List of years in poetry
This article gives a chronological list of years in poetry . These pages supplement the List of years in literature pages with a focus on events in the history of poetry.
Before 1000 BC
First millennium BC
First millennium AD
10th century
11th century
12th century
13th century
1200s
1210s
1220s
1230s
1240s
1250s
1260s
1270s
1280s
1290s
14th century
15th century
16th century
1500s
1510s
1520s
1530s
1540s
1550s
1550 in poetry – Charles Bansley , The Pride of Women ; Robert Crowley , One and Thyrtye Epigrammes; John Heywood , An Hundred Epigrammes; William Langland (attributed), Piers Plowman , the B text[ 1] 1551 in poetry – Robert Crowley , published anonymously, Philargyrie of Greate Britayne; or, The Fable of the Great Giant [ 1] 1552 in poetry – Birth of Edmund Spenser , Walter Raleigh ; Works: Thomas Churchyard , A Myrrour for Man [ 1] 1553 in poetry – Anonymous, Pierce the Ploughmans Crede ; Gavin Douglas , translator, Aeneid , The Palis of Honoure , second, revised edition (publication year conjectural)[ 1] 1554 in poetry – Miles Huggarde , The Assault of the Sacrament of the Altar ; Henry Howard , The Fourth Boke of Virgill, Intreating of the Love Betweene Aeneas & Dido ; Sir David Lindsay , The Monarche [ 1] 1555 in poetry 1556 in poetry 1557 in poetry 1558 in poetry 1559 in poetry
1560s
1570s
1580s
1590s
17th century
1600s
1610s
1620s
1630s
1630 in poetry 1631 in poetry – Death of John Donne , important English poet , essayist, author, preacher; - Birth of John Dryden influential English poet , literary critic , translator and playwright ; Birth of Michael Wigglesworth (died 1705 ), English poet , colonist in America called "the most popular of early New England poets"[ 2] 1632 in poetry 1633 in poetry 1634 in poetry 1635 in poetry 1636 in poetry 1637 in poetry – Death of Ben Jonson , important English poet , playwright , actor 1638 in poetry 1639 in poetry
1640s
1650s
1660s
1670s
1680s
1690s
18th century
1700s
1710s
1720s
1730s
1740s
1750s
1760s
1770s
1780s
1790s
1790 in poetry – William Blake , The Marriage of Heaven and Hell 1791 in poetry – William Blake , The French Revolution 1792 in poetry – Birth of Percy Bysshe Shelley , important English poet ; - William Blake Song of Liberty 1793 in poetry – William Blake , Visions of the Daughters of Albion America, A Prophecy ; - Birth of John Clare , John Neal 1794 in poetry – Songs of Innocence and of Experience : Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soulpoetry and The Book of Urizen English poet and painter William Blake 1795 in poetry – Birth of John Keats , important English poet ; - William Blake , The Book of Los , The Book of Ahania The Song of Los 1796 in poetry – Death of Robert Burns , James Macpherson 1797 in poetry – Birth of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin , Heinrich Heine 1798 in poetry – William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge publish Lyrical Ballads Adam Mickiewicz , important Polish poet1799 in poetry – Birth of Aleksandr Pushkin , important Russian poet
19th century
1800s
1810s
1810 in poetry – Milton: a Poem ,epic poem by William Blake , written and illustrated between 1804 and 1810 1811 in poetry 1812 in poetry – Childe Harold's Pilgrimage Lord Byron ; Birth of Afanasy Fet , important Russian poet1813 in poetry – The Chancellor's gold medal for an English Poem is awarded for the first time. Recipient is George Waddington.1814 in poetry – West-östlicher Diwan Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ; She Walks in Beauty Lord Byron ; Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin elope to war-ravaged France, accompanied by Godwin's stepsister, Mary Jane. Birth of Mikhail Lermontov , important Russian poet; Birth of Taras Shevchenko , important Ukrainian poet 1815 in poetry 1816 in poetry – Shelley marries Mary Woolstonecraft Godwin , Lord Byron 's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage , Book III,Samuel Coleridge 's Kubla Khan 1817 in poetry – Percy Bysshe Shelley , Laon and Cythna 1818 in poetry – Lord Byron 's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage , Book IV,Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle ; - Mary Shelley (née Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin publishes Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus Percy Bysshe Shelley 's Ozymandias 1819 in poetry – Scholars described - The Great Year for John Keats , who publishes his famous Odes ; Don Juan (Byron) Lord Byron ; - Birth of George Eliot , Walt Whitman , important American poet , Herman Melville , American poet , novelist, James Russell Lowell , American poet , Julia Ward Howe , American poet
