Spring – August Derleth launches the poetry magazine Hawk and Whippoorwill in the United States.September 5 – Welsh poet Waldo Williams is imprisoned for six weeks for non-payment of income tax (a protest against defence spending).An inscription of an excerpt of the Poema de Fernán González is discovered on a roofing tile in Merindad de Sotoscueva, the earliest known record of it.Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:
Margaret Avison, Winter SunDaryl Hine, The Devil's Picture BookKenneth McRobbie, Eyes Without a FaceEli Mandel, Fuseli PoemsPeter Miller, Sonata for Frog and ManEdmund Snow Carpenter, American anthropologist, editor, Anerca, anonymous Eskimo poems, with drawings by EnooesweetokA. J. M. Smith, editor, The Oxford book of Canadian verse, in English and French, including untranslated poems in French combined in chronological order with English-language poemsNissim Ezekiel, The Unfinished Man: Poems Written in 1959, Calcutta: Writers Workshop, IndiaDom Moraes, John Nobody, Indian at this time living in the United KingdomDeb Kumar Das, The Night before Us, Calcutta: Writers Workshop, IndiaPradip Sen, And Then the Sun, first edition (revised edition, 1968), Calcutta: Writers Workshop, IndiaRaul De Loyola Furtado, The Oleanders and Other Poems, Calcutta: Writers Workshop, IndiaKeshav Malik, The Rippled ShadowBarjor Paymaster, the Last Farewell and Other Poems, Bombay: Asia Publishing HouseV. Madhusudan Reddy, Sapphires of Solitude, Hyderabad: V. Man Mohan ReddySasthi Brata, Eleven Poems, Calcutta: published by the authorW. H. Auden, Homage to ClioSir John Betjeman, Summoned by BellsEdwin Bronk, A Family Affair, Northwood, Middlesex: Scorpion PressAustin Clarke, The Hore-Eaters (see also Ancient Lights 1955, Too Great a Vine 1957)Patric Dickinson, The World I SeeLawrence Durrell, Collected PoemsD. J. Enright, Some Men Are BrothersTed Hughes, Lupercal, London: Faber and Faber; New York: HarperJohn Knight, Straight Lines and UnicornsPeter Levi, The Gravel PondsPatrick Kavanagh, Come Dance with Kitty StoblingNorman MacCaig, A Common GraceDom Moraes, Poems, Indian at this time living in the United KingdomEdwin Muir, Collected Poems (posthumous)Sylvia Plath, The Coolossus, and Other PoemsWilliam Plomer, Collected PoemsPeter Redgrove, The Collector, and Other Poems, London: Routledge and Kegan PaulJames Reeves, Collected Poems 1929–59Charles Tomlinson, Seeing is BelievingAndrew Young, Collected PoemsJohn Ashbery, The PoemsW. H. Auden, Homage to ClioPaul Blackburn, Brooklyn Manhattan Transit: A Bouquet for FlatbushGwendolyn Brooks, The Bean EatersWitter Bynner, New PoemsGregory Corso, The Happy Birthday of DeathLouis Coxe, The Middle PassageE. E. Cummings, Collected PoemsJames Dickey, Into the StoneRobert Duncan:The Opening of the FieldSelected Poems, San Francisco: City Lights BooksRichard Eberhart, Collected Poems 1930–1960Paul Engle, Poems in Praise, including the sonnet sequence "For the Iowa Dead"Jean Garrigue, A Water Walk by Villa d'EsteRamon Guthrie, GraffitiAnthony Hecht, A BestiaryDaryl Hine, The Devil's Picture BookDaniel G. Hoffman, A Little Geste and Other PoemsRandall Jarrell, The Woman at the Washington Zoo, New York: AtheneumLeRoi Jones, Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note, New York: Totem/Corinth BooksDonald Justice, The Summer AnniversariesWeldon Kees, The Collected Poems of Weldon Kees posthumous, edited by Donald JusticeJack Kerouac, Mexico City BluesGalway Kinnell, What a Kingdom It Was, Boston: Houghton MifflinDenise Levertov, With Eyes at the Back of Our HeadsRobert Lowell, Life Studies, New York: Farrar, Straus & CudahyPhyllis McGinley, Times Three: Selected Verse from Three DecadesJames