Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
Charles Olson publishes his seminal essay, "Projective Verse". In this, he calls for a poetry of "open field" composition to replace traditional closed poetic forms with an improvised form that should reflect exactly the content of the poem. This form is to be based on the line, and each line is to be a unit of breath and of utterance. The content is to consist of "one perception immediately and directly (leading) to a further perception". This essay becomes a kind of de facto manifesto for the Black Mountain poets.George Oppen and his wife, Mary, move from the United States to Mexico, where their links to Communism are less problematic.The Beloit Poetry Journal is founded by Robert Glauber and Chad Walsh. It is intended to be a publication of Beloit College since Walsh is an English teacher there.Pioneer Press founded in Jamaica.Saint Lucia Arts Guild founded by Derek and Roderick Walcott.Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:
Dorothy Livesay, Call My People Home, CanadaJames Wreford Watson, Of Time and the Lover (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart).Sri Aurobindo, Savitri ( Poetry in English ), Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo AshramR. Bhagavan, Poems ( Poetry in English ), the author's first book of poems, Calcutta: Writers Workshop; India .Doreen W. Wickremasinghe, editor, Poems of East & West, Colombo: Colombo Apothecaries Co., 170 pages; anthology; Ceylon (now Sri Lanka),New Zealand
Ursula Bethell, Collected Poems, Christchurch: Caxton Press (posthumous)Alistair Campbell, Mine Eyes Dazzle, Christchurch: Pegasus Press, including "The Return" and "Elegy"M. K. Joseph, Imaginary IslandsKendrick Smithyman, The Blind Mountain, CaxtonHubert Witheford, The Shadow of the FlameW. H. Auden, Collected Shorter Poems 1930-1944, published March 9; English poet living in the United States at this timeGeorge Barker, The True Confession of George BarkerBasil Bunting, Poems: 1950Norman Cameron, Forgive Me, Sire, and Other PoemsWalter de la Mare, Inward Companion, published in OctoberRobert Duncan, The Mongrel, and Other PoemsDavid Gascoyne, A Vagrant, and Other PoemsRobert Gittings, Wentworth Place.John Heath-Stubbs and David Wright, editors, The Forsaken Garden: An Anthology of Poetry 1824-1909John Heath-Stubbs, The Swarming of the BeesMargery Lawrence, Fourteen to Forty-Eight: a diary in verseEwart Milne, Diamond Cut Diamond, Irish poet published in the UKMervyn Peake, The GlassblowersJames Reeves, The Wandering MoonJon Silkin, The Portrait, and Other PoemsStevie Smith, Harold's LeapW. H. Auden, Collected Shorter Poems 1930-1944 (English poet living at this time in the United States)E. E. Cummings, XAIPE: 71 PoemsLeah Bodine Drake, A Hornbook for WitchesRobert Duncan, Medieval ScenesRichard Eberhart, An Herb BasketRobert Lowell, Poems 1938–1949Mid-Century American Poets, an anthology including poets who came to prominence in the 1940s, including Robert Lowell, Muriel Rukeyser, Karl Shapiro, Elizabeth Bishop, Theodore Roethke, Randall Jarrell, and John CiardiTheodore Morrison, The Dream of AlcestisHoward Nemerov, Guide to the RuinsJohn Frederick Nims, A Fountain in KentuckyEzra Pound, Seventy CantosCarl Sandburg, Complete PoemsDelmore Schwartz, Vaudeville for a PrincessWilliam Jay Smith, Celebration at DarkWallace Stevens, The Auroras of Autumn, includes "The Auroras of Autumn," "Large Red Man Reading," "In a Bad Time," "The Ultimate Poem Is Abstract," "Bouquet of Roses in Sunlight," "An Ordinary Evening in New Haven," and "A Primitive Like an Orb"), KnopfPeter Viereck, Strike Through the Mask! New Lyrical PoemsRichard Wilbur, Ceremony and Other Poems, New York: Reynal and HitchcockWilliam Carlos Williams, The Collected Later PoemsNancy Cato, The Darkened Window, AustraliaListed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:
Aimé Césaire,Corps perdu, Martinique author published in France; Paris: FragranceRené Char, Les MatinauxJean Follain, Chef-LieuJean Grosjean, HypotasesHenri Michaux, PassagesRaymond Queneau, Petite cosmogonie portativeRoger-Arnould Rivière, Nuit et JourTristan Tzara, pen name of Sami Rosenstock, Parler seulBerthold Brecht writes the Children's Hymn, a poem protesting what he felt was Nazi corruption of the Deutschlandlied.Haim Gouri, Ad A lot Ha-Shahar ("Till Dawn"), poetry and war diary, Israeli writing in HebrewHillel Omer (who wrote under the name "Ayin Hillel"), Eretz Ha-Tzohorayim ("The Noon Country"), Publisher: Sifriat Poalim; IsraelListed in alphabetical order by first name:
