Robert Creeley founds and edits the Black Mountain ReviewPublication of American literary theorist William Kurtz Wimsatt, Jr.'s collected essays Verbal Icon: Studies in the Meaning of Poetry, including the influential critical essays “The Intentional Fallacy” and “The Affective Fallacy” cowritten with Monroe Beardsley.Jack Kerouac reads Dwight Goddard's A Buddhist Bible, which will influence him greatly.January 25 — Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood is broadcast on BBC Radio.Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:
Daryl Hine, Five PoemsIrving Layton, In the Midst of My Fever. Palma de Mallorca, Spain: Divers Press.Irving Layton, The Long Pea-Shooter. Montreal: Laocoon Press.Jay Macpherson, O Earth ReturnP. K. Page, The Metal and the Flower, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, CanadaRaymond Souster, A Dream That Is Dying. Toronto: Contact PressRaymond Souster, Walking Death. Toronto: Contact Press.F. R. Scott, Events and Signals. Toronto: Ryerson Press.A. J. M. Smith, A Sort of Ecstasy; Michigan State College Press / Ryerson Press.Sri Aurobindo:Collected Poems (Poetry in English), Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo AshramSavitri ( Poetry in English ), Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo AshramR. de L. Furtado, The Centre, Hamilton, Ontario: Cromlech Press; Indian author published in CanadaNizamat Jung, Poems (Poetry in English), edited and published by Zahir Ahmed in HyderabadPrithwi Singh Nahar, The Wind of Silence (Poetry in English), songs, sonnets and other poems; Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo AshramC. Raju, This Modern Age, foreword by Amarnath JhaK. S. R. Sastry, A Vision of India, Madras: Raja Power PressW. H. Auden, The Shield of Achilles, English poet living in the United States at this timeSir John Betjeman, A Few Late ChrysanthemumsGeorge Mackay Brown, The Storm, ScotlandThom Gunn, Fighting Terms, Fantasy PressJohn Heath-Stubbs, A Charm Against the ToothacePhilip Larkin, The Less DeceivedDavid Raikes (posthumous), The Poems of David RaikesCriticism, scholarship and biography in the United Kingdom
P. Cruttwell, The Shakespearean Moment, criticism, United KingdomG. Hartmann, The Unmediated Vision, criticism, United KingdomW. K. Wimsatt Jr., The Verbal Icon, criticism, United KingdomJon Silkin, The Peaceable Kingdom, including "Death of a Son (who died in a mental hospital aged one)"Dylan Thomas, Quite Early One Morning, New Directions PublishersLéonie Adams, PoemsW. H. Auden, The Shield of Achilles, English poet living in the United States at this timeLouise Bogan, Collected Poems, 1923–1953E. E. Cummings, Poems, 1923–1954Babette Deutsch, Animal, Vegetable, MineralAnthony Hecht, A Summoning of StonesDaniel G. Hoffman, An Armada of Thirty WalesRobinson Jeffers, Hungerfield and Other PoemsWeldon Kees, Poems 1947–1954Archibald MacLeish, Songs for EveW. S. Merwin, The Dancing Bears, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press (reprinted as part of The First Four Books of Poems, 1975)Edna St. Vincent Millay, Mine the HarvestMarianne Moore, The Fables of La FontaineHoward Moss, The Toy FairKenneth Patchen, The Famous Boating PartyMay Swenson, Another AnimalWallace Stevens, The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens, includes "The Rock," previously unpublished section including "The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain," "A Quiet Normal Life," "Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour," "The Rock," "The Planet on the Table," and "Not Ideas about the Thing but the Thing Itself"), KnopfE. B. White, The Second Tree from the CornerWilliam Carlos Williams, The Desert Music and Other PoemsCriticism, scholarship and biography in the United States
Hugh Kenner, Wyndham Lewis: A Critical Guidebook, criticism, United StatesW. C. Williams, Selected Essays, criticism, United StatesMartin Carter, Poems of Resistance, GuyanaWilson Harris, Eternity to Season, GuyanaFrank Prince, Soldiers Bathing and Other Poems, South AfricanKeith Sinclair, Strangers or Beasts: Poems, New ZealandJean-Guy Pilon, Les cloîtres de l'été, Montréal: l'HexagoneLouis Aragon, Les Yeux et la memoireJean Cocteau, Clair–obscurRené Daumal, Poésie noire, poésie blanche, posthumously published (died 1944)Jean Follain, Appareil de la terreJean Grosjean, Fils de l'hommeHenri Michaux, Face au verrousIn each section, listed in alphabetical order by first name:
