May 30 – Composer Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, incorporating settings of Wilfred Owen's poems, is premièred for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral.September – Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath separate.OctoberBeginning this month, Sylvia Plath experiences a great burst of creativity, writing most of the poems on which her reputation will rest in what will be the last few months of her life, including many which will be published in Ariel and Winter Trees.Dame Edith Sitwell reads from her poetry at a concert at Royal Festival Hall in London given in honor of her 75th birthday.Writers in the Soviet Union this year are allowed to publish criticism of Joseph Stalin and are given more freedom generally, although many are severely criticized for doing so. The poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, in the poem, The Heirs of Stalin, writes that more guards should be placed at Stalin's tomb, "lest Stalin rise again, and with Stalin the past". He also condemns anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union. His poetry readings attract hundreds and thousands of enthusiastic young people, to the point where police are often summoned to preserve order and disperse the crowds long after midnight. Other young poets also go beyond the previous limits of Soviet censorship: Andrei Voznesensky, Robert Rozhdestvensky, and Bella Akhmadulina (who has divorced Yevtushenko). Aleksandr Tvardovsky, editor of the literary monthly Novy Mir, supports many of the young writers. By the end of the year, the young writers have gained power in the official writers' unions which control much of the literary culture of the Soviet Union, and some publications which had attacked them are printing their work. American poet Robert Frost visits Russian poet Anna Akhmatova in her dacha.Michigan Quarterly Review is founded.Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:
R. D. Fitzgerald, Southmost Twelve, Grace Leven Prize for PoetryChris Wallace-Crabbe, Eight Metropolitan Poems, Adelaide: Australian LettersEarle Birney, Ice Cod Bell or Stone. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.Wilson MacDonald, *Pugwash. Toronto: Pine Tree Publishing.John Newlove, The Things which AreAlfred Purdy, Poems for All the AnnettesJames Reaney, Twelve Letters to a Small Town. Governor General's Award 1962.A. J. M. Smith, Collected PoemsF. R. Scott, St-Denys Garneau & Anne Hebert: Translations/Traductions. Translated by F. R. Scott. Vancouver: Klanak Press.Raymond Souster, A Local Pride. Toronto: Contact Press.Raymond Souster, Place of MeetingWilfred Watson, The Sea is Also a GardenIrving Layton, editor, Love Where the Nights Are LongEditors of the Tamarack Review, a selection from its past issues, The First Five Years, including poetryBiography, criticism and scholarship
John Glassco, The Journal of Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau (translation)Canadian critics and poets, Masks of PoetryAdil Jussawalla, Land's End ( Poetry in English ), Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India.Lawrence Bantleman, Graffiti ( Poetry in English ), Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India.M. P. Bhaskaran, The Dancer and the Ring ( Poetry in English ), Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India.Dannie Abse, Poems, Golders Green, including "The Abandoned", London: HutchinsonGeorge Barker, The View From a Blind IEdmund Blunden, A Hong Kong HouseRonald Bottrall, Collected PoemsTony Connor, With Love Somehow, London: Oxford University PressPatrick Creagh, A Row of PharaohsAllen Curnow, A Small Room with Large Windows (Oxford University Press), selected poems by this New Zealand poet published in the United KingdomC. Day-Lewis, The Gate, including "Not Proven" and "The Disabused"T. S. Eliot, Collected