— Wilfred Owen, concluding lines of "Dulce et Decorum est", written 1917, published posthumously this year
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
May – Irish poet W. B. Yeats concludes a lecture tour (begun in the fall of 1919) in the United States and crosses the Atlantic to settle in Oxford.
The Poems of English war poet Wilfred Owen's (killed in action 1918) are published posthumously in London with an introduction by Siegfried Sassoon; only five of Owen's verses had been published during his lifetime, thus his work is introduced to many readers for the first time, including the 1917 poems "Anthem for Doomed Youth" and "Dulce et Decorum est"; the latter 28-line poem's horrifying imagery makes it one of the best-known condemnations of war ever written.
Ezra Pound moves from London to Paris where he moves among a circle of artists, musicians and writers who are revolutionising modern art.
The Dial, a longstanding American literary magazine, is re-established by Scofield Thayer; the publication becomes 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.
Russian poet Nikolay Gumilyov co-founds the "All-Russia Union of Writers" in the Soviet Union, where he makes no secret of his anti-Communist views, crosses himself in public, and doesn't care to hide his contempt for half-literate Bolsheviks. His fate changes in 1921.
Maurice Baring, Poems 1914–1919
Edmund Blunden, The Waggoner and Other Poems
Robert Bridges, October, and Other Poems
Cambridge Poets 1914–1920, anthology edited by Edward Davison
W. H. Davies, The Sog of Life, and Other Poems
Walter de la Mare, Poems 1901 to 1918
T. S. Eliot:
Poems, including Gerontion (text) and Sweeney Among the Nightingales
The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism
Robert Graves, Country Sentiment
Aldous Huxley, Leda
India in Song: Eastern Themes in English Verse by British and Indian Poets, an anthology of Indian poetry in English published in the UK (London: Oxford)
John Masefield, Enslaved, and Other Poems
Harold Monro, Some Contemporary Poets (1920), criticism
Wilfred Owen, Poems, introduction by Siegfried Sassoon (posthumous)
Ruth Pitter, First Poems
Ezra Pound, American poet published in the United Kingdom:
Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, London
Umbra, London
Siegfried Sassoon, Picture Show
Edward Thomas, Collected Poems, forward by Walter de la Mare
Iris Tree, Poems
Valour and Vision: Poems of the War, 1914-1918, anthology edited by Jacqueline T. Trotter
Charles Williams, Divorce
Humbert Wolfe:
London Sonnets
Shylock Reasons with Mr. Chesterton, and Other Poems
W.B. Yeats, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom, The Second Coming first published in The Dial magazine (published again in 1921 in Yeats' Michael Robartes and the Dancer)
Stephen Vincent Benet, Heavens and Earth
Witter Bynner, A Canticle of Pan
Hart Crane publishes his poem "My Grandmother's Love Letters" in The Dial. This is his first real step towards recognition as a poet.
W.E.B. Du Bois, Darkwater
Robert Frost, Miscellaneous Poems
William Ellery Leonard, The Lynching Bee
Edgar Lee Masters, Domesday Book
Edna St. Vincent Millay, A Few Figs From Thistles
Ezra Pound, American poet published in the United Kingdom:
Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, London
Umbra, London
Lizette Woodworth Reese, Spicewood
Charles Reznikoff, Poems published by the New York Poetry Book Shop; the book features poems from Reznikoff's Rhythms and Rhythms II
Lola Ridge, Sun-Up, including "Betty"
Edward Arlington Robinson:
Lancelot
The Three Taverns
Carl Sandburg, Smoke and Steel
Sara Teasdale, Flame and Shadow, including" There Will Come Soft Rains"
Galway Wescott, The Bitterns
William Carlos Williams, Kora in Hell. Improvisations
India in Song: Eastern Themes in English Verse by British and Indian Poets, London: Oxford; anthology; Indian poetry in English, published in the United Kingdom
