— Opening lines from The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot, first published this year
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
Events February 2 Who Goes with Fergus? by W. B. Yeats (first published in 1892) is the song that haunts James Joyce's autobiographical character Stephen Dedalus in the novel Ulysses, first published complete in book form today. Stephen sings it to his mother as she lies dying, and her ghost returns to taunt him with it. The poem is Joyce's favorite lyric, and he has composed his own musical setting. In a "savage creative storm" of less than three weeks beginning today at the Château de Muzot in Switzerland, Rainer Maria Rilke writes his Sonnets to Orpheus (Die Sonette an Orpheus) and completes his Duino Elegies (Duineser Elegien). April – The Fugitive is established in Nashville, Tennessee, by John Crowe Ransom and other members of the Vanderbilt University English faculty who become known collectively as the Fugitives. June – Over a single night at his home in Shaftsbury, Vermont, Robert Frost completes the long poem "New Hampshire" and at sunrise writes "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening".Sic. Both first published in the collection New Hampshire (1923). July – Having issued a 2nd edition of António Botto's poetry collection Canções through his Portuguese publishing house Olisipo, Fernando Pessoa publishes a magazine article praising Botto's courage and sincerity in shamelessly singing homosexual love as a true aesthete, sparking controversy over literatura de Sodoma. September 22 – Indian Bengali poet Kazi Nazrul Islam publishes the poem "Anandamoyeer Agamane" ("The Advent of the Delightful Mother"), in support of the Indian independence movement, in the Puja issue of his new biweekly magazine Dhumketu, for which he is arrested by the police of the Bengal Presidency and imprisoned on a charge of sedition for much of the following year, undertaking a hunger strike and composing many poems while in prison. His poem "Bidrohi" (বিদ্রোহী, "The Rebel", December 1921) is first collected this year in his first anthology, Agnibeena. October 15 – T. S. Eliot establishes The Criterion magazine, containing the first publication of his poem The Waste Land. This first appears in the United States later this month in The Dial (dated November 1) and is first published complete with notes in book form by Boni and Liveright in New York in December. November – Robert Bridges publishes his essay on free verse: 'Humdrum and Harum-Scarum'. December 6 – W. B. Yeats becomes a nominated member of Seanad Éireann in the Irish Free State.
Works published in English
Canada William Wilfred Campbell (died 1918), The Poetical Works of Wilfred Campbell, W.J. Sykes ed. (London)Gustafson, Ralph, The Penguin Book of Canadian Verse, revised edition, 1967, Baltimore, Maryland: Penguin Books William Douw Lighthall, Old Measures (collected verse) (Montreal: A.T. Chapman)"William Douw Lighthall," RootsWeb, Ancestry.com, Web, Apr.29, 2011. Marjorie Pickthall, The Woodcarver’s Wife, and Later Poems]. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart"Marjorie Pickthall 1883-1922: Works," Canadian Women Poets, BrockU.ca, Web, Apr. 6, 2011
Indian subcontinent in English Including all of the British colonies that later became India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal: Swami Ananda Acharya: The Comrade: Poems on Philosophical Themes ( Poetry in English ), Alvdal, Norway: Gaurisankar Brahmakul, 105 pagesWeb page titled "South Asian literature in English, Pre-independence era" , compiled by Irene Joshi, at "University of Washington Libraries" website, "Last updated May 8, 1998", retrieved July 30, 2009. 