Merrill, Water Street, Atheneum PublishersW. S. Merwin:The Drunk in the Furnace, New York: Macmillan (reprinted as part of The First Four Books of Poems, 1975)Translator, The Satires of Persius, Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University PressJoesphine Miles, Poems 1930–1960Howard Moss, A Winter Come, a Summer Gone: Poems 1946-1960, New York: Scribner'sHoward Nemerov, New and Selected Poems, University of Chicago PressJohn Frederick Nims, Knowledge of the EveningCharles Olson:The Distances, New York: Grove PressThe Maximus Poems, New York: Jargon/Corinth BooksKenneth Patchen, Because It IsEzra Pound, Thrones: 96-109 de los Cantares, multi-lingual cantosCarl Sandburg, Wind SongAnne Sexton, To Bedlam and Part Way Back, Boston: Houghton MifflinWilfred Townley Scott, ScrimshawW. D. Snodgrass, Heart's NeedleGary Snyder, Myths and TextsWilliam Stafford, West of Your CityEleanor Ross Taylor, Wilderness of LadiesTheodore Weiss, Outlanders, New York: MacmillanReed Whittemore, The Self-Made Man and Other PoemsYvor Winters, Collected Poems, Chicago: The Swallow PressCriticism, scholarship and biography
Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren, Understanding Poetry (college textbook), originally published in 1938, goes into its third edition (a fourth will be published in 1976)Ed Dorn, What I See in the Maximum Poems, Migrant Press (criticism)Karl Shapiro, In Defense of Ignorance, an attack on the dominant critical values of modern poetry in the vein of T. S. Eliot, W. B. Yeats and Ezra PoundThe New American Poetry 1945-1960, a poetry anthology edited by Donald Allen, and published in 1960, aimed to pick out the "third generation" of American modernist poets. In the longer term it attained a classic status, with critical approval and continuing sales. It was reprinted in 1999.
Poets represented:
Helen Adam – John Ashbery – Paul Blackburn – Robin Blaser – Ebbe Borregaard – Bruce Boyd – Ray Bremser – Brother Antoninus – James Broughton – Paul Carroll – Gregory Corso – Robert Creeley – Edward Dorn – Kirby Doyle – Robert Duerden – Robert Duncan – Larry Eigner – Lawrence Ferlinghetti – Edward Field – Allen Ginsberg – Madeline Gleason – Barbara Guest – LeRoi Jones – Jack Kerouac – Kenneth Koch – Philip Lamantia – Denise Levertov – Ron Loewinsohn – Edward Marshall – Michael McClure – David Meltzer – Frank O'Hara – Charles Olson – Joel Oppenheimer – Peter Orlovsky – Stuart Perkoff – James Schuyler – Gary Snyder – Gilbert Sorrentino – Jack Spicer – Lew Welch – Philip Whalen – John Wieners – Jonathan Williams
Allen Curnow, The Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse, New ZealandListed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:
Anne Hébert, PoèmesMichèle Lalonde:Songe de la fiancée détruiteGeôlesPaul Morin, Géronte et son miriorJean-Guy Pilon, La mouette et le large, Montréal: l'HexagoneYves Préfontaine, L'Antre du poèmePierre Trottier, Les Belles au bois dormantGilles Vigneault, EtravesCriticism, scholarship and biography
Gérard Bessette, Les Images en poésie canadienne-françaiseLouis Aragon, Les PoetesAimé Césaire, Ferrements, Martinique author published in France; Paris: Editions du SeuilGeorges-Emmanuel Clancier, EvidencesMichel Deguy, Fragments du cadastreMohammed Dib, Ombre gardienne, with a preface by Louis AragonJean Follain, Des HeuresPaul Géraldy, Vous et moiPierre Jean Jouve, ProsesPierre Oster, Un nom toujours nouveauSaint-John Perse, ChroniqueJacques Prévert, HistoiresTchicaya U Tam'si, À triche-coeurManuel Blanco-González, La luna et lluviaDolores Castro, Cantares de velaPablo Antonio Cuadra, El jaguar y la luna (Nicaragua), winner of the Rubén Darío PrizeManuel Durán, La paloma azulGermán Pardo García, Centauro al solLeón de Greiff, Obras completas, with a preliminary study by Jorge Zalamea (Colombia)Carlos García-Prada, editor, Escala del sueño, anthology of 35 Castilian lyrical poetsElías Nandino, Nocturna palabra (Mexico)Criticism, scholarship and biography