1820s
1830s
1840s
1850s
1860s
1870s
1870 in poetry 1871 in poetry – Lewis Carroll publishes Through the Looking-Glass Jabberwocky Arthur Rimbaud wrote "Letters of the Seer." Birth of Lesya Ukrainka , important Ukrainian poet1872 in poetry – Christina Rossetti 's In the Bleak Midwinter Martín Fierro Rénert the Fox 1873 in poetry – Arthur Rimbaud 's Une Saison en Enfer (A Season in Hell )Daredevils of Sassoun Fyodor Tyutchev 1874 in poetry – Arthur Rimbaud 's Illuminations George Eliot 's poetry; - Birth of Gertrude Stein , Robert Frost , important American poet 1875 in poetry – French translation of Edgar Allan Poe 's "The Raven ", by Stéphane Mallarmé with drawings by Édouard Manet ; - Birth of Rainer Maria Rilke , important pre-modernist 20th-century poet in German .1876 in poetry – Death of John Neal 1877 in poetry – Jacint Verdaguer 's L'Atlàntida 1878 in poetry – Birth of Oliver St. John Gogarty , Carl Sandburg , John Edward Masefield , Adelaide Crapsey 1879 in poetry – Birth of Patrick Pearse , Wallace Stevens
1880s
1890s
1890 in poetry – Birth of Boris Pasternak 1891 in poetry – Death of Arthur Rimbaud , Herman Melville ; Birth of Nelly Sachs , Osip Mandelstam 1892 in poetry – Emily Dickinson First collection published; Death of Walt Whitman James Russell Lowell , Alfred Lord Tennyson , Afanasy Fet ; Birth of Marina Tsvetaeva , Hugh MacDiarmid 1893 in poetry – Birth of Vladimir Mayakovsky 1894 in poetry – Death of Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle , Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. 1895 in poetry – Birth of Robert Graves , Sergei Yesenin 1896 in poetry – Death of Paul Verlaine 1897 in poetry –1898 in poetry – Death of Stéphane Mallarmé , Lewis Carroll ; Birth of Stephen Vincent Benét , Federico García Lorca , William Soutar 1899 in poetry – Birth of Hart Crane , Micheál Mac Liammóir , Vladimir Nabokov
20th century
1900s
1910s
1910 in poetry – Death of Julia Ward Howe ; Birth of Charles Olson , Jean Genet 1911 in poetry – Adelaide Crapsey creates the American Cinquain form; Birth of Leah Goldberg , Czesław Miłosz 1912 in poetry – Adelaide Crapsey creates her couplet 1913 in poetry – Rabindranath Tagore awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature , Robert Bridges succeeds Alfred Austin as the UK's Poet Laureate ; The launch of Imagism in the pages of Poetry H.D. , Richard Aldington and Ezra Pound , Robert Frost 's A Boy's Will Alfred Austin , Lesya Ukrainka ; birth of R. S. Thomas 1914 in poetry – Death of Adelaide Crapsey ; Birth of William Burroughs , Octavio Paz , Dylan Thomas 1915 in poetry – Death of Rupert Brooke 1916 in poetry – The Dada movement in art, poetry and literature coalesced at Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, Switzerland , where Hugo Ball , Emmy Hennings , Tristan Tzara , Hans Arp , Richard Huelsenbeck , Sophie Täuber and others discussed art and put on performances expressing their disgust with World War I and the interests they believed inspired it; Death of Patrick Pearse , Joseph Mary Plunkett ; Birth of Tom Kettle 1917 in poetry – Birth of Robert Lowell ; T. S. Eliot 's Prufrock and other Observations 1918 in poetry – Death of Guillaume Apollinaire , Wilfred Owen ; Gerard Manley Hopkins 's Poems published posthumously by Robert Bridges1919 in poetry – Birth of Lawrence Ferlinghetti , Robert Duncan , May Swenson , William Meredith
1920s