2009-08-02. Usarika, Dawn-Rhythms ( Poetry in English ), Alvdal, Norway: Gaurisankar Brahmakul Christina A. Albers, Ancient Tales of HindustanNaik, M. K., Perspectives on Indian poetry in English, p. 230, (published by Abhinav Publications, 1984, , ), retrieved via Google Books, June 12, 2009 Sri Aurobindo, Baji Prabhou ( Poetry in English ), Pondicherry: Arya OfficeVinayak Krishna Gokak, The Golden Treasury Of Indo-Anglian Poetry (1828-1965), p 313, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi (1970, first edition; 2006 reprint), , retrieved August 6, 2010 N. M. Chatterjee, Parvati Harindranath Chattopadhyaya: The Magic Tree ( Poetry in English ), Madras: Shama's Publishing HouseVinayak 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 (another source gives the publisher as: Madras: Theosophical Publishing House) Perfume of Earth ( Poetry in English ), Madras: printed at Huxley Press Joseph Furtado, Lays of Goa and Lyrics of Goan, a souvenir of the exposition of St. Francis Xavier; Bombay: Furtado and SonsVinayak Krishna Gokak, The Golden Treasury Of Indo-Anglian Poetry (1828-1965), p 314, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi (1970, first edition; 2006 reprint), , retrieved August 6, 2010 Puran Singh, At His Feet ( Poetry in English ), Gwalior,
United Kingdom
Marion Angus, The Lilt and Other Verses, Scottish poet writing in the Scots language Edmund Blunden, The Shepherd, and Other Poems of Peace and War Enid Blyton, Child Whispers Hilda Conkling, Shoes of the Wind A. E. Coppard, Hips and Haws John Drinkwater, Preludes 1921–1922 T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land Wilfrid Gibson, Krindlesdyke Thomas Hardy, Late Lyrics and Earlier, with Many Other Verses Laurence Hope [Violet (Adela Florence) Nicolson (suicide 1904)], Selected Poems from the Indian Love Lyrics of Laurence Hope, edited by son M. J. Nicolson A. E. Housman, Last Poems James Pittendrigh Macgillivray, Bog Myrtle and Peat Reek, Scottish poet writing chiefly in dialect Susan Miles, Annotations E. Nesbit, Many Voices Alfred Noyes, The Watchers of the Sky, Volume i of the "Torch-Bearers Trilogy", followed by The Book of the Earth (1925), The Last Voyage (1930), published as The Torch-Bearers (1937) Marjorie Pickthall, The Wood Carver's Wife, including "Marching Men" Poems of Today, British poetry anthology, second series Isaac Rosenberg (killed on active service 1918), Poems Edith Sitwell, Façade, the concert version ('an entertainment'), with music by William Walton, performed January 1922 Sacheverell Sitwell, The Hundred and One Harlequins, and Other Poems J. C. Squire, Poems: Second Series Muriel Stuart, Poems Amabel Williams-Ellis, An Anatomy of Poetry (criticism) W. B. Yeats, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom: Later Poems, Macmillan's Collected Edition of Yeats's Works, volume i Plays in Prose and Verse, Macmillan's Collected Edition of Yeats's Works, volume ii
United States Conrad Aiken, Priapus and the PoolLudwig, Richard M., and Clifford A. Nault, Jr., Annals of American Literature: 1602–1983, 1986, New York: Oxford University Press John Peale Bishop, with Edmund Wilson, The Undertaker's Garland John Dos Passos, A Pushcart at the Curb James Weldon Johnson, Book of American Negro Poetry Claude McKay, Harlem Shadows Hughes Mearns, Antigonish, often called "The Little Man Who Wasn't There"; inspired by reports of a ghost of a man roaming the stairs of a haunted house in Antigonish, Nova Scotia; written in 1899 and first published on March 22 by Franklin Pierce Adams in his New York World column; later a popular song Louise Pound, American Ballads and Songs Elizabeth Madox Roberts, Under the Tree Carl Sandburg, Slabs of the Sunburnt West George Santayana, Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies Gertrude Stein, Geography and Plays John Hall Wheelock, The Black Panther William Carlos Williams, Spring and All, including "The Red Wheelbarrow" Yvor Winters, The Magpie's Shadow
Other W. B. Yeats, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom: Later Poems, Macmillan's Collected Edition of Yeats's Works, volume i Plays in Prose and Verse, Macmillan's Collected Edition of Yeats's Works, volume ii