Poems 1909–1962D. J. Enright, Addictions, London: Chatto and Windus with Hogarth PressRoy Fuller, Collected Poems 1936-1961, London: André DeutschRobert Graves, New Poems 1962Thom Gunn, Fighting Terms, a revision of a collection from the 1950s including "My Sad Captains"Thom Gunn and Ted Hughes, Selected poems by Thom Gunn and Ted Hughes, FaberRichard Kell, Control TowerThomas Kinsella, Downstream, Irish poet published in the United KingdomPeter Levi, Water, Rock and SandNorman MacCaig, A Round of Applause, London: Chatto and Windus with Hogarth PressChristopher Middleton, Torse 3Ewart Milne, A Garland for the Green, Irish poet published in the UKVernon Scannell, A Sense of DangerDame Edith Sitwell, The OutcastsStevie Smith, Selected PoemsJon Stallworthy, Out of BoundsR. S. Thomas, The Bread of TruthAnthony Thwaite, The Owl in the TreeJ. R. R. Tolkien, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and Other Verses from the 'Red Book'Charles Tomlinson, A Peopled LandscapeDerek Walcott, In a Green Night the "most striking" first collection of poetry of 1962, according to Howard Sergeant, editor of Outposts (writing for publication in 1963). Walcott had already gained recognition with his plays.Vernon Watkins, AffinitiesT. H. White, VersesAl Alvarez, editor, The New Poetry an anthology that provoked controversy with its omissions and inclusionsJames Reeves, editor, Georgian PoetryBrother Antoninus, The Hazards of Holiness, 1957-1960John Ashbery, The Tennis Court OathRobert Bly, Silence in the Snowy Fields, Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University PressKay Boyle, Collected PoemsGregory Corso, Long Live ManRobert Creeley, For Love: Poems 1950-1960, collected lyrics from his seven previous volumes, New York: Scribner'sJames Dickey, Drowning With OthersWilliam Everson (also known as Brother Antoninus), The Hazards of Holiness, Garden City, New York: DoubledayWilliam Faulkner, Prose and Poetry, fiction, nonfiction, verseIan Hamilton Finlay, The Dancers Inherit the Party, Ventura California an dWorcester, England: Migrant Press* Robert Creeley, For Love: Poems 1950-1960, New York: Scribner's British poetRobert Frost, In the Clearing, his first collection of new poems in 15 yearsPaul Goodman, The Lordly Hudson: Collected Poems, New York: MacmillanRobert Hayden, A Ballad of RemembranceJohn Hollander, Movie-Going and Other PoemsRichard Howard, QuantitiesWeldon Kees, Collected Poems, published posthumouslyHugh Kenner, editor, T. S. Eliot: A Collection of Critical Essays (Prentice-Hall), Canadian writing and published in the United States; criticismKenneth Koch, Thank You and Other PoemsDenise Levertov, The Jacob's LadderHugh MacDiarmid, Collected Poems, New York: Macmillan, Briton publishing in the United StatesNorman Mailer, Deaths for the LadiesJames Merrill, Water StreetW. S. Merwin, The Life of Lazarillo de TormesChristopher Middleton, torse 3, New York: Harcourt, BraceOgden Nash, Everyone But Thee and Me, light verseHoward Nemerov, The Next Room of the Dream, University of Chicago PressSylvia Plath, The Colossus and Other PoemsCharles Reznikoff, By the Waters of Manhattan: Selected VerseDavid Ross, Three Ages of Lake Light, his first book of poemsMuriel Rukeyser, Waterlily Fire: Poems 1935-1962,James Schevill, Private Dooms and Public Destinations: Poems 1945-1962, Denver: Alan SwallowWinfield Townley Scott, Collected PoemsAnne Sexton, All My Pretty Ones, including "The Truth the Dead Know", Boston: Houghton MifflinEdith Shiffert, In Open Woods, her first book of poemsWilliam Stafford, Traveling Through the Dark, New York: Harper & RowDiane Wakoski, Coins and CoffinsTheodore Weiss, Gunsight, New York University PressReed Whittemore, The Boy from IowaWilliam Carlos Williams, Pictures from Brueghel and Other PoemsCriticism, scholarship and biography in the United States