Emilio Armaza, Eguren, an anthology and analysis of the Peruvian poet's verseAntonio Oliver Belmás, Este otro Rubén DaríoGastón Figueira, De la vida y la obra de Gabriela MistralManuel Pedro González, editor, Antología crítica de José Marti, including writing by Darío, Gabriela Mistral, Unamuno, and OnísGlen L. Kolb, Juan del Valle y Caviedes, "A Study of the Life, Times and Poetry of a Spanish Colonial Satirist"Eduardo Neale-Silva, Horizonte humano, the first detailed biographical study of the Colombian poet José Eustasio RiveraFederico de Onís, Luis Palês Matos—vida y obra-bibliografía, antología, poesías, inéditas, a study of the Puerto Rican poet's life and artistic developmentOdysseus Elytis, Έξη και μια τύψεις για τον ουρανό ("Six Plus One Remorses For The Sky"), GreeceH. M. Enzensberger, editor, Museum der modernen Poesie, anthology of international modernist poetry, GermanHaim Gouri, Shoshanat Ruhot ("Compass Rose"), Israeli writing in HebrewJess Ørnsbo, Digte ("Poems"), DenmarkKlaus Rifbjerg, Konfrontation, DenmarkKedarnath Singh, Abhi Bilkul Abhi, Allahabad: Natya Sahitya Prakashan; India, HindiAwards and honors
Nobel Prize in Literature: St. John Perse (France)Eric Gregory Award: Christopher LevensonQueen's Gold Medal for Poetry: John BetjemanNational Book Award for Poetry: Robert Lowell, Life StudiesPulitzer Prize for Poetry: W. D. Snodgrass: Heart's NeedleBollingen Prize: Delmore SchwartzFellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Jesse StuartFirst State Poetry Price (Greece): Odysseus ElytisPrix Dante (France): Pierre Jean JouveCanada: Governor General's Award, poetry or drama: Winter Sun, Margaret AvisonCanada: Governor General's Award, Poésie et théâtre: Poèmes, Anne HébertJanuary 28 – Robert von Dassanowsky, American academic, writer, poet, film and cultural historian and producerFebruary 12 – George Elliott Clarke, Canadian poet and playwrightApril 1 – Frieda Hughes, English-born poet, children's writer and painterAugust 31 – Makarand Paranjape, Indian poetOctober 30 – Kathleen Flenniken, American writer, poet, editor and educatorJeffery Donaldson, Canadian poet, critic and theoristKatrina Porteous, Scottish-born poetDipti Saravanamuttu, Sri Lankan-Australian poet, academic, journalist and script writer, moves to Australia as a child in 1972Alexis Stamatis, Greek poetKarenne Wood, Native American poetBirth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
January 14 – Ralph Chubb, 77 (born 1892), English poet, printer and artistFebruary 21 – Walter D'Arcy Cresswell (born 1896), New Zealand poetFebruary 28 – F. S. Flint (born 1885), English poet, translator and prominent member of the Imagist groupMarch 23 – Franklin Pierce Adams, 78 (born 1881), American writer whose "The Conning Tower" column gave critical publicity to many poets and writers, translator of poetryMay 30 – Boris Pasternak, 70 (born 1890), Russian poet and writer, winner of Nobel Prize in Literature 1958, lung cancerJune 17 – Pierre Reverdy (born 1889), French poetAugust 8 – Harry Kemp, 76 (born 1883), American poetAugust 19 – Frances Cornford (born 1886), English poetAugust 25 – David Diop (born 1927), French West African poet, air crashOctober 28 – Margarita Abella Caprile (born 1901), Argentine poetOctober 31 – H. L. Davis, 66 (born 1894), American fiction writer and poetNovember 9 – Yoshii Isamu 吉井勇 (born 1886), Japanese, Taishō and Showa period tanka poet and playwright 