Links to nations or nationalities point to articles with information on that nation's poetry or literature. For example, United Kingdom links to English poetry and Indian links to Indian poetry.
January 19 - Starting this year, and continuing to at least 2009, an anonymous black-clad person, who enters popular lore as the Poe Toaster, appears in Baltimore at the Westminster Hall and Burying Ground tomb of American poet Edgar Allan Poe early on the morning of Poe's birthday. The man toasts Poe with Cognac and leaves three red roses at the grave (along with the remainder of the Cognac).
February 19 - Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University provoking a storm of criticism because of his pro-Fascist activities before and during World War II.
March - Pablo Neruda flees Chile over the Lilpela Pass through the Andes to Argentina on horseback carrying a manuscript of his Canto General.
April 14 - Roy Campbell punches Stephen Spender on the nose at a poetry reading in London.
Indonesian poet Chairil Anwar writes his last poem, "Cemara Menderai Sampai Jauh" ("Fir Trees Are Sown Off Into the Distance"), prior to his death aged 26 on April 28.
Greek Communist poet Yannis Ritsos, incarcerated during the Communist–centrist/rightist struggle in the Greek Civil War, writes poems which will ultimately see publication twenty-six years later, in the 1975 book, Petrinos khronos.
George Hill Dillon, editor of the journal Poetry since 1937, relinquishes his post.
First issue of Caribbean Quarterly, the flagship journal on culture edited at the University of the West Indies, spotlights Caribbean poetry.
Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:
Raymond Knister, Collected Poems ed. Dorothy Livesay.
James Reaney, The Red Heart. Governor General's Award 1949.
Sri Aurobindo, Chitrangada ( Poetry in English ), Bombay: Sri Aurobindo Circle,
New Zealand
Allen Curnow:
The Axe, a verse play with a Pacific setting (Caxton)
At Dead Low Water and Sonnets (Caxton)
Basil Dowling, Canterbury
Dannie Abse, After Every Green Thing
Edward Andrade, Poems and Songs
Roy Campbell, Collected Poems, Volume 1 (Volume 2 1957, Volume 3 (consisting of translations) 1960)
C. Day-Lewis, Collected Poems, published in March, although the book states "1948" (see also Collected Poems 1954)
William Empson, Collected Poems of William Empson
Roy Fuller, Epitaphs and Occasions
Robert Garioch Sutherland, writing under the name "Robert Garioch", Chuckles on the Cairn
W. S. Graham, The White Threshold
Geoffrey Grigson, editor, Poetry of the Present, anthology
Christopher Hassall, The Slow Night, and Other Poems 1940–8
James Kirkup, editor, Leeds University Poetry, including work by Kirkup, Wilfred Rowland Childe, Derrick Metcalfe, and Kenneth Muir (Hull: Lotus Press)
Louis MacNeice, Collected Poems 1925–48
Edwin Muir, The Labyrinth
Kathleen Raine, The Pythoness, and Other Poems
James Reeves, The Imprisoned Sea
Edith Sitwell, The Canticle of the Rose: Poems 1917–1949
Stephen Spender, The Edge of Being
W. B. Yeats (d. 1939), Poems, "The Definitive Edition", Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
Conrad Aiken:
The Divine Pilgrim
Skylight One
Joseph Payne Brennan, Heart of Earth (Decker Press)
Gwendolyn Brooks, Annie Allen
John Ciardi, Live Another Day
Hilda Doolittle, writing under the pen name "H. D.", By Avon River
Kenneth Fearing, Stranger at Coney Island
Robert Frost, Complete Poems
Langston Hughes, One-Way Ticket
Kenneth Patchen:
Red Wine & Yellow Hair
To Say If You Love Someone
Ezra Pound, Selected Poems
Kenneth Rexroth:
The Signature of All Things
The Art of Worldly Wisdom", Prairie City, Illinois: Decker Press
Louis Simpson, The Arrivistes
Donald A. Stauffer, The Golden Nightingale: Essays on Some Principles of Poetry in the Lyrics of William Butler Yeats, New York: Macmillan, United States criticism
Peter Viereck, The Poet in the Machine Age
William Carlos Williams:
Paterson, Book III
Selected Poems
Judith Wright, Woman to Man, Australian
W. B. Yeats (d. 1939), Poems, "The Definitive Edition", Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
Aimé Césaire, Corps perdu
Paul Éluard, pen name of Paul-Eugène Grindel, ''Une leçon de morale
Eugene Guilleveic, Gagner
Pierre Jean Jouve, Diadème
Henri Michaux, Poesie pour pouvoir, Paris: Drouin
Pierre Reverdy, Main d'oeuvre: 1913–1949
Claude Roy, Le Poète mineur
Jules Supervielle, Oublieuse Mémoire
Tristan Tzara, pen name of Sami Rosenstock, Phases
In each section, listed in alphabetical order by first name:
C. V. Karandikar, also known as Vinda Karandikar, Svedaganga, India, Marathi-language