Yone Noguchi, Japanese Hokkus, Japanese poet writing in English
Maneck B. Pithawalla, Sacred Sparks, Karachi: M. B. Pithawalla
Tom Redcam, San Gloria, verse play, Jamaica
W.B. Yeats, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom, The Second Coming first published in the November issue of The Dial magazine (see quotation, above; published again in Michael Robartes and the Dancer 1921)
Louis Aragon, Feu de joie
Jean Cocteau, Poésies 1917–1920
Philippe Soupault, Rose des vents
Tristan Tzara, pen name of Sami Rosenstock, Cinéma calendrier coeur abstrait maisons
Charles Vildrac, Chants du désespéré
Including all of the British colonies that later became India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Listed alphabetically by first name, regardless of surname:
Garimella Satyanarayana, Makoddi tella doratanamu, a Telugu-language song famously used by Indians marching for freedom; the very militant lyric was banned for a time by the colonial government, which arrested the poet
Rami Reddi also known as "Duvvuri":
Jaladangana, celebrates farming season and the beauty of nature in the rural countryside, Indian, Telugu-language
Venakumari, Telugu-language pastoral poems depicting the struggles of peasants
Ananda Chandra Agarwala, Jilikani, Assamese-language poem reflecting ancient Assamese ballads
Bhaskar Ramchandra Tambe, Tambe Yanci Kavita, Marathi-language poems; edited by V. G. Mayadev
Chanda Jha, Mahes Vani Sanghra, Maithili-language devotional songs addressed to Lord Siva
Dharanidhar Sharma Koirala, Naibedya, Nepali-language poetry, didactic poems popular in Darjeeling
Lala Kirpa Sagar, Laksmi Devi, Punjabi-language, long, narrative epic poem modeled on Sir Walter Scott's The Lady of the Lake; depicts Maharaja Ranjit Singh's battles with Jaimal Singh, a hill chieftain
Pt. Ram Naresh Tripathi, Pathik, very popular Hindi-language Khanda Kavya which went into 30 editions; patriotic and expressing love of the rural countryside; strongly influenced by Gandhi's thought
Surendra Jha 'Suman', also known as "Suman", Candi Carya, adaptation of Durgasaptasati in verse, Maithili-language
Vaijanath Kashinath Rajwade, Kesavasutanci Kavita, Marathi-language article offering the first thematic classification and detailed analysis of Keshavsut's poems, criticism published in the monthly Manoranjan in July, September, October and November
Enrique Bustamante y Ballivián, Poemas autóctonos, Peru
León Felipe, Veersos y oraciones del caminante ("Verses and Prayers of the Walker"), first volume (second volume, 1930), Spain
Alfonsina Storni, Langour, Argentina
Miguel de Unamuno, El Christo de Velázquez ("Christ by Velázquez"), Spain
Ernst Enno, Valge öö, Estonia
Khalil Gibran, Spirits Rebellious
Vladislav Khodasevich, The Way of Corn, Russia
Tom Kristensen, Pirate Dreams, Denmark
Boleslaw Lesmian, The Meadow, Poland
Jan Lechon, The Scarlet Poem, Poland
Eugenio Montale, Ossi di seppia ("Cuttlefish bones"), Italy
Les Poètes contre la guerre, France
Anton Schnack, Tier rang gewaltig mit Tier ("Beast strove mightily with beast"), Germany
Edith Sodergran, The Shadow of the Future, Sweden
Georg Trakl, Der Herbst des Einsamen ("The Autumn of The Lonely"), Austrian native published in Germany
Tin Ujević, Lelek sebra ("Cry of a slave"), Croatian
Henrik Visnapuu, Talihari, Hõbedased kuljused and Käoorvik, Estonia
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
January 24 – Keith Douglas (killed in action 1944), English poet
February 21 – Ishigaki Rin 石垣りん (died 2004), Japanese poet; she was an employee of the Industrial Bank of Japan, sometimes called "the bank teller poet"
February 29 – Howard Nemerov, American (died 1991), United States Poet Laureate from 1963 to 1964 and from 1988 to 1990
March 5 – Madhunapantula Satyanarayana Sastry (died 1992), Indian, Telugu-language poet (surname: Satyanarayanashastri)
March 11 – D. J. Enright (died 2002) English academic, poet, novelist and critic
