— W. H. Auden, from "September 1, 1939"
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
Events January Last issue of The Criterion is published The Kenyon Review is established by John Crowe Ransom January/February – Poetry London: a Bi-Monthly of Modern Verse and Criticism, founded and edited by Tambimuttu (with Dylan Thomas and others), is first published February 17 – Gunga Din, a film directed by George Stevens, based loosely on Rudyard Kipling's poem of the same name, is released in the United States June – Rolfe Humphries, a former student of Nicholas Murray Butler at Columbia University, publishes in the magazine Poetry "Draft Ode for a Phi Beta Kappa Occasion", following a classical format of blank verse with one classical reference per line but with the first letters of each line of the resulting acrostic spelling out the message "Nicholas Murray Butler is a horses [sic.] ass"; upon learning of the "hidden" message, the irate editors run an apology in the August issue Carl Rakosi begins a 28-year hiatus from writing poetry
Works published in English
Australian Mary Gilmore, Battlefields, Sydney, Angus and Robertson Kenneth Slessor, Five Bells : XX Poems, Sydney: F.C. Johnson
Canada Arthur Bourinot, Under the Sun (1939 Governor General's Award) Anne Marriott, The Wind Our Enemy, Toronto: Ryerson Press"Anne Marriott (1913-1997)", Canadian Woman Poets, BrockU.ca, Web, Apr. 21, 2011.
India, in English Harindranath Chattopadhyaya, The Dark Well (Poetry in English), Madras: KalakshetraVinayak Krishna Gokak, The Golden Treasury Of Indo-Anglian Poetry (1828-1965), p 316, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi (1970, first edition; 2006 reprint), , retrieved August 6, 2010 Tandra Devi, Poems (Poetry in English), Srinagar: Tandra Devi PublicationsVinayak Krishna Gokak, The Golden Treasury Of Indo-Anglian Poetry (1828-1965), p 319, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi (1970, first edition; 2006 reprint), , retrieved August 6, 2010 P. R. Kaikini, Shanghai (Poetry in English), Bombay: New Book Co.Vinayak Krishna Gokak, The Golden Treasury Of Indo-Anglian Poetry (1828-1965), p 322, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi (1970, first edition; 2006 reprint), , retrieved August 6, 2010
New Zealand Ursula Bethell, Day and Night : Poems 1924-34, by the author of 'Time and Place, Christchurch: Caxton Press at the University of Auckland Library website, accessed April 30, 2008 Charles Brasch, The Land and the People, and Other Poems, Christchurch: Caxton PressWeb page titled "Charles Brasch: New Zealand Literature File" at the University of Auckland Library website, accessed April 26, 2008 Allen Curnow, Not in Narrow Seas, Christchurch: Caxton PressAllen Curnow Web page at the New Zealand Book Council website, accessed April 21, 2008
United Kingdom W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood, Journey to a War, verse and nonfiction prose, published March 16; includes "In Time of War", a sonnet sequence with verse commentary by Auden; diary and prose by Isherwood W. H. Auden, "September 1, 1939", a poem written on the occasion of the outbreak of World War II, first published in The New Republic on October 18, and which will later appear in Auden's collection Another Time (1940); at this time Auden is an English poet living in the United States George Barker, Elegy on Spain Roy Campbell, Flowering Rifle: A poem from he battlefield of Spain W. H. Davies, The Loneliest Mountain, and Other Poems T. S. Eliot: Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats "The Marching Song of the Pollicle Dogs" and "Billy M'Caw: The Remarkable Parrot", contributions to The Queen's Book of the Red Cross anthology Gavin Ewart, Poems and Songs Geoffrey Grigson, editor, New Verse, anthology J. F. Hendry and Henry Treece, editors, The New Apocalypse, an early anthology of the New Apocalyptics poets in Britain A. E. Housman, Collected Poems Louis MacNeice, Autumn Journal Ruth Pitter, The Spirit Watches Enoch Powell, Casting-off, and Other Poems, Oxford: Blackwell’s Lady Margaret Sackville, Collected Poems Christopher Smart, Rejoice in the Lamb: A Song from Bedlam, the first publication of Smart's Jubilate Agno (written during his asylum confinement 1757–1758) edited by W. F. Stead (includes the lines beginning "For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry") William Soutar, In the Time of Tyrants Julian Symons, Confusions About X Dylan Thomas, The Map of Love, verse and fiction W. B. Yeats, Last Poems and Two Plays, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom, published posthumously in July