Manmohan, Yugayugance Sahapravasi, Indian, Marathi-language (later translated into Hindi under the title Marsal ki Salami)
K. B. Nikumb, Ujjvala, Indian, Marathi-language
Sarachchandra Muktibodh, Navi Malavat Indian, Marathi-language
Shrikrishna Powale, Jala Mati, Indian, Marathi-language
Chittadhar Hridaya, Sugata Saurabha, a Buddhist epic, written in Nepal Bhasa, mostly in prison 1941-46, published in India
Masood Husain, Urdu zaban aur adab, a history, written in Urdu of that language and its literature
Nilakantha Shastri, translator, Sri Rama Carita, translation into Sanskrit of the Tamil-language Kamba Ramayana
Pritam Singh Safir, Rakt Bundam, Indian, Punjabi-language
S. Lalita, translator, Valarmati, translation into Tamil from the Indian poetry in English of Rabindranath Tagore's The Crescent Moon
Sitaramaiah Kuruganti, Navyandhra Sahitya Vidhulu, a four-volume history in Telugu of that language's literature
Umar Alisha, translator, Umar Khayyam, translation into Telugu from the Persian of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyats
Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:
Alfonso Calderón, Primer Consejo a los Arcangeles del Viento ("First Advice to the Archangels of the Wind"), Spanish-language, Chile
Haim Gouri, Pirhei Esh ("Flowers of Fire, Years of Fire"), Israeli writing in Hebrew
Eric Knudsen, Blomsten og sværdet ("The Flower and the Sword"), Denmark
Alexander Mezhirov, Новые встречи ("New Encounters"), including "Communists, Ahead!", Russia
Máirtín Ó Direáin, Rogha Dánta, Irish poet writing in Irish
Carlos de Oliveira, Descida aos Infernos
Nizar Qabbani, Samba, Syrian poet writing in Arabic
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"): Elizabeth Bishop appointed this year.
Pulitzer Prize for poetry: Peter Viereck, Terror and Decorum
Bollingen Prize: Ezra Pound
Canada: Governor General's Award, poetry or drama: The Red Heart, James Reaney
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
January 6 – Carolyn D. Wright, writing as C. D. Wright, American poet
January 25 – Tom Paulin, Northern Irish poet and critic of film, music and literature
January 27 – Bruce Weigl, American poet and academic
February – Agha Shahid Ali (died 2001), Indian-born English-language poet
February 6
Victor Hernández Cruz, Puerto Rico-born American poet
Eliot Weinberger, American essayist and principal translator of Octavio Paz into English
March 14 – Lynn Emanuel, American poet
April 1 – Gil Scott-Heron (died 2011), African-American poet, jazz/soul musician and author
April 13 – Marilyn Bowering, Canadian poet and novelist
April 25 – James Fenton, English journalist, poet, critic and academic
May 6 – Olga Broumas, Greek-born English-language poet in the United States
May 13 – Christopher Reid, Hong Kong-born English poet, essayist, cartoonist, writer and exponent of Martian poetry
June 21:
John Agard, playwright, poet and children's writer from Guyana, who moves to England in 1977
Jane Urquhart, Canadian poet and author
July 1 – Denis Johnson, American writer
July 5 – Pier Giorgio di Cicco, Italian-Canadian poet
August 1 – Jim Carroll (died 2009), American poet, author and punk musician
August 2 – Bei Dao (北島, literally "Northern Island"), pseudonym of Zhao Zhenkai, Chinese poet, the most notable representative of the Misty Poets, a group of Chinese poets who will react against the restrictions of the Cultural Revolution
August 6 – Mary di Michele, Italian-born Canadian poet and writer
November 21 – Liam Rector (died 2007), American poet, essayist and academic
Also:
David Bottoms, American poet
Cathy Smith Bowers, American poet and teacher; North Carolina Poet Laureate, 2010–2012
Alice Major, Scottish-born Canadian poet
Barbara Ras, American poet
David St. John, American poet and academic
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
March 2 – Sarojini Naidu (born 1879), Indian writing Indian poetry in English
April 28 – Chairil Anwar (born 1922), Indonesian poet
May 5 – Hideo Nagata 長田秀雄 (born 1885), Showa period Japanese poet, playwright and screenwriter (surname: Nagata)
May 6 – Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian poet, playwright and Nobel Laureate
June 15 – Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer, also known simply as "Ulloor" (born 1877), Indian, Malayalam-language poet, scholar and government official who published a five-volume history of Malayalam literature
July 18 – Alice Corbin Henderson (born 1881), American poet
July 25 – Lilian Bowes Lyon (born 1895), English poet
September 9 – Fredegond Shove (born 1889), English poet
December 28 – Hervey Allen (born 1889), American novelist and poet
