Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
September 12 – Abraham Sutzkever, a Polish Jew writing poetry in Yiddish, escapes the Vilna Ghetto with his wife and hides in the forests. Sutzkever and fellow Yiddish poet Shmerke Kaczerginsky, fight against the Nazis as partisans. During the Nazi era, Sutzkever wrote more than eighty poems, whose manuscripts he manages to save for postwar publication.
December – English poet Philip Larkin, having graduated from the University of Oxford, obtains his first post as a librarian (at Wellington, Shropshire).
Babi Yar in poetry: poems are written about the 1941 Babi Yar massacres by Mykola Bazhan (Микола Бажан) of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ("Babi Yar"); Sava Holovanivskyi ("Avraam" (Abraham)) and Kievan poet Olga Anstei (Ольга Николаевна Анстей) ("Kirillovskie iary"; "Kirillov Ravines", another name for Babi Yar). She defects this year from the Soviet Union to the West with her husband
Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels closes theaters and publishers in Germany.
Ezra Pound, still in Italy, is indicted for treason by the United States Attorney General.
Canadian poet, critic and editor John Sutherland publishes a review of Patrick Anderson's poetry in his magazine First Statement (a rival to Anderson's Preview) which suggests homoerotic themes in his writing, and accuses Anderson of "some sexual experience of a kind not normal"; although Anderson would in fact come out as gay later in life, he is married at this time to Peggy Doernbach and threatens to sue. Sutherland prints a retraction in the following issue of his magazine.
Ottawa native Elizabeth Smart moves permanently to England.
Focus magazine founded in Jamaica.
Poetry Scotland magazine founded in Glasgow by Maurice Lindsay.
Publication of a new comprehensive edition of Friedrich Hölderlin's complete works (Sämtliche Werke, the "Große Stuttgarter Ausgabe"), begins.
Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:
Archibald Lampman, At The Long Sault, edited by Duncan Campbell Scott and E.K. Brown, a selection from Lampman's unpublished manuscripts; posthumous edition
Wilson MacDonald, Greater Poems Of The Bible: metrical versions, biblical forms, and original poems
E. J. Pratt, Still Life and Other Verse, Toronto: Macmillan.
A.J.M. Smith, News of the Phoenix and Other Poems. Toronto: Ryerson Press. Governor General's Award 1943.
Anthologies
Ralph Gustafson, editor, Canadian Poets, published by New Directions
A.J.M. Smith, The Book of Canadian Poetry anthology - introduction identified modern poets in Canada as either in "The Native Tradition" or "The Cosmopolitan Tradition";
Criticism
E.K. Brown, On Canadian Poetry. Governor General's Award 1943.
Sunderrao Rama Rao Dongerkery, The Ivory Tower (Poetry in English ), Baroda: East and West Book House
Punjalal, Lotus Petals (Poetry in English ), Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Krishna Shungloo, The Night is Heavy (Poetry in English ), Lahore: Free India Publications
K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar, Indo-Anglian Literature, a pioneering literary history
Kenneth Allott, The Ventriloquist's Doll
Lilian Bowes Lyon, Evening in Stepney
Cecil Day-Lewis, Word Over All
Keith Douglas, Selected Poems
Lawrence Durrell, A Private Country
T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets (first collected, in U.S.)
