Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
December 19 – Ted Hughes' appointment as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom in succession to Sir John Betjeman is announced, Philip Larkin having turned down the post.
After Ghazi al-Gosaibi, the Saudi Arabian minister of health, publishes a poem, "A Pen Bought and Sold", that criticizes the corruption and privilege of the country's elite, he is dismissed from his post.
Prvoslav Vujčić's second collection of poems, Kastriranje vetra ("Castration of the wind"), written during a week's imprisonment in Tuzla for criticising the state, is prohibited in Yugoslavia.
Scottish Poetry Library established.
Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:
Robert Gray, The Skylight
Jeff Guess, Leaving Maps, Adelaide: Friendly Street Poets
Chris Wallace-Crabbe, D. Goodman and D.J. Hearn, editors, Clubbing of the Gunfire: 101 Australian War Poems, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, anthology
Roo Borson, The Whole Night, Coming Home, ISBN 0-7710-1579-8 (nominated for a Governor General's Award) American-Canadian
Dionne Brand, Chronicles of the Hostile Sun
Leonard Cohen, Book of Mercy
Robert Finch, Double Tuning. Erin, ON: Porcupine's Quill.<finch/>
Robert Finch, Sailboat and Lake.. Erin, ON: Porcupine's Quill.
Paulette Jiles, Celestial Navigation
George Johnston, Ask Again.
Irving Layton, The Love Poems of Irving Layton: With Reverence & Delight. Oakville, Ontario: Mosaic Press, 1984.
Irving Layton, A Spider Danced a Cosy Jig. Toronto: Stoddart.
Dorothy Livesay, Feeling the Worlds: New Poems. Fredericton: Goose Lane.
Miriam Mandel, The Collected Poems of Miriam Mandel. Sheila Watson, ed. Edmonton: Longspoon Press. ISBN 0-920316-50-6 ISBN 978-0920316504
Michael Ondaatje, Secular Love, Toronto: Coach House Press, ISBN 0-88910-288-0, ISBN 0-393-01991-8 ; New York: W. W. Norton, 1985
James Reaney, Imprecations: The Art of Swearing. Black Moss Press.
Charles Sangster, The St. Lawrence and the Saguenary and other poems (revised edition), edited by Frank M. Tierney (Tecumseh)
Raymond Souster, Jubilee of Death: The Raid On Dieppe. Ottawa: Oberon Press.
Raymond Souster, Queen City. Ottawa: Oberon Press.
Kamala Das, Collected Poems Volume 1 ( Poetry in English ), Trivandrum: Kamala Das
Nissim Ezekiel, Latter-Day Psalms ( Poetry in English ), Delhi
Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Middle Earth ( Poetry in English ), New Delhi: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-561604-9
Suniti Namjoshi, From the Bedside Book of Nightmares ( Poetry in English ), Fredericton, New Brunswick : Fiddlehead, ISBN 0-86492-031-8
Ireland
Seamus Heaney Northern Ireland native at this time living in the United States:
Hailstones, Gallery Press
Station Island, Faber & Faber,
Sweeney Astray (see also Sweeney's Flight 1992)
Verses for a Fordham Commencement, Nadja Press
Thomas McCarthy, The Non-Aligned Storyteller, Anvil Press, London, Ireland
Medbh McGuckian, Venus and the Rain, first edition (see revised edition 1994), Oldcastle: The Gallery Press
Derek Mahon, A Kensington Notebook, Northern Ireland poet published in the United Kingdom
Paul Muldoon, editor, The Faber Book of Contemporary Irish Poetry, an anthology of works by Patrick Kavanagh, Louis MacNeice, Thomas Kinsella, John Montague, Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley, Derek Mahon, Paul Durcan, Tom Paulin and Medbh McGuckian.