1920 in poetry – The Epic of Manas Dorvyzhy The Dial Scofield Thayer , with the publication becoming an important outlet for Modernist poets and writers (until 1929 ), with contributors this year including Sherwood Anderson , Djuna Barnes , Kenneth Burke , Hart Crane , E. E. Cummings , Charles Demuth , Kahlil Gibran , Gaston Lachaise , Amy Lowell , Marianne Moore , Ezra Pound , Odilon Redon , Bertrand Russell , Carl Sandburg , Van Wyck Brooks , and W. B. Yeats ; Birth of Paul Celan , Charles Bukowski 1921 in poetry – Birth of Vasko Popa , Death of Alexander Blok 1922 in poetry – T. S. Eliot's "The Waste Land "; Rainer Maria Rilke completes both the Duino Elegies Sonnets to Orpheus Jack Kerouac , Máire Mhac an tSaoi 1923 in poetry – W. B. Yeats is the first Irishman awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature ; Edna St. Vincent Millay is the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry ; Birth of Brendan Behan , Yves Bonnefoy , Wisława Szymborska , Aco Šopov 1924 in poetry – Birth of Yehuda Amichai , Janet Frame , Zbigniew Herbert 1925 in poetry – Death of Sergei Yesenin , Birth of Ahmad Shamlou 1926 in poetry – Death of Rainer Maria Rilke , Birth of Allen Ginsberg , Robert Creeley , Frank O'Hara 1927 in poetry – William Soutar creates his Epigram formCinquain ; Birth of John Ashbery 1928 in poetry – The Tower (book) W. B. Yeats ; Birth of Maya Angelou , Thomas Kinsella ; Death of Thomas Hardy 1929 in poetry – Pulitzer Prize for Poetry awarded to Stephen Vincent Benét for John Brown's Body Ed Dorn , John Montague
1930s
1930 in poetry – John Masefield succeeds Robert Bridges as the UK's Poet Laureate ; Death of Robert Bridges , D. H. Lawrence , Vladimir Mayakovsky ; birth of Gary Snyder , Adunis , Harold Pinter , Derek Walcott 1931 in poetry – Death of Vachel Lindsay , Kahlil Gibran ; Birth of Tomas Tranströmer 1932 in poetry – Death of Hart Crane ; Birth of Christy Brown , Michael McClure , David Antin , Sylvia Plath 1933 in poetry – The Winding Stair W. B. Yeats ; Death of Sara Teasdale ; Birth of Yevgeny Yevtushenko 1934 in poetry – Death of Andrei Bely ; Birth of Leonard Cohen , Wole Soyinka 1935 in poetry – Charles G. D. Roberts knighted for his poetry; Anna Akhmatova begins publishing her cycle of poems Requiem 1936 in poetry – Killing of Federico García Lorca , Death of Rudyard Kipling ; Birth of John Giorno 1937 in poetry – Lahuta e Malcís Gjergj Fishta ; First-ever Governor General's Literary Awards in Canada; Birth of Diane Wakoski 1938 in poetry – Death of Osip Mandelstam 1939 in poetry – Death of W. B. Yeats ; Birth of Seamus Heaney , Michael Longley ; T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
1940s
1940 in poetry – Birth of Joseph Brodsky , John Lennon 1941 in poetry – Death of James Joyce , Marina Tsvetaeva ; Birth of Bob Dylan , Derek Mahon 1942 in poetry – Birth of William Matthews , Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin ; Death of Konstantin Balmont 1943 in poetry – Death of Stephen Vincent Benét , William Soutar in Perth; Birth of Jim Morrison ; T. S. Eliot 's Four Quartets 1944 in poetry – Birth of Eavan Boland , Paul Durcan 1945 in poetry – Death of Paul Valéry , Robert Desnos , Zinaida Gippius ; Birth of Van Morrison , OBE 1946 in poetry – "On Raglan Road " first published, with the title "Dark Haired Miriam Ran Away"; Ezra Pound brought back to the United States on treason charges, but found unfit to face trial because of insanity and sent to St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C., where he remained for 12 years; Death of Gertrude Stein 1947 in poetry – Cleanth Brooks 's The Well Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry (a classic statement of the New Criticism ); Birth of Dermot Healy 1948 in poetry – T. S. Eliot awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 1949 in poetry – Birth of Gabriel Rosenstock
1950s