March 24 – Balachandra Rajan (died 2009), Indian critic, novelist and writer of Indian poetry in English
April 27 – Edwin Morgan (died 2010), Scottish poet and translator
June 13 – Ruth Guimarães (died 2014), Afro-Brazilian classicist, fiction writer and poet
June 15 – Amy Clampitt (died 1994), American poet and author
June 18 – Rosemary Dobson (died 2012), Australian poet
August 16 – Charles Bukowski (died 1994), American poet, novelist and short-story writer
August 18 – Harbhajan Singh (died 2002), Indian, Punjabi poet in the Sahajvadi tradition, also a critic, cultural commentator and translator
September 6 – Barbara Guest née Barbara Ann Pinson (died 2006), American poet and critic
September 18 – Doris Mühringer (died 2009), Austrian poet, short-story writer and children's writer
October 24 – Robert Greacen (died 2008), Irish poet
November 3 – Oodgeroo Noonuccal (died 1993), Australian poet, actress, writer, teacher, artist and campaigner for Aboriginal causes
November 23 – Paul Celan (died 1970), German-language poet born to a German-speaking Jewish family in a place at this time part of Romania (part of modern-day Ukraine)
November 28 – Alexander Scott (died 1989), Scottish poet and literary scholar
V. A. Anandakkuttan (died 1969), Indian, Malayalam-language poet and author of humorous essays and farces
Bernardino Evaristo Mendes, also known as B. E. Mendes, Indian, Konkani-language poet known for philosophical and theosophical writing
Birendra Chattopadhyay (died 1985), Bengali-language poet and Marxist
Jayant Pathak, Indian, Gujarati-language poet and critic
K. B. Nikumb, Indian, Marathi-language poet
Manmohan Misra, Indian poet and essayist in Orissa
Natvarlal Kuberdas Pandya (pen name, "Usanas"), Indian, Gujarati-language poet and critic
Okiyuma Gwaynn, Indian poet writing Indian poetry in English and then in Nepali; born in Hong Kong to a Japanese father and Tibetan mother, he settles in Darjeeling in 1946
Ram Lal Papiha, Indian, Dogri-language poet
Rentala Gopalakrishna, Indian, Telugu-language poet and playwright
Santokh Singh Dheer, Indian, Punjabi poet and fiction writer in the largely romantic and progressive-in-outlook Amrita-Mohan Singh tradition of Punjabi
Tulasibahadur Chetri, nicknamed "Apatan", Indian, Nepali-language poet and playwright
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
February 8 – Richard Dehmel, 56, German poet
May 11 – William Dean Howells, 83, American literary critic, author and poet
June 5 – Julia A. Moore, the "Sweet Singer of Michigan", 72, American poetaster, famed for her notoriously bad poetry
July 3 – Charles E. Carryl, 78, American children's poet
September 16 – Dan Andersson, 32, Swedish poet, accidentally poisoned
November 2 – Louise Imogen Guiney, 59, American-born poet
December 21 – Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, 56, Somali poet, religious and nationalist leader who for 20 years led armed resistance to the British, Italian, and Ethiopian forces in Somalia and used his patriotic poetry to rally his supporters
Also:
Ernest Hartley Coleridge (born 1846), English scholar and poet, grandson of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Devendranath Sen (born 1855), Indian, Bengali-language poet
Divakarla Tirupti Shastri (born 1872), Indian, Telugu-language poet; one of the two poets known in Telugu literature as "Triupati Vankata Kavulu"
Eknath Pandurang Randalkar (born 1887), Indian, Marathi-language poet and translator from Sanskrit, English, Bengali and Gujarati poetry
Jammuneshwar Khataniyar (born 1899), Indian, Assamese-language poet; a woman
Mian Hidayatulla (birth year not known), Indian, Punjabi-language poet
Nagesh Vishwanath Pai, also spelled "Nagesh Vishvanath Pai" (born 1860), Indian, Marathi-language poet and fiction writer
Dollie Radford (born 1858), English poet and writer
Vishvanatha Dev Varma (born 1850), Indian, Sanskrit-language poet
