Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
May–December – Lope de Vega serves in the Spanish Armada, where he begins writing his epic poem La Hermosura de Angélica.
Christopher Marlowe writes The Passionate Shepherd to His Love either this year or in 1589 (first published 1599).
William Byrd, editor, Psalmes, Sonets, & Songs of Sadnes and Pietie, Made into Musicke of Five Parts, anthology of verse set to music
Thomas Churchyard, The Worthines of Wales, prose and poetry
Angel Day, Daphnis and Chloe, prose and poetry, translated from the French of Jacques Amyot
Jean de Sponde, Essai de poemès chrétiens, published with a collection of prose meditations on four Psalms; France
June 11 – George Wither (died 1667), English poet and satirist
Guillaume Bautru (died 1665), French satirical poet and a founder member of the Académie française
Richard Brathwait (died 1673), English poet
Leonard Digges (died 1635), English translator and poet
Josua Stegmann (died 1632), German poet
June 18 – Robert Crowley (born 1517), English stationer, poet, polemicist and Protestant clergyman
November 1 – Jean Daurat also spelled "Jean Dorat"; Latin name: "Auratus" (born 1508), French poet and scholar, member of the Pléiade
Louis Bellaud (born 1543), French Occitan language writer and poet
1588 in poetry Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA