This page gives a chronological list of years in poetry (descending order). These pages supplement the List of years in literature pages with a focus on events in the history of poetry.
2000s
- 2009 in poetry
- 2008 in poetry Death of Jonathan Williams, American poet, publisher and founder of The Jargon Society
- 2007 in poetry Death of Emmett Williams, American poet, known for concrete poetry
- 2006 in poetry Death of Stanley Kunitz, former U.S. Poet Laureate
- 2005 in poetry Death of Philip Lamantia, Beat Generation American poet; - Robert Creeley, American poet of the Black Mountain School
- 2004 in poetry Death of Jackson Mac Low, avant-garde American poet
- 2003 in poetry
- 2002 in poetry Death of Kenneth Koch, New York School American poet
- 2001 in poetry Death of Gregory Corso, Beat Generation American poet
- 2000 in poetry
1990s
- 1999 in poetry Death of Edward Dorn, American poet of the Black Mountain School
- 1998 in poetry Death of Ted Hughes, English poet and British Poet Laureate; - Octavio Paz, Mexican poet, writer, diplomat, and winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Literature
- 1997 in poetry Death of Allen Ginsberg prominent Beat Generation American poet; - James Dickey, American poet and novelist; - Denise Levertov, American poet; - David Ignatow, American poet and editor; - James Laughlin, American poet, and publisher; - William Matthews, American poet and essayist
- 1996 in poetry Death of Joseph Brodsky, Russian-American poet, essayist, and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
- 1995 in poetry Death of May Sarton, American poet; - Sir Stephen Spender CBE, English poet; - David Avidan, prominent avant-garde Israeli poet
- 1994 in poetry Death of Charles Bukowski, American poet and novelist
- 1993 in poetry Maya Angelou reads "On the Pulse of Morning" at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton
- 1992 in poetry
- 1991 in poetry Death of Dr. Seuss, American poet prominent author of children's verse; - James Schuyler, American poet of the New York School; - Howard Nemerov, former U.S. Poet Laureate
- 1990 in poetry Death of Lawrence Durrell, English novelist, poet, dramatist
1980s
- 1989 in poetry Death of Samuel Beckett, Irish poet, playwright and novelist who won the Nobel Prize in 1969; - Robert Penn Warren, American poet, and writer, former U.S. Poet Laureate; - May Swenson, American poet and playwright
- 1988 in poetry Death of Miguel Piñero, Puerto Rican playwright, poet, and co-founder of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe; Robert Duncan, American poet identified with the New American Poetry and Black Mountain poets.
- 1987 in poetry
- 1986 in poetry Death of John Ciardi, American poet, translator, and etymologist.
- 1985 in poetry Death of Robert Graves, English poet and writer.
- 1984 in poetry Death of George Oppen, American poet, member of the Objectivist group of poets.
- 1983 in poetry Death of Ted Berrigan, American poet; - Edwin Denby, American poet and dance critic.
- 1982 in poetry Death of Kenneth Rexroth, Beat Generation American poet; - Archibald MacLeish, American poet, writer and the Librarian of Congress, associated with the modernist school of poetry; - Djuna Barnes, American poet, writer, pioneer of the modernist school of writing
- 1981 in poetry
- 1980 in poetry Death of Muriel Rukeyser, American poet
1970s
- 1979 in poetry
- 1978 in poetry
- 1977 in poetry Death of Robert Lowell, American poet
- 1976 in poetry
- 1975 in poetry
- 1974 in poetry - Death of Miguel Ángel Asturias, Guatemalan author, poet, journalist and diplomat; - Anne Sexton, American poet.
- 1973 in poetry - Death of W.H. Auden, Pablo Neruda, J. R. Tolkien
- 1972 in poetry - Death of John Berryman, American poet; - Kenneth Patchen, American poet; - Padraic Colum, Irish-American poet; - Marianne Moore, modernist poet, and writer; - Richard Church, English poet critic and novelist; - Cecil Day-Lewis, English poet; - Ezra Pound, American poet, critic and the driving force behind several Modernist movements; - Mark Van Doren, American poet, academic and critic; - Paul Goodman, American poet and writer.
- 1971 in poetry Death of Jim Morrison, 27 American poet and songwriter; - Ogden Nash, American poet best known for writing pithy and funny light verse.