Bhagvati Charan Varma, Tara, Hindi verse playBhatt Damodar Kesavaji, pen name Sudhansu Ramasagar, Indian, GujaratiBuddhidhari Singha, Aves, MaithiliKhalilur Rahman, A'inah Khane men, UrduMadhunapantula Satyanarayanashastri, Andhra Racayitalu, Telugu-language poet (surname: Satyanarayanashastri)Rentala Gopalakrishna, Sangharsana TeluguSubhas Mukhopadhyay, Cirkut, BengaliSreedhara Menon, Srirekha, MalayalamNezihe Araz, Benim Dünyam ("My World"), TurkeyGarcía Baena, Antiguo Muchacho ("Boy of Yore"); SpainAlexander Mezhirov, Коммунисты, вперёд! ("Communists, Ahead!"), includes the title poem, which was first published in 1948; reprinted 1952Pablo Neruda, Canto General, Chilean poetNizar Qabbani, You Are Mine, Syrian poet writing in ArabicAwards 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"): Conrad Aiken appointed this year.Harriet Monroe Prize from Poetry magazine: E.E. CummingsNational Book Award for Poetry: William Carlos Williams, Paterson: Book III and Selected PoemsPulitzer Prize for poetry: Gwendolyn Brooks, Annie Allen (first African American winner)Bollingen Prize: Wallace StevensFellowship of the Academy of American Poets: E. E. CummingsCanada: Governor General's Award, poetry or drama: Of Time and the Lover, Charles Wreford Watson Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
January 20 – Edward Hirsch, American poet and academicFebruary 6 – Deborah Digges (died 2009), American poet and academicMarch 5 – Jack Bedson, Australian writer, poet, children's picture book author and university librarianApril 4 – Charles Bernstein, American poet, critic, editor and teacherApril 28:Carolyn Forché, American poet, editor and human rights advocateBrian Brett, Canadian poet and novelistMay 9:Christopher Dewdney, avant-garde Canadian poetJorie Graham American poet and the editor of numerous volumes of poetryTato Laviera, Puerto Rician-American poet and author (died 2013)June 5 – John Yau, American poet and criticJune 21 – Anne Carson, Canadian poet, essayist, translator and academicJuly 1 – Ekram Ali, Indian Bengali poet and criticAugust 7 – T. R. Hummer, AmericanAugust 8 – Philip Salom, Australian poet and novelistAugust 12 – Medbh McGuckian, Northern Ireland poetAugust 20 – Chase Twichell, American poet and owner of her own publishing company, Ausable PressSeptember 1 – John Forbes (died 1998), AustralianSeptember 30 – Shaunt Basmajian (died 1990), CanadianOctober 8 – Blake Morrison, English poet, critic and writerOctober 24 – Syed Kawsar Jamal Indian Bengali poet and essayistNovember 20 – E. Ethelbert Miller, African AmericanDecember 24 – Dana Gioia, American poet who retires early from his career as a corporate executive at General Foods to write full-time and later chairman of the National Endowment for the ArtsAlso:Anthony J. Bennett, AustralianFrances Chung (died 1990), AmericanRodney Jones, American poet and academicWilliam Logan, American poet, critic and academicSandy Shreve, CanadianNicolette Stasko, American-born Australian poet, teacher and editor; has a daughter with David BrooksArthur Sze, AmericanKomninos Zervos (also known as "kominos"), Australian performance poetBirth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
March 5 – Edgar Lee Masters (born 1868), American poet, biographer and dramatistMay 4 – William Rose Benét (born 1886), American poet, writer, editor, and the older brother of Stephen Vincent BenétMay 20 – John Gould Fletcher (born 1886), Pulitzer Prize-winning American, Imagist poet and authorAugust 27 – Cesare Pavese (born 1908) Italian poet, novelist, literary critic and translatorOctober 19 – Edna St. Vincent Millay, 58 (born 1892), of a heart attack;September 17 – Hoshino Tenchi 星野天知 (born 1862), Meiji period poet and martial arts master; a co-founder of Bungakukai literary magazine; 8th Grand Master and a teacher of the Yagyu Shinkage-ryu martial-arts school (surname: Hoshino)December 5 – Sri Aurobindo (Bengali: শ্রী অরবিন্দ Sri Ôrobindo) (born 1872), Indian nationalist, poet, Yogi and spiritual Guru writing mostly in EnglishDecember 25Ridgely Torrence (born 1874), AmericanXavier Villaurrutia (born 1903), Mexican poet and dramatistDecember 26 – James Stephens (born 1880), Irish poet and novelistAlso:Khavirakpan (born 1895), Indian, Meitei language poet 