David Gascoyne, Poems 1937–1942
Geoffrey Grigson, Under the Cliff, and Other Poems
Michael Hamburger, Friedrich Hölderlin: Poems
J. F. Hendry, The Orchestral Mountain
Sidney Keyes, The Cruel Solstice
Rudyard Kipling, A Choice of Kipling's Verse, edited by T. S. Eliot
Roy McFadden, Swords and Ploughshares, Northern Ireland poet
John Pudney, Beyond This Disregard
Kathleen Raine, Stone and Flower, with drawings by Barbara Hepworth
Keidrych Rhys, pen name of William Ronald Rhys Jones, editor, More Poems From The Forces, anthology
William Soutar, But the Earth Abideth
Dylan Thomas, New Poems, Welsh
Terence Tiller, The Inward Animal
Leonard Bacon, Day of Fire
Stephen Vincent Benet, Western Star
Kenneth Fearing, Afternoon of a Pawnbroker
Robert Fitzgerald, A Wreath for the Sea
Langston Hughes, Freedom's Plow
Weldon Kees, The Last Man
Archibald MacLeish, Colloquy for the States
Edna St. Vincent Millay, Collected Lyrics
Kenneth Patchen, Cloth of the Tempest
Carl Sandburg, Home Front Memo
Delmore Schwartz, Genesis: Book One
Yvor Winters, The Giant Weapon, New Directions
Elinor Wylie, Last Poems
Allen Curnow, Sailing or Drowning (Progressive Publishing Society), New Zealand
Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:
Louis Aragon, Le Musee Grevin
Lanza del Vasto, Le Pèlerinage aux sources
Andrée Chedid, On the Trails of my Fancy
Robert Desnos, État de veille
Luc Estang, Mystère apprivoisé
André Frénaud, Les Rois Mages, Anthony Hartley called this book, "probably the best book of verse published at this time"; first edition (revised edition, 1966)
Jean Follain, Usage de temps
Francis Jammes, Elégies et poésies diverses
André Pieyre de Mandiargues, Dans les années sordides
Jules Supervielle, Poèmes de la France malheureuse
Raymond Queneau, Les Ziaux
Including all of the British colonies that later became India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Listed alphabetically by first name, regardless of surname:
Abdul Shakoor, Daur-i jadid ke cand muntakhab Hindu shu'ara, short biographical sketches and reviews of Hindu poets in the Urdu language
Acharya Bhagvat, Jivan Ani Sahitya, essays in Marathi, mostly translated from Bengali and Gujarati, including some on which are on Rabindranath Tagore; criticism
Akhtarul Imam, Girdab, Urdu-language
Balvantrai Thakore, Navin Kavita Vise Vyakkyano, published lectures in Gujarati by this poet and critic on the forms of Gujarati poetry; criticism
Bawa Balwant Juala Mukhi, Punjabi
D. R. Bendre, Meghaduta, translation into Kannada from the Sanskrit of Kalidasa's Meghaduta; the translation is in a modified ragale meter; one of the most popular translations of that poet into the Kannada language
D. V. Gundappa, Mankuthimmana Kagga, "Song of Mankutimma", Kannada
G. V. Krishna Rao, Kavya Jagattu, on Marxism, Freudian thought and Indian poetics; Telugu; criticism
Gauri Shankar Bhadrawahi, Srimad Bhagvadgita, translation into Dogri–Badrawahi from the Sanskrit original
Lutif Allah Badvi, Tazkira-Elutfi, first volume of a Sindhi-language history of Sindhi poetry (see also Volume 2, 1946, Volume 3 1952)
Makhan Lal Chaturvedi, Sahitya Devata, essays in literary criticism; Hindi
Narayan Bezbarua, Mahatmar Maha Prayanat, Indian, Assamese-language
Agyeya, Tar Saptak, groundbreaking Hindi anthology of seven previously unpublished poets which began the Prayogvad ("Experimentalism") movement; that, in turn, grew into the Nayi kavita ("New Poetry") movement in Hindi poetry. "The importance of Tar Saptak to the development of Hindi verse cannot be overstated", according to Ludmila L. Rosenstein. The movement got its name as a derisive term coined by critics who noted the constant use of the word prayog ("experimentalism") in Agyeya's introduction. That introduction and later writings by Agyeya made him one of the chief literary critics in India in the rest of the 20th century. The anthology was reprinted in new editions, with the sixth appearing in 1996. The seven poets in this edition: Agyeya, Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh, Shamsher Bahadur Singh, Raghuvir Sahay, Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena, Kunwar Narain and Kedarnath Singh.