- 1970 in poetry Death of Charles Olson, important 2nd generation American modernist poet
1960s
- 1969 in poetry Death of Jack Kerouac, influential Beat Generation American poet, writer, novelist; - André Salmon, French poet critic and novelist
- 1968 in poetry Leonard Cohen, Selected Poems, 1956-1968
- 1967 in poetry Death of Carl Sandburg, American poet, and historian; - John Edward Masefield, English poet, and writer, Poet Laureate, 1930–1967; - Cecil Day-Lewis is selected as the new Poet Laureate of the UK.
- 1966 in poetry Death of André Breton, Frank O'Hara
- 1965 in poetry Death of T. S. Eliot
- 1964 in poetry John Lennon, In His Own Write, containing nonsensical poems, sketches and drawings; a best seller by the member of the Beatles; Something Else Press founded by Dick Higgins in 1963; publishes Concrete Poetry by several authors, starting in 1964; - Death of Dame Edith Sitwell DBE British poet, and critic
- 1963 in poetry Death of Sylvia Plath, Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Tristan Tzara, Jean Cocteau, Bob Dylan releases his The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, album, with his most influential early songwriting.
- 1962 in poetry Death of E.E. Cummings
- 1961 in poetry Allen Ginsberg, Kaddish and Other Poems
- 1960 in poetry Death of Boris Pasternak, Russian poet and writer, winner of a Nobel Prize in Literature
1950s
1940s
- 1949 in poetry
- 1948 in poetry
- 1947 in poetry Cleanth Brooks, The Well Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry, a classic statement of the New Criticism
- 1946 in poetry Ezra Pound brought back to the United States on treason charges, but found unfit to face trial because of insanity and sent to St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C., where he remained for 12 years
- 1945 in poetry Birth of Van Morrison, OBE, Irish poet, singer, songwriter, author, and multi-instrumentalist; - Death of Paul Valéry, French poet philosopher, author, Symbolist poet; - Robert Desnos, was a French surrealist poet.
- 1944 in poetry
- 1943 in poetry Death of William Soutar in Perth; - Birth of Jim Morrison
- 1942 in poetry Birth of William Matthews, American poet and essayist
- 1941 in poetry Death of James Joyce, Birth of Bob Dylan
- 1940 in poetry Birth of John Lennon
1930s
1920s
- 1929 in poetry
- 1928 in poetry Birth of Maya Angelou
- 1927 in poetry William Soutar creates his Epigram form of the Cinquain.
- 1926 in poetry Death of Rainer Maria Rilke, Birth of Allen Ginsberg
- 1925 in poetry
- 1924 in poetry
- 1923 in poetry Edna St. Vincent Millay is the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
- 1922 in poetry The publication of the The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot; Rainer Marie Rilke completes both the Duino Elegies and the Sonnets to Orpheus; - Birth of Jack Kerouac, influential Beat Generation American poet, writer, novelist
- 1921 in poetry
- 1920 in poetry 'The Dial, a longstanding American literary magazine, is re-established by Scofield Thayer; the publication becomes an important outlet for Modernist poets and writers (until 1929), with contributors this year including Sherwood Anderson, Djuna Barnes, Kenneth Burke, Hart Crane, E. E. Cummings, Charles Demuth, Kahlil Gibran, Gaston Lachaise, Amy Lowell, Marianne Moore, Ezra Pound, Odilon Redon, Bertrand Russell, Carl Sandburg, Van Wyck Brooks, and W. B. Yeats
1910s
- 1919 in poetry Birth of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti, American beat poet; - Robert Duncan (died 1988), American poet associated with the Black Mountain poets and the Beat Generation; - May Swenson, (died 1989, American poet and playwright; - William Meredith, American poet
- 1918 in poetry Death of Guillaume Apollinaire, French poet, writer, and art critic
- 1917 in poetry Birth of Robert Lowell, American poet
- 1916 in poetry The Dada movement in art, poetry and literature coalesced at Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, Switzerland, where Hugo Ball, Emmy Hennings, Tristan Tzara, Hans Arp, Richard Huelsenbeck, Sophie Täuber and others discussed art and put on performances expressing their disgust with World War I and the interests they believed inspired it
- 1915 in poetry