United States W. H. Auden: "September 1, 1939" a poem written on the occasion of the outbreak of World War II, first published in The New Republic on October 18, and which will later appear in Auden's collection Another Time (1940); at this time Auden is an English poet living in the United States With Christopher Isherwood, The Journey to a WarLudwig, Richard M., and Clifford A. Nault, Jr., Annals of American Literature: 1602–1983, 1986, New York: Oxford University Press Stephen Vincent Benét, The Ballad of the Duke's Mercy Paul Engle, Corn Robert Frost, Collected Poems Archibald MacLeish, America Was Promises Josephine Miles, Lines at Intersection Edna St. Vincent Millay, Huntsman, What Quarry? Kenneth Patchen, First Will and Testament Muriel Rukeyser, A Turning Wind May Sarton, Inner Landscape Edward Taylor, The Poetical Works, edited by Thomas H. Johnson Mark Van Doren, Collected Poems Thomas Wolfe, The Face of a Nation
Other in English W. B. Yeats, Last Poems and Two Plays, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom, published posthumously in July
Works published in other languages
France Aimé Césaire, Cahier d'un retour au pays natal ("Notebook of a Return to My Native Land"), a landmark work in French Caribbean literature, which had previously been characterized by literary works derivative of European models and often marked by exoticism; this book-length poem, according to Bonnie Thomas, "laid the foundations for a new literary style in which Caribbean writers came to reject the alienating gaze of the Other in favour of their own Caribbean interpretation of reality", a change expressed in the theory of négritude; Martinique poet published in France,Thomas, Bonnie, "Aimé Césaire", article in The Literary Encyclopedia, retrieved August 5, 2009. Archived 2009-08-11. Volontés (Paris), August; (enlarged edition in book format, 1947; definitive edition, 1956) Paul Éluard, pen name of Paul-Eugène Grindel, Chanson complèteBree, Germaine, Twentieth-Century French Literature, translated by Louise Guiney, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1983 Luc Estang, Transhumances Leon-Paul Fargue, Le Piéton de ParisAuster, Paul, editor, The Random House Book of Twentieth-Century French Poetry: with Translations by American and British Poets, New York: Random House, 1982 Tristan Tzara, Midis gagnés
Indian subcontinent Including all of the British colonies that later became India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Listed alphabetically by first name, regardless of surname:
Urdu Akbar Allahabadi, Kulliyat-i Akbar Allahabadi, in four volumes, published (posthumously) from 1935 through this year; Urdu-language Mir Hasan, Maghribi tasanif ke Urdu tarajim, treatise in Urdu on the difficulties of translating Western literature into the Urdu language; one of the earlier studies of translation into any Indian languageDas, Sisir Kumar, "A Chronology of Literary Events / 1911–1956", in Das, Sisir Kumar and various, History of Indian Literature: 1911-1956: struggle for freedom: triumph and tragedy, Volume 2, 1995, published by Sahitya Akademi, , retrieved via Google Books on December 23, 2008 Muhammad Tahir Farooqi, Sirat-i Iqbal, biography of Muhammad Iqbal, with appraisals of his poetry Nushur Vahidi, Sabha-i Hindi, mostly traditional poems; Urdu