1950 in poetry – Death of Edna St. Vincent Millay ; Birth of Mary Dorcey , Medbh McGuckian 1951 in poetry – Birth of Paul Muldoon 1952 in poetry – Death of Paul Éluard , George Santayana ; Birth of Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill 1953 in poetry – Death of Dylan Thomas ; Birth of Frank McGuinness 1954 in poetry – Dr. Seuss 's Horton Hears a Who! 1955 in poetry – Discovery of the Hinilawod F. Landa Jocano ; Death of Wallace Stevens ; Birth of Paula Meehan , William Wall 1956 in poetry – Allen Ginsberg 's Howl and Other Poems Beat Generation published by City Lights Books , United States ; Birth of Cathal Ó Searcaigh 1957 in poetry – Howl obscenity trial in San Francisco , Ted Hughes 's The Hawk in the Rain , Dr. Seuss 's The Cat in the Hat How the Grinch Stole Christmas Oliver St. John Gogarty 1958 in poetry – Boris Pasternak awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature ; Death of Alfred Noyes , Robert W. Service ; Ezra Pound 's indictment for treason is dismissed.[ 4] St. Elizabeths Hospital , an insane asylum in Maryland, after spending 12 years there (starting in 1946 )1959 in poetry – Death of Edgar Guest , Lakshmi Prasad Devkota
1960s
1960 in poetry – Dr. Seuss 's Green Eggs and Ham Boris Pasternak 1961 in poetry – Allen Ginsberg 's Kaddish and Other Poems ; death of H. D. ,Death of Rabindranath Tagore 1962 in poetry – Death of E. E. Cummings 1963 in poetry – Bob Dylan's album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan Nâzım Hikmet , Louis MacNeice , Sylvia Plath , Robert Frost , William Carlos Williams , Tristan Tzara , Jean Cocteau 1964 in poetry – John Lennon 's In His Own Write the Beatles ); Something Else Press founded by Dick Higgins in 1963 (publishes concrete poetry by several authors, starting in 1964), Philip Larkin 's The Whitsun Weddings ; Death of Brendan Behan , Dame Edith Sitwell DBE 1965 in poetry – Death of T. S. Eliot 1966 in poetry – Seamus Heaney's Death of a Naturalist Anna Akhmatova , André Breton , Frank O'Hara , Basil Bunting 's Briggflatts 1967 in poetry – Cecil Day-Lewis selected as the UK's new Poet Laureate (succeeding John Masefield); Death of Patrick Kavanagh , John Masefield , Carl Sandburg 1968 in poetry – Leonard Cohen , Selected Poems, 1956-1968 1969 in poetry – Samuel Beckett awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature ; Death of Jack Kerouac , André Salmon
1970s
1970 in poetry – Death of Nelly Sachs , Charles Olson , Paul Celan , Leah Goldberg 1971 in poetry – Pablo Neruda awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature ; Death of Jim Morrison , Ogden Nash 1972 in poetry – John Betjeman succeeds Cecil Day-Lewis as the UK's Poet Laureate ; Death of John Berryman , Kenneth Patchen , Padraic Colum , Marianne Moore , Richard Church , Cecil Day-Lewis , Ezra Pound , Mark Van Doren , Paul Goodman 1973 in poetry – Death of W. H. Auden , Pablo Neruda , J. R. R. Tolkien 1974 in poetry – Death of Miguel Ángel Asturias , Anne Sexton ; Philip Larkin 's High Windows 1975 in poetry 1976 in poetry 1977 in poetry – Death of Robert Lowell , Vladimir Nabokov , Seán Ó Ríordáin 1978 in poetry – Death of Micheál Mac Liammóir 1979 in poetry – Death of Elizabeth Bishop ; Jacqueline Osherow is awarded the Chancellor's gold medal for an English Poem
1980s
1980 in poetry – Czesław Miłosz awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature ; Death of Muriel Rukeyser 1981 in poetry – Death of Christy Brown 1982 in poetry – Death of Kenneth Rexroth , Archibald MacLeish , Djuna Barnes 1983 in poetry – Death of Ted Berrigan , Edwin Denby 1984 in poetry – Jaroslav Seifert awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature ; Ted Hughes succeeds John Betjeman as the UK's Poet Laureate (on the refusal of Philip Larkin ); Death of George Oppen 1985 in poetry – Death of Robert Graves , Philip Larkin 1986 in poetry – Wole Soyinka awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature ; Death of John Ciardi , Jean Genet , Jaroslav Seifert 1987 in poetry – Joseph Brodsky awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature ; Ezra Pound and Louis Zukofsky , Pound/Zukofsky: Selected Letters of Ezra Pound and Louis Zukofsky , edited by Barry Ahearn (Faber & Faber)[ 5] 1988 in poetry – Death of Máirtín Ó Direáin , Miguel Piñero , Robert Duncan 1989 in poetry – Death of Samuel Beckett , Robert Penn Warren , May Swenson
1990s
