Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
February 27 – English poet Ted Hughes and American poet Sylvia Plath meet in Cambridge, England.
June 16 – Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath marry at the church of St George the Martyr, Holborn, London.
September 6 – American poet Richard Eberhart, having been sent by The New York Times to San Francisco to report on the poetry scene there, publishes this day an article in the New York Times Book Review titled "West Coast Rhythms" which helps call national attention to Allen Ginsberg's Howl as "the most remarkable poem of the young group" of poets who are becoming known as the spokesmen of the Beat Generation. On November 1, Howl and Other Poems, is published by City Lights Bookstore.
The Lake Eden campus of Black Mountain College, the birthplace of the Black Mountain School of poetry, closes, although classes do not end until the spring of 1957, and the final issue of the Black Mountain Review is published in the fall of 1957.
Quadrant magazine is founded in Australia by Richard Krygier, a Polish-Jewish refugee who had been active in social-democrat politics in Europe, and James McAuley, a Catholic poet.
Northern Review, founded in 1945 from the merger of two small Canadian literary magazines, Preview and First Statement, publishes its last issue.
Tamarack Review founded by Robert Weaver in Canada
Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:
Leonard Cohen, Let Us Compare Mythologies, Canada
R. A. D. Ford, A Window on the North
Louis Dudek, The Transparent Sea. Toronto: Contact Press, 1956.
Eldon Grier, Poems
Irving Layton, The Bull Calf and Other Poems. Toronto: Contact Press.
Irving Layton, The Improved Binoculars: Selected Poems. Introduction by William Carlos Williams. Highlands, NC: Jonathan Williams.
Irving Layton, Music on a Kazoo. Toronto: Contact Press.
W.W.E. Ross, Experiment 1923-1929, Contact Press.
Raymond Souster, The Selected Poems. Louis Dudek ed. Toronto: Contact Press.
Raymond Souster ed. Poets 56: Ten Younger English-Canadians. Toronto: Contact Press.
Wilfred Watson, Even Your Right Eye
New Zealand
Robert Chapman and Jonathan Bennett, editors, An Anthology of New Zealand Verse, Oxford University Press
D'Arcy Cresswell, The Voyage of the Hurunui : a Ballad, Christchurch: Caxton Press
Charles Doyle, A Splinter of Glass
Einar Beer, Samadhi Poems and Autumn Rains ( Poetry in English ), Alvdal: The Brahmakul;
Humayun Kabir, Mahatma & other Poems ( Poetry in English ),
Kingsley Amis, A Case of Samples: Poems 1946–1956
David Gascoyne, Night Thoughts
John Holloway, The Minute and Longer Poems, Hessle, East Yorkshire: Marvell Press
Christopher Logue, Devil, Maggot and Son
Norman MacCaig, Riding Lights, London: Hogarth Press
Edwin Muir, One Foot in Eden
E. J. Scovell, The River Steamer, and Other Poems
Fredegond Shove (died 1949), Poems
John Ashbery, Some Trees
John Berryman, Homage to Mistress Bradstreet, New York: Farrar, Straus & Cudahy
Gwendolyn Brooks, Bronzeville Boys and Girls
Witter Bynner, A Book of Lyrics
Robert Creeley, If You
Kenneth Fearing, New and Selected Poems
Robert Fitzgerald, In the Rose of Time: Poems 1931–1956
Allen Ginsberg, Howl
Anne Morrow Lindbergh, The Unicorn, and Other Poems
W. S. Merwin, Green with Beasts, New York: Knopf (reprinted as part of The First Four Books of Poems, 1975)
Kenneth Rexroth (translator), 30 Spanish Poems of Love and Exile and (translator), 100 Poems from the Chinese
Edna St. Vincent Millay, Collected Poems
Marianne Moore, Like a Bulwark
Gertrude Stein, Stanzas in meditation and Other Poems (1929–1933)
Peter Viereck, The Persimmon Tree
John Hall Wheelock, Poems Old and New
Reed Whittemore, An American Takes a Walk
Richard Wilbur, Things of This World: Poems, New York: Harcourt, Brace
Tennessee Williams, In the Winter of Cities
Listed by language and often 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 Roman inachevé
Aimé Césaire, Cahier d'un retour au pays natal, definitive, revised edition
Pierre Jean Jouve, Lyrique
Henri Michaux, Misérable miracle, about his experiences taking mescaline
Jules Supervielle, L'Escalier
Tristan Tzara, pen name of Sami Rosenstock, Le fruit permis
W. Höllerer, editor, Transit, anthology, German
Rupert Hirschenauer and Albrecht Weber, editors, Wege zum Gedicht, 2 volumes (second volume, on the ballad, in 1963), Germany, scholarship
Walther Killy, Wandlungen des lyrischen Bildes
In each section, listed in alphabetical order by first name:
Dinu Bhai Pant, Dadi Te Mam
Shambhu Nath Sharma, Bhadasa
Shuk Dev Shastri, Svacchanda Trivani, verses celebrating traditional values and patterned on Sanskrit meters
Tara Smail Puri, Fauji Pimsanar, a long poem on the plight of a military veteran
Bhatt Damodar Kesavaji, pen name "Sudhansu", Alakhtano, Gujarati
Dhirubhai Thaker, Arvacin Gujarati Shaityani Vikasrekha, a Gujarati-language history of that language's literature from 1850 to the post-independence period
Natvarlal Kuberdas Pandya 'Ushnas', Nepathye, longer poems based on new interpretations of mythological characters; Gujarati
Suresh Joshi, Upjati, Indian, Gujarati language
