Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
August 12 — Battle of Kunersdorf (Seven Years' War): German poet Major Ewald Christian von Kleist is fatally injured.
September 12 — Just before the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, in the Seven Years' War, British General James Wolfe is said to have recited Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751) to his officers, adding, "Gentlemen, I would rather have written that poem than take Quebec tomorrow".
Christopher Smart, confined to St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics in London, begins to write Jubilate Agno.
Johann Ernst Immanuel Walch becomes professor of rhetoric and poetry at the University of Jena.
Samuel Butler (died 1680), The Genuine Remains in Verse and Prose, posthumous
Edward Capell, editor, Prolusions; or, Select Pieces of Antient Poetry, published anonymously this year, although the book states 1760
John Gilbert Cooper, translator, Ver-Vert; or, The Nunnery Parrot, published anonymously, translated from the French of Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset's mock epic Ver-Vert 1733
Frances Greville, "Prayer for Indifference", published in the Edinburgh Chronicle
Mary Latter, The Miscellaneous Works
William Mason, Caractacus
Augustus Toplady (born 1740), Poems on Sacred Subjects, published anonymously in the author's 18th birthday year
Francis Williams, "Ode to Governor Haldane", the first known published poem by a Jamaican black
Edward Young, Conjectures on Original Composition (criticism)
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
January 25 – Robert Burns, also known as "Rabbie Burns", "Scotland's favourite son", "the Ploughman Poet", "the Bard of Ayrshire" and, in Scotland, simply "The Bard" (died 1796), Scottish poet and lyricist, called the national poet of Scotland
November 10 – Friedrich Schiller (died 1805), German poet and dramatist
date not known – Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton (died 1846), American
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
June 12 – William Collins, 37 (born 1721), English poet
August 24 – Ewald Christian von Kleist (born 1715), German poet
November 2 – Sir Charles Hanbury Williams (born 1708), Welsh diplomat and satiric poet
Approximate year
Martha Wadsworth Brewster (born 1710), American poet
Mary Masters (born 1694?), English poet
