Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
March 1 – Dylan Thomas posthumously honoured by a floor plaque in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey
September – The New Criterion founded in New York City
Final edition of This magazine published 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:
M. Duwell, editor, A Possible Contemporary Poetry (scholarship)
Chris Mansell, Head, Heart & Stone (Fling Publishers)
Les Murray:
Equanimities
The Vernacular Republic: Poems 1961-1981, Angus & Robertson; Edinburgh, Canongate; New York, Persea Books, 1982 and (enlarged and revised edition) Angus & Robertson, 1988
A. Paolucci and L. Dobrez, editors, Review of National Literatures: Australia (scholarship)
Margaret Atwood, The New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse in English (anthology)
Margaret Avison, Winter Sun /The Dumbfounding: Poems 1940-66
Dionne Brand, Primitive Offensive
Don Domanski, War in an Empty House
Robert Finch, Twelve for Christmas.
Diane Keating, No Birds or Flowers
Irving Layton, A Wild Peculiar Joy: Selected Poems, 1945-82 Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.
Gwendolyn MacEwen:
The Fire Eaters.
The T. E. Lawrence Poems
Earth-Light: Selected Poetry 1963-1982. Toronto: General Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7736-1117-7
Elizabeth Smart, Eleven Poems
Michael Ondaatje, Running in the Family, memoir, New York: W. W. Norton, ISBN 0-393-01637-4, ISBN 0-7710-6884-0
Wilfred Watson, Mass on Cowback.
Phyllis Webb, The Vision Tree: Selected Poems
Keki Daruwalla, The Keeper of the Dead ( Poetry in English ), winner of the Central Sahitya Academy Award in 1984; Delhi: Oxford University Press
Nissim Ezekiel, Latter-Day Psalms ( Poetry in English ),
Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Distance in Statute Miles ( Poetry in English ),
Suniti Namjoshi, The Authentic Lie ( Poetry in English ), Fredericton, New Brunswick: Fiddlehead, ISBN 0-86492-010-5
Ireland
Dermot Bolger, No Waiting America
Harry Clifton, Comparative Lives, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, ISBN 978-0-904011-33-3
Pearse Hutchinson, Selected Poems, including "Malaga" and "Gaeltacht", Oldcastle: The Gallery Press
Paul Muldoon, Out of Siberia, Northern Ireland native published in the United Kingdom
Seamus Heaney: Poems and a Memoir, Limited Editions Club, Northern Ireland native living at this time in the United States
Derek Mahon:
The Hunt by Night, including "Courtyards in Delft", "Rathlin", and "Tractatus", Oxford University Press, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
Translator, The Chimeras, Gallery Press, translation from the French of Les Chimères by Nerval
John Montague, Selected Poems, including "A Drink of Milk", "Family Conference", and "The Cave of Night"
New Zealand
Fleur Adcock (New Zealand poet who moved to England in 1963), editor, Oxford Book of Contemporary New Zealand Poetry, Auckland: Oxford University Press
Allen Curnow, You Will Know When You Get There: Poems 1979–81
W. Ihimaera and D. S. Long, Into the World of Light: An Anthology of Maori Writing
Bill Manhire, Good Looks, New Zealand
Cilla McQueen, Homing In, winner of the New Zealand Book Award for Poetry and the 1983 Jessie MacKay Award
W. H. Oliver, Poor Richard: Poems, Wellington: Port Nicholson Press, New Zealand
Peter Ackroyd, The Great Fire of London
James Berry, Lucy's Letters and Loving
Sir John Betjeman, Uncollected Poems
Patric Dickinson, A Rift in Time
Carol Ann Duffy, Fifth Last Song, Headland
Douglas Dunn, Europa's Lover
Gavin Ewart, More Little Ones (see All My Little Ones, 1978)
U. A. Fanthorpe, Standing To
James Fenton, The Memory of War: Poems 1968-1982, Salamander Press,
Geoffrey Grigson:
Collected Poems, 1963–1980
The Cornish Dancer, and Other Poems
Thom Gunn, The Passages of Joy
Seamus Heaney: Poems and a Memoir, Limited Editions Club, Northern Ireland native living at this time in the United States
Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes, editors, The Rattle Bag, Faber, anthology
John Heath-Stubbs, Naming the Beasts
Alan Hollinghurst, Confidential Chats with Boy
Ted Hughes, Selected Poems 1957–1981
Kathleen Jamie, Black Spiders
Roger McGough, Waving at Trains
Derek Mahon, The Hunt By Night. Oxford University Press
Paul Muldoon, Out of Siberia, Northern Ireland native published in the United Kingdom
Nerval, The Chimeras, a version of Les Chimères, translated from French by Derek Mahon, Gallery Press
Norman Nicholson, Selected Poems 1940–82
Tom Rawling, Ghosts At My Back
Jeremy Reed, A Man Afraid
E. J. Scovell, The Space Between
Muriel Spark, Going Up to Sotheby's and Other Poems
A.R. Ammons, Worldly Hopes
Louise Simone Bennett, Selected Poems
Hayden Carruth, The Sleeping Beauty
Nicholas Christopher, On Tour with Rita
Robert Creeley:
Echoes
The Collected Poems, 1945–1975
James Dickey, Puella
Hilda Doolittle ("H.D."), Notes on Thought and Vision (posthumous), written in 1919
Jack Gilbert, Monolithos
Allen Ginsberg, Plutonian Ode: Poems 1977–1980
Seamus Heaney: Poems and a Memoir, Limited Editions Club, Northern Ireland native living at this time in the United States
Jane Hirshfield, Alaya
Phyllis Janowitz, Visiting Rites
Galway Kinnell, Selected Poems
Denise Levertov, Candles in Babylon
William Logan, Sad-faced Men
James Merrill:
The Changing Light at Sandover, an epic poem
From the First Nine Poems
W. S. Merwin, Finding the Islands, San Francisco: North Point Press
Reynolds Price, Vital Provisions
Peter Seaton, The Son Master (New York: Roof Books, The Segue Foundation)
Gjertrud Schnackenberg, Portraits and Elegies
Mona Van Duyn, Letters from a Father and Other Poems
Theodore Weiss, Recoveries
James Wright, This Journey
Paul-Henri Campbell, German-American poet born.
Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United States
William Meredith, Reasons for Poetry, and The Reason for Criticism
Edward Brathwaite, Sun Poem, Caribbean poet living and publishing in the United States
Mafika Gwala, No More Lullabies, South Africa
Dennis Scott, Dreadwalk, Jamaica
Listed 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, Moi, laminaire, Martinique author published in France; Paris: Editions du Seuil
Odysseus Elytis, Marie de Brumes translated by Xavier Bordes into French from the original Greek
Abdellatif Laabi, translator, Rires de l'arbre à palabre from the original Arabic of Abdallah Zrika into French; Paris: L'Harmattan
Listed in alphabetical order by first name:
Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Sare Sukhan Hamare, Indian, Urdu-language
Gitaujali Badruddin, Poems of Gitaujali (posthumously published)
Jayant Kaikini, Kotitirtha, Sagar, Karnataka: Akshara Prakashana, Indian, Kannada-language poet, short-story writer, and screenwriter
K. Satchidanandan, Malayalam-language:
Janatayum Kavitayum, ("Poetry and the People"); criticism
Venal Mazha, ("The Summer Rain")
Rajendra Kishore Panda, Shailakalpa ("Mountainesque"), Cuttack: Grantha Mandir, Oraya-language
Mehr Lal Soni Zia Fatehabadi, Soch ka Safar (The Journey of Thought) - published by R.K.Sehgal, Bazm-e-Seemab, J 5/21, Rajouri Garden, New Delhi in 1982. Urdu
Saroop Dhruv, Mara Hathni Vat, Ahmedabad: Nakshatra Trust, Ahmedabad; Gujarati-language
Poland
Ryszard Krynicki, Jeżeli w jakimś kraju ("If in Some Country). Underground publisher S.i.s.n.
Ewa Lipska, Nie o śmierć tutaj chodzi, lecz o biały kordonek ("Death Is Not at Stake, But the White Cord"), selected poems, Kraków: Wydawnictwo literackie
Czesław Miłosz, Hymn o Perle ("The Poem of the Pearl"); Paris: Instytut Literacki
Tadeusz Różewicz, Pułapka ("The Trap"), Warszawa: Czytelnik
Adam Zagajewski, List - Oda do wielosci ("Letter - An Ode to Quantity"), Kraków: Pólka Poetów, (republished in 1983, Paris: Instytut literacki)
Matilde Camus:
Testimonio ("Testimony")
La preocupación de Miguel Ángel ("The concern of Miguel Angel")
Odysseus Elytis, Three Poems under a Flag of Convenience (Τρία ποιήματα με σημαία ευκαιρίας) (Greece)
Ndoc Gjetja, E përditshme ("The Daily"); Albania
Klaus Høeck, Eno Zebra, with Asger Schnack,; Denmark
Alexander Mezhirov, Проза в стихах ("Prose in Verse") (winner of the USSR State Prize, 1986), Russia, Soviet Union
Nizar Qabbani, A Poem For Balqis, Syrian poet writing in Arabic
Rajendra Shah, Prasang-Spatak (Indian, writing in Gujarati)
Søren Ulrik Thomsen, Ukendt under den samme måne ("Unknown Under the Same Moon"), Denmark
Marie Uguay, Autoportraits French-Canadian (posthumous)
Silvia Volckmann, Zeit der Kirschen? Das Naturbild in der deutschen Gegenwartslyrik (scholarship), West Germany
Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Fay Zwicky, Kaddish and Other Poems
Gerald Lampert Award
See 1982 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
Pat Lowther Award
Cholmondeley Award: Basil Bunting, Herbert Lomas, William Scammell
Eric Gregory Award: Steve Ellis, Jeremy Reed, Alison Brackenbury, Neil Astley, Chris O'Neill, Joseph Bristow, John Gibbens, James Lasdun
Academy of American Poets Fellowship: John Ashbery and John Frederick Nims
Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Lawrence Joseph, Shouting at No One
National Book Award: William Bronk for Life Supports (April 27)
Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Gerald Stern, "Father Guzman"
Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (later the post would be called "Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress"): Anthony Hecht appointed this year.
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Sylvia Plath: The Collected Poems
Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: John Frederick Nims and John Ashbery
North Carolina Poet Laureate: Sam Ragan appointed.
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
January 19 – Maria Zaturenska, 80, of heart failure
March 11 – Horace Gregory, 83
March 15 – Edgell Rickword (born 1898, English poet, critic, journalist and literary editor who was one of the leading communist intellectuals active in the 1930s
March 18 – Yaho Kitabatake 北畠 八穂 (born 1903), Japanese, Showa period poet and children's fiction writer
April 20 – Archibald MacLeish, 89 (born 1892), American
June 5 – Nishiwaki Junzaburo 西脇順三郎 (born 1894), Japanese, Shōwa period poet and literary critic
June 6 – Kenneth Rexroth, 76 (born 1905), of a heart ailment, American
June 18 – Djuna Barnes, 90, American writer and poet
October 22 – Richard Hugo, 58, of leukemia
November 13 – Babette Deutsch, 87, American
December 3 – Bishnu Dey (born 1909) Bengali poet, prose writer and movie critic
date not known – P'Bitek