Other Indian languages Baikunthanath Pattnayak, Myttika Darsana, long elegy on the death of his son; Oriya Balamani Amma, Strihrdayam ("The Heart of a Woman"), Malayalam Bapiraju, Ssikala, love poems; Telugu Changampuzha Krishna Pillai, Rahtapuspangal, includes Vazhakkula ("A Bunch of Bananas"), which exerted a strong influence on revolutionary Malayalam poetry in the next few decades Khalairakpam Chaoba, Thainagi Leirang ("Ancient Flowers"), Meitei Mahjoor, Payam-e Mahjoor, popular lyrics; Kashmiri Rameshvar Shukla, Aparajita Indian poetry, Hindi-language Sundaram, Vasudha, poems about social change and reflecting the influence of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on Indian society; Gujarati Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala', Tulsidas, long poem on the life and characteristics of Tulsidas, Hindi U. M. Dandpota, Abyat-i-Sindhi, critical appraisal in Sindhi of the Sindhi couplets of Kkwaja Muhammad Zaman (1713–1774) Umashankar Joshi, Nishith, lyrics, songs, sonnets and longer poems; received the Bharatiya Jnanpith Award in 1968; Gujarati Visvanatha Satyanarayana, Srimad Ramayana Kalpavrksamu, the author's magnum opus, according to Indian literary scholar Siser Kumar Das; it won the Jnanapith Award; a free rendering of the Ramayana; the first canto was published in 1930, the last in 1957; Telugu
Other languages Vladimir Cavarnali, Răsadul verde al inimii stelele de sus îl plouă ("The heart's green seedling is rained upon by the stars above") Tove Ditlevsen, Pigesind and Slangen i Paradiset, Denmark José Gorostiza, Muerte sin fin ("Death without end"), Mexico W. J. Hartmann, comp., Sie alle fielen: Gedichte europäischer Soldaten ("They all fell in battle: poems of European soldiers"), translations into German D. Gwenallt Jones, Ysgubau'r Awen, Welsh poet published in the United Kingdom Eugenio Montale, Le occasioni ("The Occasions"), Turin: Einaudi; ItalyEugenio Montale, Collected Poems 1920-1954, translated and edited by Jonathan Galassi, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998, César Vallejo, posthumously published (died in 1936), Peru: Poemas humanos ("Human Poems")Web page titled "César Vallejo" at the website of the Academy of American Poets, retrieved August 28, 2011 Sermón de la barbarie ("Sermon on Barbarism")
Awards and honors
Governor General's Award, poetry or drama: Under the Sun, Arthur S. Bourinot (Canada)"", Canada Council. Web, Feb. 10, 2011.
United States American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Poetry: Robert Frost Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: John Gould Fletcher: Selected Poems
Births Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article: January 10 – Jared Carter, American poet, winner of the 1980 Walt Whitman Award January 23 – Fred Wah, Chinese-Canadian poet, novelist, and scholar February 5 – Siv Cedering (died 2007), Swedish-American poet, painter, sculptor, illustrator, and author February 22 – Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke (died 2020), Greek (died 2020) February 26 – Clark Coolidge, American March 3 – Hans Verhagen (died 2020), Dutch journalist, poet, painter and filmmaker March 26 – Patrick Lane (died 2019), Canadian April 13 – Seamus Heaney (died 2013), Irish writer and lecturer from Northern Ireland awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995 April 16 – Diane Wood Middlebrook, née Helen Diane Wood (died 2008),Fox, Margalit, "Diane Wood Middlebrook, Biographer, Dies at 68", obituary, The New York Times, December 17, 2007. Retrieved December 10, 2008. American poet, academic and biographer April 25 – Ted Kooser, American poet and 13th Poet Laureate of the United States, serving two terms from 2004 to 2006 May 7 – Volker Braun, German May 11 – Samih al-Qasim (died 2014), Palestinian May 23 – Stanley Plumly (died 2019), American poet and academic May 27 – Frank Bidart, American May 31 – Al Young (died 2021), American poet, novelist and writer of musical memoirs named poet laureate of California in 2005 June 6 – Lee Harwood (died 2015), English poet associated with the British Poetry Revival