- 1914 in poetry Death of Adelaide Crapsey
- 1913 in poetry The launch of Imagism in the pages of Poetry magazine by H.D., Richard Aldington and Ezra Pound
- 1912 in poetry Adelaide Crapsey creates her couplet form
- 1911 in poetry Adelaide Crapsey creates the American Cinquain form
- 1910 in poetry Birth of Charles Olson (died 1970), American poet; - Jean Genet, French poet novelist, and playwright; - Death of Julia Ward Howe, 91, American poet best known as the author of The Battle Hymn of the Republic
1900s
- 1909 in poetry
- 1908 in poetry
- 1907 in poetry Birth of W. H. Auden
- 1906 in poetry Birth of Samuel Beckett, Irish poet, playwright and novelist who won the Nobel Prize in 1969
- 1905 in poetry
- 1904 in poetry Birth of Cecil Day-Lewis, Anglo-Irish poet, British Poet Laureate from 1967 to 1972
- 1903 in poetry
- 1902 in poetry Birth of Langston Hughes, African-American poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and newspaper columnist best known for his role in the Harlem Renaissance; - Death of Shiki the haiku poet
- 1901 in poetry
- 1900 in poetry Death of Oscar Wilde, 46, Irish poet, playwright, novelist, and short story writer
1890s
- 1899 in poetry Birth of Hart Crane (died 1932), American poet
- 1898 in poetry Birth of Stephen Vincent Benét, Federico García Lorca, William Soutar in Perth,Scotland; - Death of Stéphane Mallarmé, Lewis Carroll
- 1897 in poetry
- 1896 in poetry Death of Paul Verlaine
- 1895 in poetry Death of Robert Graves
- 1894 in poetry Death of Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. American poet, physician, and essayist
- 1893 in poetry
- 1892 in poetry Emily Dickinson First collection published; Death of - Walt Whitman, important American poet, James Russell Lowell, American poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson, popular English poet
1880s
- 1889 in poetry
- 1888 in poetry
- 1887 in poetry Birth of Marianne Moore; - Edith Sitwell DBE
- 1886 in poetry Death of Emily Dickinson
- 1885 in poetry
- 1884 in poetry
- 1883 in poetry Birth of William Carlos Williams
- 1882 in poetry Death of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 78, important American poet, author, and philosopher; - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 75, important American poet; - Birth of James Joyce (died 1941), influential Irish poet and writer; - A. A. Milne (died 1956), British poet author, playwright and writer of children's poetry best known for his books about the teddy bear, Winnie-the-Pooh.
- 1881 in poetry
- 1880 in poetry Birth of Guillaume Apollinaire, French poet, writer, and art critic
1870s
1860s
1850s
1840s
1830s
1820s
1810s
- 1819 in poetry Scholars described - The Great Year for John Keats, who publishes his famous Odes; - Birth of George Eliot, Walt Whitman, important American poet, Herman Melville, American poet, novelist, James Russell Lowell, American poet, Julia Ward Howe, American poet
- 1818 in poetry Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Book IV, published; - Birth of Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle
- 1817 in poetry Percy Bysshe Shelley, Laon and Cythna
- 1816 in poetry Shelley marries Mary Woolstonecraft Godwin, Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Book III, published
- 1815 in poetry
- 1814 in poetry Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin elope to war-ravaged France, accompanied by Godwin's step-sister, Mary Jane.
- 1813 in poetry
- 1812 in poetry
- 1811 in poetry
- 1810 in poetry
1800s
1790s
1780s
1770s
1760s
1750s
1740s
1730s
1720s
1710s
1700s
1690s
1680s
1670s
1660s
1650s
1640s
1630s
- 1639 in poetry
- 1638 in poetry
- 1637 in poetry Death of Ben Jonson, important English poet, playwright, actor
- 1636 in poetry
- 1635 in poetry
- 1634 in poetry
- 1633 in poetry
- 1632 in poetry
- 1631 in poetry Death of John Donne, important English poet, essayist, author, preacher; - Birth of John Dryden influential English poet, literary critic, translator and playwright; - Birth of Michael Wigglesworth (died 1705), English poet, colonist in America called "the most popular of early New England poets"[2]
- 1630 in poetry
1620s
1610s
1600s
1590s
1580s
1570s
1560s
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