New Zealand
Fleur Adcock, editor, Oxford Book of Contemporary New Zealand Poetry
Charles Brasch, Collected Poems, Auckland: Oxford University Press, posthumous
Alan Brunton, And She Said, New York:Red Mole
Lauris Edmond, Selected Poems, winner of the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1985
Bill Manhire, Zoetropes: Poems 1972-82
Cilla McQueen, Anti Gravity
Ian Wedde:
Georgicon
Tales of Gotham City
Peter Ackroyd, T. S. Eliot: A Life (biography)
Samuel Beckett, Collected Poems 1930–78
James Berry (editor), News for Babylon: The Chatto Book of Westindian-British Poetry
Alison Brackenbury, Breaking Ground
George Mackay Brown, Christmas Poems
Charles Causley, Secret Destinations
David Constantine, Mappa Mundi
Gavin Ewart:
The Ewart Quarto
Festival Nights
U. A. Fanthorpe, Voices Off
Alison Fell, Kisses for Mayakovsky
James Fenton, Children in Exile: Poems 1968-1984 Salamander Press version, poems from this volume were combined with those from The Memory of War to make the Penguin volume titled The Memory of War and Children in Exile; that combined volume was published in the United States, also under the title Children in Exile
Roy Fuller, Mianserin Sonnets
Geoffrey Grigson, Montaigne's Tower, and Other Poems
Seamus Heaney Northern Ireland native at this time living in the United States:
Hailstones, Gallery Press
Station Island, Faber & Faber,
Sweeney Astray (see also Sweeney's Flight 1992)
Verses for a Fordham Commencement, Nadja Press
John Hegley, Visions of the Bone Idol (Poems about Dogs and Glasses)
Selima Hill, Saying Hello at the Station
Liz Lochhead, Dreaming Franenstein and Collected Poems (includes Memo for Spring 1972, Islands 1978, The Grimm Sisters 1981)
Medbh McGuckian, Venus and the Rain
Derek Mahon, A Kensington Notebook, Northern Ireland poet published in the United Kingdom
E. A. Markham, Human Rites
Christopher Middleton, Serpentine
Edwin Morgan, Sonnets from Scotland
Blake Morrison, Dark Glasses
Andrew Motion, Dangerous Play
Grace Nichols, The Fat Black Woman's Poems, Virago
Fiona Pitt-Kethley, London
Peter Porter, Fast Forward
Craig Raine, Rich
Peter Reading, C
Jeremy Reed, By the Fisheries
Charles Tomlinson, Notes from New York; and Other Poems
John Ashbery, A Wave, awarded the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and the Bollingen Prize
Charles Bernstein and Bruce Andrews, The L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Book, "selected" pieces from the 13 issues of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E magazine (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press)
Joseph Brodsky, To Urania
Alan Brunton, And She Said, Red Mole, book by a New Zealand poet published in the United States
Louise Erdrich, Jacklight
Seamus Heaney Northern Ireland native at this time living in the United States:
Station Island, Faber & Faber,
Verses for a Fordham Commencement, Nadja Press
Hailstones, Gallery Press* Denise Levertov, Breathing the Water, her 19th book of poetry
Sharon Olds, The Dead and the Living
Michael Palmer, First Figure (North Point Press)
Molly Peacock, Raw Heaven
Kenneth Rexroth, Selected Poems
Rosmarie Waldrop, Differences for Four Hands (Singing Horse)
Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United States
'The Rhapsodic Fallacy' by Mary Kinzie appears in Salmagundi 65
Judith Moffett, James Merrill: An Introduction to the Poetry
Hariprasad Sastri, editor and translator, Indian Mystic Verse, 3rd revised and enlarged edition; New Delhi: Macmillan (first edition 1941) anthology
Klaus Høeck; Denmark:
Blåvand revisited, with Asger Schnack, publisher: Schønberg
International Klein Bleu, publisher: Gyldendal
Marienbad, publisher: Brøndum
Henrik Nordbrandt, 84 digte ("84 Poems"); Copenhagen: Gylendal, 125 pages
Poland
S. Barańczak, editor, Poeta pamieta, anthology
Stanisław Barańczak, Uciekinier z utopii. O poezji Zbigniewa Herberta ("Fugitive from Utopia: On the Poetry of Zbigniew Herbert"), criticism; London: Polonia
Czesław Miłosz, Nieobjeta ziemia ("The Unencompassed Earth"); Paris: Instytut Literacki
Jarosław Marek Rymkiewicz, Mogila Ordona ("Ordon's Grave")
Listed in alphabetical order by first name:
Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Nuskha-hae Wafa; Urdu-language* Nirendranath Chakravarti; Bengali-language:
Roop-Kahini, Kolkata: Ananda Publishers