Works published in other languages
France Paul Claudel, Poèmes de guerre (1914-1916) Francis Jammes, Livres des quatrains, published each year from this year to 1925Web page titled "POET Francis Jammes (1868 - 1938)", at The Poetry Foundation website, retrieved August 30, 2009. 2009-09-03. Oscar Vladislas de Lubicz-Milosz, also known as O. V. de L. Milosz, La Confession de LemuelAuster, Paul, editor, The Random House Book of Twentieth-Century French Poetry: with Translations by American and British Poets, New York: Random House, 1982 Alphonse Métérié, Le Livre des soeursBrée, Germaine, Twentieth-Century French Literature, translated by Louise Guiney, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1983 Pierre Reverdy, Cravates de chanvre Philippe Soupault, Westwego Paul Valéry, Charmes
Germany Rainer Maria Rilke completes both the Duino Elegies and the Sonnets to Orpheus; Germany Kurt Schwitters: Anna Blume, Dichtungen, including "An Anna Blume" ("To Anna Flower" also translated as "To Eve Blossom"); a second, revised edition with nine instead of the original 20 poems, and with the addition of translations of Anna Blume into English, French and Russian; published by Verlag Paul Steegemann, Hanover (first edition 1919, a second edition with the only change being eight more pages of advertising, published in 1920), Germany Memoiren Anna Blumes in Bleie, a chronicle and parody of reactions to the original Anna Blume, Dichtungen of 1919
Spanish language Xavier Abril, Hollywood, PeruFitts, Dudley, editor, Anthology of Contemporary Latin-American Poetry/Antología de la Poesía Americana Contemporánea Norfolk, Conn., New Directions, (also London: The Falcoln Press, but this book was "Printed in U.S.A.), 1947, p 589 Manuel Maples Arce, , Mexico Gerardo Diego, Manual de espumas ("Manual of Foam"), SpainDebicki, Andrew P., Spanish Poetry of the Twentieth Century: Modernity and Beyond, p 35, University Press of Kentucky, 1995, , retrieved via Google Books, November 21, 2009 Gabriela Mistral, Desolación ("Despair"), including "Decalogo del artista", New York : Instituto de las Españas;Web page titled "The Nobel Prize in Literature 1945/Gabriela Mistral/Bibliography", Nobel Prize website, retrieved September 22, 2010 Chilean poet published in the United States César Vallejo, Trilce, PeruFitts, Dudley, editor, Anthology of Contemporary Latin-American Poetry/Antología de la Poesía Americana Contemporánea Norfolk, Conn., New Directions, (also London: The Falcoln Press, but this book was "Printed in U.S.A.), 1947, p 645 Pablo de Rokha: Los gemidos
Other languages Anna Akhmatova, Anno Domini MCMXXI, Soviet Union Mário de Andrade, Paulicéia Desvairada ("Untapped São Paulo", "Hallucinated City"), Brazil Tom Kristensen, Paafuglefjeren ("The Peacock Feather"), Denmark Mohammad Yamin, Tanah Air ("Motherland"), Indonesia, modern Malay language
Awards and honors Hawthornden Prize for poetry: Edmund Blunden Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (first award): Edwin Arlington Robinson, Collected Poems (1921)
Births Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article: January 22 – Vernon Scannell, born John Vernon Bain (died 2007), English poet, author and professional boxer February 25 – Leland Bardwell (died 2016), Indian-born Irish poet and novelist March 5 – Pier Paolo Pasolini (murdered 1975), Italian film director, novelist and Friulian language poet March 12 – Jack Kerouac (died 1969), American novelist, writer, poet, artist, and part of the Beat Generation school of poetry April 4 – Máire Mhac an tSaoi, Irish poet and scholar April 16 – Kingsley Amis (died 1995), English novelist and poet June 9 – John Gillespie Magee, Jr. (killed in military aviation accident 1941), Anglo–American aviator and poet June 30 Amulya Barua (died 1946; first published posthumously in 1964), Indian, Assamese-language Miron Białoszewski (died 1983), Polish poet and playwright July 6 – Carilda Oliver Labra (died 2018), Cuban