Vijayrai Vaidya, Gujarati Sahityani Ruprekha, a Gujarati history of the literature in that language; scholarship
Chairil Anwar, "Aku" ("Me"), Indonesian
Odysseus Elytis, Sun the First, Greek
Gerardo Diego, Poemas adrede ("Purposeful Poems");Spain
Sorley MacLean, Dàin do Eimhir agus Dàin Eile, Scottish Gaelic
Eugenio Montale, Finisterre, a chapbook of poetry, smuggled into Switzerland by Gianfranco Contini; Lugano: the Collana di Lugano (June 24); second edition, 1945, Florence: Barbèra; Italy
César Moro, pen name of César Quíspez Asín, Le château de grisou, Peru
Luis Rosales and Luis Felipe Vivanco, editors, Sonetos à la piedra ("Sonnets to Stone"), anthology of heroic poetry; Spain
Ole Sarvig, Grønne Digte ("Green Poems"), the author's first book of poems; Denmark
Awards and honors
Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (later the post would be called "Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress"): Allen Tate appointed this year. He would serve until 1943.
Frost Medal: Edna St. Vincent Millay
Governor General's Award, poetry or drama: News of the Phoenix, A.J.M. Smith (Canada)
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
April 22 – Louise Glück, American poet
May 11 – Michael Palmer, American poet, translator and winner of 2006 Wallace Stevens Award
June 7 – Nikki Giovanni, African American poet, activist and author
July 21 – Tess Gallagher, American poet, essayist, novelist and playwright
July 22 – Hadi Khorsandi, Iranian poet and satirist
August 14 – Alfred Corn, American poet and essayist
September 12 – Michael Ondaatje, Canadian-Sri Lankan novelist and poet whose Booker Prize winning novel, The English Patient, is adapted into an Academy-Award-winning film
October 2 – Franklin Rosemont (died 2009), American Surrealist poet, labor historian and co-founder of the Chicago Surrealist Group
December 2 – John Balaban, American poet and translator
December 8:
James Tate, American poet, educator, and man of letters and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award
Jim Morrison (died 1971), American singer, songwriter, poet; best known as the lead singer and lyricist of The Doors
December 9 – Michael Krüger, German poet, writer, publisher and translator
Also:
Alan Bold (died 1998), Scottish poet
Richard Berengarten, English poet
Emanuel di Pasquale, American poet and translator
Tridib Mitra, Bengali poet associated with the 1961–1965 Hungryalism (or "Hungry Generation") movement
Justo Jorge Padrón, Canarian Spanish poet, translator and lawyer
Ron Smith, Canadian poet, author, playwright and publisher
Frederick Turner, English poet, critic and academic in the United States; editor of The Kenyon Review
Ellen Bryant Voigt, American poet
Bill Zavatsky, American poet, journalist, jazz pianist and translator
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
January 3 – F. M. Cornford, 68 (born 1874), English classical scholar and poet
February 27 – Kostis Palamas, 84 (born 1859) Greek poet
March 10 – Lawrence Binyon, 72 (born 1869), English poet, dramatist and art scholar
March 13 – Stephen Vincent Benét, 44 (born 1898), American poet
March 19 – Tsugi Takano 鷹野 つぎ, 52 (born 1890), Japanese novelist and poet (a woman; surname: Takano)
April 29 – Sidney Keyes, 20 (born 1922), English poet killed in action in Tunisia
August 12 – Kurt Eggers, 37 (born 1905), Nazi German writer, poet, songwriter and playwright killed in action on the Eastern Front
October 7 – Radclyffe Hall, 63, English poet and author of the lesbian novel The Well of Loneliness
October 15 – William Soutar, 45 (born 1898), leading poet of the Scottish Literary Renaissance. Bedridden from 1930, he died of tuberculosis
October 24 – Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau (born 1912), Canadian considered "Quebec's first truly modern poet"
November 22 – Lorenz Hart, 48 (born 1895), American lyricist
November 26 – Charles G. D. Roberts (born 1860), Canadian poet and writer known as the "Father of Canadian Poetry" because he served as an inspiration for other writers of his time; also known as one of the "Confederation poets" (together with his cousin Bliss Carman, William Wilfred Campbell Archibald Lampman and Duncan Campbell Scott)
December 2
Drummond Allison (born 1921), English poet killed in action in Italy
Nordahl Grieg (born 1902), Norwegian poet and author killed in action over Germany
Also:
Guido Mazzoni (born 1859), Italian poet
Sanjayan, pen name of M. R. Nayar (born 1903), Indian, Malayalam-language poet and academic
K. V. Simon, (born 1883), Indian, Malayalam-language poet