Girija Kumar Mathur, Dhup ke dhanNamvar Singh, Chayavad, literary criticism that offers a radically new interpretation of the romantic movement in Hindi poetry; shows the social foundations of Hindi romanticism and its ties to the progressive movement that followed itPremchand, Sahitya Ka Uddesya, literary essays; published posthumouslyP. K. Paramesvaran Nair, Adhunika Sahitya Caritram, history of Malayalam literature (later translated into English and published by Sahitya Akademi in 1967 under the title History of Malayalam Literature)P. Kunjiraman Nair, Kaliyacchan, poems reflecting traditional ways of life in KeralaSreedhara Menon, KunnimenikalSukumar Azhikode, Asante Sitakavyam, critical assessment of Kumaran Asan's CintavishtayayaGian Chand Jain, Urdu ki nasri dastanen, literary criticism on classical Urdu fiction ("dastan"), written in that languageJigar Brelvi, Payam-i Savitri, a narrative poem on Savitri, a figure from Hindu mythology; UrduMasood Husain Khan, Urdu zaban aur adab, critical study on the Urdu language and literatureBaldev Gajra, also known as "Gumnam", Gumnam Sada, nationalist poems; SindhiBuddhadeb Basu, Sahitya Carca, essays on various literary topics; BengaliJayant Pathak, Marmar, the author's first poetry collection; GujaratiM. Gopalakrishna Adiga, Cendemaddale, KannadaMohan Singh, Awazan, lyrics with a "romantic progressive ideology", according to Indian academic Sisir Kumar Das; PunjabiNand Lal Ambardar, Loel Ta Husun, including "Roopavat", KashmiriNirendranath Chakraborty (also transliterated into English as Nirendranath Chakravarti, ), Nilnirjan (also transliterated into English as Nirendranath Chakravarti), mostly love poems, although one or two have political elements, Kolkata: Signet Press; Bengali-languageRaghunath Singh Samyal, Dogra Desa Te Dogari Boli, Dogri poetry praising Dograland, Dogra people and the Dogri languageTulasibahadur Chetri, nicknamed "Apatan", Samkalpa ("Resolve"), NepaliMadhunapantula Satyanarayanashastri, also spelled "Madhunapantula Satyanarayana Sastri", Andhra Puranamu, Telugu, (surname: Madhunapantula)Manoj Das, Padadvani, OriyaSatramdas, also known as "Sail", Rama Katha, 32 cantos in a Persian meter, written in the wake of the partition of India in 1947; SindhiVisvanatha Satyanarayana, Nannayagari prasanna Katha Kalitartha Yukti, critical appraisal of Nannaya; TeluguSimin Behbahani, Ja-ye Pa ("Footprint"), PersiaJosé Santos Chocano, Obras completas, pról. de Luis Alberto Sánchez Madrid, Aguilar, Peruvian poetry published in SpainHaim Gouri, Shirei Hotam ("Poems of the Seal"), Israeli writing in HebrewSorley MacLean, Hallaig, Scottish Gaelic (in Gairm 8)Pier Paolo Pasolini, La meglio gioventù, Italy (dialect)Maria Luisa Spaziani, Le acque del sabato, ItalyWisława Szymborska, Pytania zadawane sobie ("Questioning Yourself"), PolandTin Ujević, Žedan kamen na studencu ("Thirsty stone at the wellspring"), CroatianAwards and honors
National Book Award for Poetry: Conrad Aiken, Collected PoemsPulitzer Prize for Poetry: Theodore Roethke: The WakingKing's Gold Medal for Poetry: Ralph HodgsonBollingen Prize: W. H. AudenFellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Louise Townsend Nicholl and Oliver St. John GogartyCanada: Governor General's Award, poetry or drama: The Metal and the Flower, P. K. PageDeath years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
February 9 – Ian Duhig, English poetFebruary 13 – Vijay Seshadri, Indian poet, essayist and literary critic who emigrates to the United States c. 1959February 21 – Francisco X. Alarcón (died 2016), Mexican-American poetFebruary 27 – Thylias Moss, African-American poet, writer and playwrightMarch 4 – Irina Ratushinskaya, Russian samizdat poetMarch 26 – Dorothy Porter (died 2008), AustralianApril 17 – Erin Mouré, CanadianMay 5 – Hamid Ismailov, Uzbek writerMay 25 – Alexei Parshchikov (died 2009), Russian poet, critic and translator who emigrates to the United States in 1991July 5 – Kevin Hart, AustralianJuly 19 – Jane Eaton Hamilton, Canadian short story writer, poet and photographerJuly 31 – Kim Addonizio, American poet and novelistAugust 6 – Lorna Dee Cervantes, American poetAugust 8 – Yu Jian, ChinaAugust 15 – Mary Jo Salter, AmericanOctober 15 – Peter Bakowski, AustralianNovember 10 – Joy Goswami, Indian Bengali poet (a man)December 5 – Lynda Hull, AmericanDecember 20 – Sandra Cisneros, American poet and authorDecember 27 – David Baker, AmericanAlso:Catherine Anderson (poet), AmericanRobert Boates, CanadianJanet Charman, New ZealandImtiaz Dharker, Pakistan-born BritishCornelius Eady, African AmericanDavid Hallett, AustralianSotiris Kakisis, GreekJan Heller Levi, AmericanIbrahim Nasrallah, Jordanian-Palestinian poet and novelistLuis J. Rodriguez, American poet, novelist, journalist, critic and columnistStephen Sartarelli, poet and translatorDeb Westbury, AustralianBirth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
January 1 – Leonard Bacon, 66 (born 1887), American poetFebruary 6 – Maxwell Bodenheim, 62 (born 1892), American poet and novelist known as the "King of Greenwich Village Bohemians", murderedMarch 28 – Francis Brett Young, 73 (born 1884), English novelist and poetAugust 3 – Fumiko Nakajo 中城ふみ子, pen name of Noe Fumiko 野江富美子, 32 (born 1922), Japanese tanka poet who dies young after a turbulent life and struggle with breast cancer, as recorded in her poetry (surname: Nakajo)August 18 – Samukawa Sokotsu 寒川鼠骨 (born 1875), Japanese, Meiji period haiku poet; Masaoka Shiki's pupil.October 22Jibanananda Das (born 1899), Bengali poetOswald de Andrade (born 1890), Brazilian poet and polemicist 