C. Mahadevappa, translation from the English of Percy Bysshe Shelley's The Defence of Poetry
Channaveera Kanavi, Dipadhari, with some lyrics in the navodaya style, others in the navya; poetry known as Samanvaya Kavya in Kannada poetry because it attempted to synthesize the two types of subject matter: both the beauty of nature, folk traditions, mysticism, and humanism of the one form and the stark contemporary realism of the other
Yarmunja Ramachandra, Vidaya, the author's only book of poems, published posthumously after his death at age 22
O. N. V. Kurup, Dahikkunna Panapatram, Malayalam, the author's earliest poems, mostly lyrics reflecting revolutionary idealism
Sreedhara Menon, Vittumkaikkottum, Malayalam
Sukumar Azhikode, Ramananum Malayala Kavitayum, critical study in Malayalam of Changampuzha's Ramanan
Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Zindan Nama
Mirza Muhammad Muqimi Bijapuri, Candar badan va Mahayar, edited by Muhammad Akbaruddin Siddiqi, narrative poems
Nadim, "Subuhdam Yets Chhu Paratshyon Gashi-Tarukh", the first sonnet in the Kashmiri language; published in the Urdu publication Tameer
Harekrushna Mahadab, Chayapathara Yatri, Oriya
Kunvar Narayan (also spelled in English as Kunwar Narain), Cakravyuha (has also been transliterated into English as Chakravyooh), New Delhi: Radhakrishan Prakashan, ISBN 81-7119-192-4; Hindi-language
Parsram Rohra, Sargam, Sindhi
Sankha Ghosh, Dinguli Ratguli, the author's first book of poems, Bengali
Mario Benedetti, Poemas de oficina ("Office Poems"), Uruguay
José Santos Chocano, Las mejores poesías de Chocano, pról. de Francisco Bendezú (Lima: Editorial Paracas), Peru
Juan Gelman, Violín y otras cuestiones, Argentina
Octavio Paz, La estación violenta, Mexico
Miron Białoszewski's first book: Obroty rzeczy, Poland
Zbigniew Herbert's first book: Struna światła, Poland
Harry Martinson, Aniara, Swedish
Eugenio Montale, La bufera e altro ("The Storm and Other Things"), a first edition of 1,000 copies, Venice: Neri Pozza; second, larger edition published in 1957, Milan: Arnaldo Mondadore Editore; Italy
Nizar Qabbani, Poems (قصائد), Syrian poet writing in Arabic
Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Stantsiia Zima (Станция Зима, "Zima Station", translated as "Winter Station"), Soviet Union
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"): Randall Jarrell appointed this year.
National Book Award for Poetry: W. H. Auden, The Shield of Achilles
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Elizabeth Bishop: Poems - North & South
Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Edmund Blunden
Bollingen Prize: Conrad Aiken
Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: William Carlos Williams
Adonais Prize (Spain): María C. Lacaci, Humana voz
Canada: Governor General's Award, poetry or drama: A Window on the North, Robert A.D. Ford
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
April 7 – Dionisio D. Martinez, Cuban-born poet who grows up speaking Spanish, raised first in Spain, then in the United States
May 9 – Henri Cole, Japanese-born American poet
August 15 – Henry Normal, born Pete Carroll, English performance poet and television comedy producer
September 26 – Mick Imlah (died 2009), Scottish-born poet
October 7 – Diane Ackerman, American poet and naturalist
October 30 – Annie Finch, American poet, librettist and theorist
Also:
Bai Hua, Chinese poet
Jim Daniels, American poet, writer and academic
Forrest Gander, American poet, essayist and translator
Amy Gerstler, American poet
Lachlan Mackinnon, Scottish-born poet and critic
Amir Or, Israeli poet
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
January 31 – A. A. Milne, 74 (born 1882), English author of children's books and children's poetry
March 23 – Mitsuko Shiga 四賀光子, pen name of Mitsu Ota (born 1885), Japanese, Taishō and Shōwa period tanka poet, a woman
March 30 – Edmund Clerihew Bentley, 80 (born 1875), popular English novelist and humorist and inventor of the clerihew, an irregular form of humorous verse on biographical topics
April 2 – Kōtarō Takamura 高村 光太郎 (born 1883), Japanese poet and sculptor; son of sculptor Takamura Kōun
May 11 – Takashi Matsumoto 松本たかし (born 1906), Japanese, Shōwa period professional haiku poet in the Shippo-kai haiku circle, then, starting in 1929, in the Hototogisu group that also included Kawabata Bosha; founded a literary magazine, Fue ("Flute"), in 1946
May 15 – Arthur Talmage Abernethy (born 1872), American poet, journalist, theologian, minister; North Carolina Poet Laureate 1948–53
June 22 – Walter de la Mare, 83 (born 1873), English poet, short story writer and author of children's books
July 7 – Gottfried Benn (born 1886), German expressionist poet; buried in Dahlem Waldfriedhof, Berlin
July 8 – Giovanni Papini, 75 (born 1881), Italian poet, essayist, journalist, literary critic, and novelist
July 11 – Dorothy Wellesley, 70, English socialite, author, poet and literary editor
August 31 – Percy MacKaye, 81 (born 1875), American playwright and poet
September 7 – Frank Oliver Call (born 1878), Canadian poet and academic
November 21 – Aizu Yaichi (会津 八一) (born 1881), Japanese poet, calligrapher and historian (Surname: Aizu)