Karl Shapiro, Prose Keys to Modern PoetryEavan Boland, 23 Poems, IrelandEwart Milne, A Garland for the Green, Irish poet published in the UKKendrick Smithyman, Inheritance, New ZealandListed 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:
Gérard Bessette, Poèmes temporelsGilles Hénault, SémaphoreYves Bonnefoy, Anti-Platon, FranceAndré du Bouchet, Dans la chaleur vacanteRené Char, La Parole en archipelJean Cocteau, La RequiemJean-Paul de Dadelsen, Jonas, published posthumously (died 1957)Pierre Emmanuel, EvangéliaireAndré Frénaud, Il n'y a pas de paradisJean Follain, Poèmes et Pros choisis, displaying some similarities to haikuJean Grosjean, ApocalypsePierre Jean Jouve, MoiresStéphane Mallarmé, Pour un tombeau d'Anatole, an abandoned and previously unpublished work, consisting of notes and drafts of an elegy the poet expected to write on his dead son (posthumous); edited by J. P. RichardRobert Marteau, RoyaumesHenri Michaux, Vents et poussières, Paris: FlinkerSaint-John Perse:Hommage à Rabindranath Tagore, Liège: Editions DynamoL'ordre des oiseaux, Paris: Sociéte d'Editions d'art; republished as Oiseaux, Paris: Sociéte d'Editions d'artValéry Larbaud; ou, L'Honneur littéraire, Liège: Editions DynamoMarcelin Pleynet, Provisoires Amants des nègresFrancis Ponge, Le Grand Recueil in three volumesJean Claude Renard:Incantation du tempsIncantation des eauxMichel Sager, XXI poèmes nocturnesCriticism and scholarship
J. P. Richard, L'Univers imaginaire de MallarméG. Benn, Lyrik des expressionistischen Jahrzehnts, anthologyMarie Luise Kaschnitz, Dein Schweigen-meine StimmenHilde Domin, Rückkehr der SchiffeWilhelm Lehmann, Abschiedslust, Gedichte aus den Jahren 1957-1961, 37 poemsHans Magnus Enzensberger, Viele schöne Kinderreime, 777 poems for childrenAnonymous author from the Soviet Union, Zion Halo Tishali, poems originally written in Russian and clandestinely sent to Israel, edited and translated by A. Shlonsky and M. SharettAvigdor Hameiri, Belivnat ha-Sapir ("Clear-cut Sapphire"), collected poemsLevi Ben-Amittai, Matana Mimidbar ("Gift of the Desert")Yitzahak Ogen, Shirim ("Poems")P. Elad-Lander, Ke'raiah ha-Sadeh ("As the Fragrance of the Field")A. Halfi, Mul Kohavim ve-Afar ("Against Stars and the Dust")A. Meyrowitz, Avnai Bait ("Stones of a House")D. Avidan, Shirai Lahatz ("Poems of Pressure")Uri Bernstein, Beoto ha-Heder Beoto ha-Or ("In the Same Room, In the Same Light")T. Carmi, Nehash ha-Nehoshet ("Brass Serpent")J. Lichtenbaum, Shiratenu ("Our Poetry"), a two-volume anthology of Hebrew poetry from the end of the 18th centuryJ. J. Schwartz, Kentucky, the only volume of Hebrew poetry published in the United States, according to The Britannica Book of the Year 1963 (covering events of 1962)Listed in alphabetical order by first name:
Barnardino Evaristo Mendes, also known as B. E. Mendes, Goenchem Git, KonkaniGulzar, Jaanam, New Delhi: Vanagi Publications; UrduMaheswar Neog, Asamiya Sahityar Ruprekha, Assamese-languageRatnadhwaj Josi, Hamro Kavya Paramparama Usaiko Lagi ("Our Poetic Tradition"), criticism, NepaliA. Gatto, Carlomagno nella grottaEugenio Montale, Satura, published in a private edition, Verona: Oficina BodoniCesare Pavese, Poesie edite e inedite, edited by Italo Calvino, Turin: Einaudi (posthumous)Maria Luisa Spaziani, Il gongP. Volponi, MemorialeHéctor Rojas Herazo, Mascando las tinieblas en el odio (Colombia)Alberto Hidalgo, Historia peruana verdaderaJosé Martí, Versos (Cuban), posthumous; with an introduction by Eugenio FloritPablo Neruda, a bilingual anthology of his selected verse; with an introduction by Louis MonguióRubén Bonifaz Nuño, Fuego de pobres (Mexico)Carlos Pellicer, Material poético (Mexico)Jorge Guillén, Lenguaje y poesíaA collaboration of 50 poets and 14 illustrators, Versos para Antonio Machado (published in France)Eliyohu Bokher, Bovo-bukh ("Buovo