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Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).

Events

• Sometime this year, Jack Kerouac introduced the phrase Beat Generation to describe his friends and as a general term describing the underground, anti-conformist youth gathering in New York at that time to the novelist John Clellon Holmes
• September — The body of William Butler Yeats who died in Menton, France in 1939, is moved from its original burial place Roquebrune-Cap-Martin to Drumcliffe, County Sligo, in accordance with his last wish. The Irish Naval Service corvette L.E. Macha carried the remains. Yeats' grave is a famous attraction in Sligo.
• Di Goldene Keyt, an Israeli literary quarterly, founded
• The Bollingen Prize is established by Paul Mellon, and was funded by a $10,000 grant from the Bollingen Foundation to the Library of Congress.
• In the summer, composer Richard Strauss set three short poems by Hermann Hesse to music to become all but one of his valedictory Four Last Songs, his final works before his death in 1949.

Works published in English

Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:

Canada

• Roy Daniels, Deeper into the Forest^[1]
• Robert Finch, The Strength of the Hills^[1]
• A. M. Klein, The Rocking Chair and Other Poems, winner of the Governor-General's Award^[1]
• Douglas Le Pan, The Wounded Prince^[1]
• L. A. MacKay, The Ill-Tempered Lover^[1]
• A. J. M. Smith, editor, The Book of Canadian Poetry, anthology (see also editions of 1943, 1957)^[1]

United Kingdom

• Richard Aldington, Complete Poems^[2]
• Sir John Betjeman, Selected Poems
• Lawrence Durrell, On Seeming to Presume^[2]
• T. S. Eliot, Notes Towards the Definition of Culture^[2]
• D. J. Enright, Season Ticket^[2]
• Robert Graves, The White Goddess, a "historical grammar" of poetic myth and inspiration
• John Heath-Stubbs, The Swarming of the Bees
• A. Norman Jeffares, W.B. Yeats: Man And Poet, United Kingdom, biography, revised in 1978^[3]
• Louis MacNeice, Holes in the Sky^[2]
• Norman Nicholson, Rock Face^[2]
• Vernon Scannell, Graves and Resurrections^[2]
• Vernon Watkins, The Lady with the Unicorn^[2]

United States

• W. H. Auden, "In Praise of Limestone", a poem published in Horizon in July (written in May), later published in a collection in 1951 (native English poet living in the United States)
• John Berryman, The Dispossessed^[4]
• Richard Ellmann, Yeats, The Man And The Mask, United States, biography^[3]
• William Everson, The Residual Years, New Directions^[5]
• Langston Hughes, One-Way Ticket, Alfred A. Knopf^[5]
• Randall Jarrell, Losses^[4]
• Robinson Jeffers, The Double Axe and Other Poems,^[4] largely critical of U.S. policy, the book came with an extremely unconventional note from Random House that the views expressed by Jeffers were not those of the publisher; several influential literary critics disapproved of the book, with particularly scathing pieces penned by Yvor Winters and Kenneth Rexroth, who had previously commented favorably on Jeffers' work
• Archibald MacLeish, Actfive and Other Poems^[4]
• William Meredith, Ships and Other Figures^[4]
• Ezra Pound:
  • The Pisan Cantos^[4]
  • The Cantos of Ezra Pound^[4]
• Theodore Roethke, The Lost Son and Other Poems^[4]
• Muriel Rukeyser, The Green Wave^[4]
• May Sarton, The Lion and the Rose^[4]
• Wallace Stevens, A Primitive Like an Orb, Publisher: Gotham Book Mart^[6]
• Winfield Townley Scott, Mr. Whittier^[4]
• Mark Van Doren, New Poems^[4]
• Peter Viereck, Terror and Decorum^[4]
• William Carlos Williams:
  • Paterson, Book II^[4]
  • Clouds, Aigeltinger, Russia

Other in English

• James K. Baxter, Blow, Wind of Fruitfulness, New Zealand
• V. N. Bhusan, The Far Ascent, Bombay: Padma Pub.; India, Indian poetry in English^[7]
• Charles Brasch: Disputed Ground: Poems 1939-45, Christchurch: Caxton Press, New Zealand^[8]
• Dilip Kumar Ray and Sri Aurobindo, translators, Eyes of Light: Poems, Bombay: Nalanda, 143 pages; anthology; Indian poetry in English^[9]
• Derek Walcott, 25 Poems

Works published in other languages

Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:

France

• Louis Aragon, Le Nouveau Creve-Coeur^[10]
• André Breton, Poemes^[10]
• René Char, Fureur et mystere^[10]
• Paul Éluard, Corps mémorable^[10]
• Henri Michaux, La Vie dans les plis ("Life in the Folds")^[10]
• Francis Ponge, Proêmes^[10]
• Raymond Queneau:
  • L'Instant fatal^[10]
  • Saint-Glinglin^[11]
• Saint-John Perse, Anabase, revised edition (first edition 1924)^[12]
• Jacques Prévert, Histoires^[11]
• Georges Schéhadé, Hosties noires^[11]

Indian subcontinent

Including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Listed alphabetically by first name, regardless of surname:

Bengali

• Jibanananda Das, Satti Tarar Timur^[13]
• Mangalacharan Chattopadhyay, Telengana-O-Anyanya Kabita^[13]
• Premendra Mitra, Pherari Phauj^[13]
• Subhas Mukhopadhyay, Agnikon^[13]

