO REALIZE THAT I’D CONTRACTED A DISEASED SOCIETY AS WELL” |
| 30% | TASSO | 5 | Italian poet who was the subject of a Goethe play and a Donizetti opera |
| 30% | RYE | 3 | Pliny the Elder wrote that this food "of a dark and sombre color" is a "poor food and only serves to avert starvation" |
| 30% | OSCAR | 5 | (With 13-Across) "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go" |
| 30% | DIP | 3 | (4/7) With a quick ___ of your toes, you test the water. It's cool and inviting. You take a deep breath and cannonball in with a splash! |