Shomoi Boro Kom, Kolkata: Proma Prokashoni
Rituraj, Nahin Prabodhachandrodya, Bikaner: Dharati Prakashan; Hindi-language
Saroop Dhruv, Mara Hathni Vat, Ahmedabad: Nakshatra Trust, Ahmedabad; Gujarati-language
K. Satchidanandan, Socrateesum Kozhiyum, ("Socrates and the Cock"); Malayalam-language
Christoph Buchwald, general editor, and Gregory Laschen, guest editor, Luchterhand Jahrbuch der Lyrik 1984 ("Luchterhand Poetry Yearbook 1984"), publisher: Luchterhand Literaturverlag; anthology; Germany
Matilde Camus, Raíz del recuerdo ("Root of remembrance"), Spain
Odysseus Elytis, Ημερολόγιο ενός αθέατου Απριλίου ("Diary of an Invisible April"), Greece
Ndoc Gjetja, Çaste ("Moments"); Albania
Rita Kelly, An Bealach Éadóigh, Ireland
Alexander Mezhirov, Тысяча мелочей ("A thousand small things"), Russia, Soviet Union
Eugenio Montale, Tutte le poesie, enlarged from the original 1977 edition; publisher: Mondadori; posthumous; Italy
Jacques Prévert, La Cinquième Saison, published posthumously (died 1977); France
Jean Royer, Jours d'atelier, Saint-Lambert: Le Noroît; Canada, in French
Håkan Sandell, Efter sjömännen ; Elektrisk måne (literal translation: "After Sailor; Electric Moon"), Sweden
Awards and honors
Nobel Prize in Literature: Jaroslav Seifert, a Czech poet
Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Les Murray, The People's Other World
Gerald Lampert Award
See 1984 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
Pat Lowther Award: Bronwen Wallace
Japanese 100 yen note, starting this year and through 2004, features a portrait of Natsume Sōseki 夏目 漱石 (commonly referred to as "Sōseki"), pen name of Natsume Kinnosuke 夏目金之助 (1867–1916), Meiji Era novelist, haiku poet, composer of Chinese-style poetry, writer of fairy tales and a scholar of English literature
Cholmondeley Award: Michael Baldwin, Michael Hofmann, Carol Rumens
Eric Gregory Award: Martyn Crucefix, Mick Imlah, Jamie McKendrick, Bill Smith, Carol Ann Duffy, Christopher Meredith, Peter Armstrong, Iain Bamforth
Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Arthur Smith, Elegy on Independence Day
Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Gjertrud Schnackenberg, "Imaginary Prisons", and (separately) Sharon Ben-Tov, "Carillon for Cambridge Women"
Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (later the post would be called "Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress"): Robert Fitzgerald appointed this year in a health-limited capacity, but was not present at the Library of Congress.
Frost Medal: Jack Stadler
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Mary Oliver: American Primitive
Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Richmond Lattimore and Robert Francis
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
January 18 – Ary dos Santos, 46 (born 1937), Portuguese, of cirrhosis
February 6 – Jorge Guillén, 91 (born 1893), Spanish
February 8 – Ishizuka Tomoji 石塚友二 the kanji (Japanese writing) is a pen name of Ishizuka Tomoji, which is written with the different kanji 石塚友次, but in English there is no difference (born 1906), Japanese, Showa period haiku poet and novelist
February 17 – Jesse Stuart, 76 (born 1906), American, from a stroke
February 26 – Richmond Lattimore, 77 (born 1906), American poet and translator, of cancer
March 3 – Tatsuko Hoshino 星野立子 (born 1903), Japanese, Showa period haiku poet and travel writer; founded Tamamo, a haiku magazine exclusively for women; in the Hototogisu literary circle; haiku selector for Asahi Shimbun newspaper; contributed to haiku columns in various newspapers and magazines (a woman)
April 15 – Sir William Empson, 77 (born 1906), English critic
May 19 – Sir John Betjeman, 77 (born 1906), English poet laureate, of Parkinson's disease
July 2 – George Oppen, 76 (born 1908), American, of Alzheimer's disease
September 14 (possible date) – Richard Brautigan 49 (born 1935), American novelist and poet, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound; the exact date of his suicide is speculative as his body is not found until October 25
September 29 – Hal Porter, 73 (born 1911), Australian writer, novelist, playwright and poet
December 14 – Vicente Aleixandre, 86 (born 1898), Spanish
December 29 – Robert Farren (Roibeárd Ó Faracháin), 75 (born 1909), Irish