Kannada

• Gangadhara Chittala, Kalada Kare, lyrics on the theme of "time"^[13]
• M. Gopalakrishna Adiga, Kattuvevu, his first collection of lyrics^[13]
• S. G. Kulakarni, editor, Kannada kavya Bhandara, anthology of navodaya poets, including B. M. Shreekantayya, K. V. Puttappa, D. R. Bendre and D. V. Gundappa

Other languages on the Indian subcontinent

• Amrita Pritan, Lamian Vatan, Punjabi language^[13]

• Ananta Patnaik, Tarpana Kare Aji, poems on Gandhi, Oriya^[13]
• Asi, pen name of Abdul Bari, Rubaiyati Asi, Urdu^[13]
• Buddhidhari Singha, Amar Bapu, Maithili^[13]
• Harivans Rai Bacchan, Sut Ki Mala, 111 eleven poems on Gandhi and his ideology, Hindi^[13]
• Khumanthem Ibohal Singh, Nacome Lei ("Bouquet"), Manipuri
• Maheswar Neog, Sri Sri Sankaradeva, Assamese^[13]
• N. V. Krishna Varier, Ninta Kavitakal, long poems in Malayalam^[13]
• Mahjoor, Vava Subahuki, a political poem on the indignation of Kashmiris at delays in the United Nations Security Council concerning pleas to counter Pakistan's actions regarding that area; Kashmiri^[13]
• Nayaya vijaya Muni, Visva Vibhuti Svargaroha, a poem on Gandhi's death, Sanskrit^[13]
• Sumitranandan Pant, Visva Vibhuti Svargaroha, Hindi-language poems written in homage to Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo^[13]
• Upendranath Jha, Sannyasi, a Kanda Kavya in blank verse, Maithili^[13]

Other languages

• García Baena, Mientras cantan los pájaros ("While Birds Sing"); Spain^[14]
• Aimé Césaire,Soleil cou coupé, Martinique author published in France
• Olga Kirsch, Mure van die Hart, Afrikaans, South Africa
• Paul la Cour, Fragmenter af en Dagbog ("Fragments of a Diary"), Denmark^[15]
• Alexander Mezhirov, Kommunisty, vpered!, "Communists, Ahead!" poem reprinted in his second collection, New Encounters, and in many volumes, anthologies and samplers; Russia, Soviet Union^[16]
• Nizar Qabbani, Childhood of a Breast, Syrian poet writing in Arabic
• Ole Wivel, I Fiskens Tegn ("In the Sign of the Fish"), Denmark^[17]

Awards and honors

• Nobel Prize for Literature: T. S. Eliot
• Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (later the post would be called "Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress"): Leonie Adams appointed this year.
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: W. H. Auden, The Age of Anxiety
• Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Percy MacKaye

Births

Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:

• January 31 – Albert Goldbarth, American
• February 1 – Jatindramohan Bagchi (born 1878), Bengali poet
• March 5 – Leslie Marmon Silko, Native American writer, a figure in what has been called the Native American Renaissance
• April 6 – Anna Couani, Australian poet and teacher
• May 24 – Lorna Crozier, Canadian poet
• May 29 – David Waltner-Toews, Canadian poet, writer, veterinary epidemiologist
• June 29 – John Ash British poet and writer
• August 1 – Frank Stanford (died 1978), American poet
• September 18 – Barrett Watten an American poet
• October 7 – Diane Ackerman an American author, poet, and naturalist
• October 18 – Ntozake Shange (pronounced En-toe-ZAHK-kay SHONG-gay) née Paulette Williams, an African American playwright, performance artist, writer and poet

• Also:
  • R. S. Gwynn, American poet and anthologist associated with New Formalism
  • Lawrence Joseph, American poet, writer, essayist, critic, lawyer, and law professor
  • Brian Henderson (writer)
  • Yitzhak Laor, Israeli poet, author, and journalist
  • David Lehman, series editor for The Best American Poetry book series and American poet
  • Anna Mioduchowska
  • John Oughton
  • Sherod Santos
  • Heather McHugh
  • Frank Stanford (died 1978), American
  • Timothy Steele, American poet and academic

Deaths

Andrei Zhdanov, persecutor of poets

Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:

• January 2 – Vicente Huidobro, Chilean poet (b. 1893)
• May 22 – Claude McKay, Jamaican writer, humanist, Communist, and part of the Harlem Renaissance
• March 14 – Senge Motomaro 千家元麿 (born 1888), Taishō and Showa period Japanese poet (surname: Senge)
• August 31 – Andrei Zhdanov, 52, Soviet government official and persecutor of poets, writers and artists; until the late 1950s, Zhdanovism, defined cultural production in the Soviet Union; reducing permissible culture to a straightforward, scientific chart, where a given symbol corresponded to a simple moral value; Zhdanov and his associates further sought to eliminate foreign influence from Soviet art, proclaiming that "incorrect art" was an ideological diversion^[18]
• December 13 – Michael Roberts, 46, British poet, writer, critic and broadcaster, and teacher

• Also:
  • Gordon Bottomley, English poet, known for his verse dramas
  • Changampuzha Krishna Pillai (born 1911), Indian, Malayalam-language poet and translator^[19]
  • Ridgely Torrence (born 1874), American

See also

Poetry portal

• Poetry
• List of poetry awards
• List of years in poetry

Notes