Personally, I think that Yeats is a wonderful poet. He is one of the few poets that I studied at school that I enjoyed. I recall that
Sailing to Byzantium left a particular impression on me. Edward Thomas, whose poetry celebrates the English countryside, was another, and it seems to me that there is some analogy here with Tolkien and his love of rural England.
But unfortunately, Tolkien's poetry always kind of got in the way of the story for me. I have always rushed through it so as to to get to the next part of the book. So, I do not have any real impression of it. (This is something that I probably ought to remedy, and it is threads like this that will help provoke me into doing so.)
But that's bye the bye, except to point out that I am talking (and can only talk) of my personal opinion. As Diamond said:
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To me art should cause pleasure on some level; beauty, joy, or sadness. If it does, it's a good poem. If it doesn't, it isn't ... So I would not care if ten professors told me I have a small mind because I can't fathom the depths of a good poet.
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To the vast majority of people, a good poem (just like a good book or a good painting) is one that they personally react to. One that they find some beauty or pleasure or other important meaning in.
The objective merit of a piece of poetry is for poetry professors. It is the subjective merit that is important. After all, poetry is not generally written for poetry professors. It is written for people.
So, if people like Tolkien's poetry, he is (to them) a good poet, whatever the academics may say.