1740 in poetry

Events

Works published

Great Britain">English poetry">Great Britain

• Sarah Dixon, Poems on Several Occasions, Canterbury: J. Abree
• John Dyer, The Ruins of Rome
• Richard Glover, An Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber
• Christopher Pitt, The Aeneid of Virgil
• Aquila Rose, Poems on Several Occasions, English Colonial America
• James Thomson, Alfred, including "Ode in Honour of Great Britain," that is, "Rule Britannia"
• Francis Tolson, Hermathenæ, Or Moral Emblems, and Ethnick Tales, with Explanatory Notes

  Other

• Johann Jakob Bodmer, Von dem Wunderbaren in der Poesie a German-language critical treatise published in Switzerland

  Births

• February 4 - Carl Michael Bellman, Swedish poet
• April 10 - Basílio da Gama, Brazilian
• August 15 - Matthias Claudius, German
• September 2 - Johann Georg Jacobi, German
• November 4 - Augustus Montagu Toplady, English clergyman and hymn-writer; an opponent of John Wesley; author of the hymn "Rock of Ages"
• Also:
• * Charlotte Brooke, Irish poet
• * Samuel Henley English clergyman, school teacher, college principal, antiquarian, writer and poet
• * Thomas Moss, English clergyman and poet
• * Christoph Friedrich Sangerhausen, German

  Deaths

• April 23 - Thomas Tickell, English poet and man of letters
• December 11 - Sidonia Hedwig Zäunemann, German
• date not known - John Adams, English Colonial American clergyman and poet
• date not known - Jane Brereton, English poet notable as a correspondent to The Gentleman's Magazine
• date not known - Upendra Bhanja, poet of Oriya Literature and awarded the title "Kavi-Samrata" - "The Emperor of the Poets"
• date not known - Amalia Wilhelmina Königsmarck , Swedish poet