1990 in poetry – Octavio Paz awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature ; Death of Lawrence Durrell 1991 in poetry – Death of Dr. Seuss , James Schuyler , Howard Nemerov 1992 in poetry – Derek Walcott awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature ; Death of Eve Merriam 1993 in poetry – Maya Angelou reads "On the Pulse of Morning" at the inauguration of U.S. President Bill Clinton 1994 in poetry – Death of Charles Bukowski 1995 in poetry – Seamus Heaney awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature ; Death of May Sarton , Sir Stephen Spender CBE , David Avidan 1996 in poetry – Seamus Heaney's The Spirit Level Wisława Szymborska awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature ; Death of Joseph Brodsky 1997 in poetry – Death of William Burroughs , Allen Ginsberg , James Dickey , Denise Levertov , David Ignatow , James Laughlin , William Matthews 1998 in poetry – Ted Hughes's Birthday Letters Zbigniew Herbert , Ted Hughes , Octavio Paz 1999 in poetry – Andrew Motion succeeds Ted Hughes as the UK's Poet Laureate ; Julia Donaldson's The Gruffalo Edward Dorn
21st century
2000s
2000 in poetry – Death of Yehuda Amichai , Ahmad Shamlou 2001 in poetry – Seamus Heaney's Electric Light Griffin Poetry Prize in Canada; Death of Gregory Corso 2002 in poetry – Death of Kenneth Koch 2003 in poetry – John Paul II's Roman Triptych (Meditation)Kenneth Rexroth 's Complete Poems (posthumous)2004 in poetry – Seamus Heaney reads "Beacons of Bealtaine " for 25 leaders of the enlarged European Union ; Edwin Morgan named as The Scots Makar ; Death of Janet Frame , Jackson Mac Low , Czesław Miłosz 2005 in poetry – Harold Pinter awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature ; Death of Philip Lamantia , Robert Creeley 2006 in poetry – Seamus Heaney's District and Circle Stanley Kunitz 2007 in poetry – Death of William Morris Meredith Jr. , Emmett Williams 2008 in poetry – Death of Harold Pinter , Jonathan Williams 2009 in poetry – Turkish government posthumously restores Nâzım Hikmet 's citizenship, stripped from him because of his beliefs; Ruth Padel the first woman elected Oxford Professor of Poetry , only to resign in controversy before taking office; Carol Ann Duffy succeeds Andrew Motion as the UK's Poet Laureate ; Elizabeth Alexander reads "Praise Song for the Day" at presidential inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama ; Death of Dennis Brutus , Jim Carroll , Nicholas Hughes (son of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath )
2010s
2010 in poetry – Seamus Heaney 's Human Chain Tuli Kupferberg , Peter Orlovsky , P. Lal , Edwin Morgan 2011 in poetry – Tomas Tranströmer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature ; Liz Lochhead succeeds Edwin Morgan as The Scots Makar ; Death of Josephine Hart , Václav Havel , Robert Kroetsch 2012 in poetry – Günter Grass 's poem "What Must Be Said " leads to him being declared persona non grata Adrienne Rich , Wisława Szymborska 2013 in poetry – Death of Thomas McEvilley , Taylor Mead , Seamus Heaney 2014 in poetry – Death of Madeline Gins , Amiri Baraka , Juan Gelman , José Emilio Pacheco , Maya Angelou 2015 in poetry 2016 in poetry 2017 in poetry 2018 in poetry 2019 in poetry
2020s
See also
References
^ a b c d e Cox, Michael, editor, The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature , Oxford University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-19-860634-6
^ Trent, William P. and Wells, Benjamin W., Colonial Prose and Poetry: The Beginnings of Americanism 1650-1710 , New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1903 edition, page 41
^ Davis, Cynthia J., and Kathryn West, Women Writers in the United States: A Timeline of Literary, Cultural, and Social History ISBN 978-0-19-509053-6 , retrieved via Google Books on February 7, 2009
^ Ackroyd, Peter, Ezra Pound , Thames and Hudson Ltd., London, 1980, "Chronology" chapter, p 118
^ Pound, Ezra (1987). Pound/Zukofsky: Selected Letters of Ezra Pound and Louis Zukofsky ISBN 9780811210133 . Retrieved November 10, 2010 .