d'Antona") (posthumous) a 16th-century epic poem translated into modern Yiddish by Moyshe KnaphesYaykev Glatshteyn, Di freyd fun yidishn vort ("The Joy of the Yiddish World)N. I. Gotlib, a book of poetryChaim Grade, Der mench fun fayer ("The Man of Fire")Rokhl Korn, a book of poetryKadye Molodovsky, editor, Lider fun khurbn ("Poems of the Catastrophe"), an anthology in which emphasized the theme of the HolocaustShloyme Shenhud, a book of poetryA. N. Shtensl, a book of poetryI. J. Shvarts, a book of poetryI. Taubes, a book of poetryMeyer Ziml Tkach, a book of poetryShneyer Vaserman, a book of poetryAvrom Zak, a book of poetryReyzl Zhykhlinsky, a book of poetryBella Akhmadulina, Struna ("The String"), Soviet UnionRuy de Moura Belo, O problema da habitação—alguns aspectos ("The Quandary of Living: Some Aspects'", PortugalInger Christensen, Lys: digte ("Light"), DenmarkWisława Szymborska: Sól ("Salt"), PolandEric Gregory Award: Donald Thomas, James Simmons, Brian Johnson, Jenny JosephQueen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Christopher FryBollingen Prize: John Hall Wheelock and Richard EberhartNational Book Award for Poetry: Alan Dugan, PoemsPulitzer Prize for Poetry: Alan Dugan: PoemsFellowship of the Academy of American Poets: John Crowe RansomYale Series of Younger Poets Competition: Jack Gilbert: MonolithosGrand Prix National des Lettres (France): Pierre Jean JouveGrand prix de littérature de l'Académie française (France): Luc Estang, for his work as a wholeAustralia: Grace Leven Prize for Poetry, Southmost Twelve, R. D. FitzgeraldCanada: Governor General's Award, poetry or drama: Twelve Letters to a Small Town and The Winter Sun and Other Plays, James Reaney Canada: Governor General's Award, Poésie et théâtre: Les insolites et les violons de l'automne, Jacques Languirand May 13 – Kathleen Jamie, Scottish poet and essayistMay 21 – Stacy Doris (died 2012), American poet writing in English and FrenchMay 30 – Elizabeth Alexander, American poetJune 25 – Phill Jupitus, born Phillip Swan, English comedian and performance poetOctober 9 – Durs Grünbein, German poetAugust 25 – Taslima Nasrin, Bangladeshi-born poet, writer, physician and feministAugust 27 – Sjón, born Sigurjón Birgir Sigurðsson, Icelandic poet, lyricist and novelistDecember 6 – Julia Kasdorf, American poetDecember 31 – Machi Tawara 俵万智, Japanese writer, translator and poetMarch 13 – Seyhan Erözçelik, Turkish poet (died 2011)Also:Paul Beatty, African-American poet and authorGlyn Maxwell, British poet and authorJean Sprackland, English poet and essayistVirgil Suárez, Cuban American poet and novelistBirth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
January 20 – Robinson Jeffers, 85 (born 1887), American poet and playwrightMarch 18 – George Sylvester Viereck, 77 (born 1884), American poet and novelist, as well as a pro-German propagandist during both World War I and World War IIMay 26 – Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, 83 (born 1878), English poetJune 2 – Vita Sackville-West, 70 (born 1892), English novelist and poetJune 8 – William Stanley Braithwaite (born 1878), American poetJune 22 – John Holmes, 58, American educator and poetJuly 27 – Richard Aldington, 70, English writer and poetAugust 9 – Hermann Hesse, 95, Swiss novelist and poet in GermanAugust 18 – Rosemary Carr Benét, 65(?), poet and widow of Stephen Vincent BenétAugust 29 – Alan Mulgan (born 1881), New Zealand poetSeptember 2 – Natalia Negru, 79 (born 1882), Romanian poetSeptember 3 – E. E. Cummings, 67 (born 1894), American poet, of a stroke;October 3 – Dakotsu Iida 飯田 蛇笏, commonly referred to as "Dakotsu", pen names of Takeji Iida 飯田 武治 (born 1885), Japanese haiku poet; trained under Takahama KyoshiNovember 3 – Ralph Hodgson, 91 (born 1871), English poetDecember 3 – Dame Mary Gilmore, 97, Australian socialist, poet and journalist 
