1936 in poetry

Events

• January - Canadian Poetry Magazine first published by the Canadian Authors Association, with E. J. Pratt's active involvement. It becomes associated with more traditional poetry, very popular in Canada at this time.
• May
• * In Nazi Germany, the SS magazine Das Schwarze Korps attacks the expressionist and experimental poetry of German Gottfried Benn as degenerate, Jewish and homosexual.
• * Greek poet and Communist activist Yiannis Ritsos is inspired to write his landmark poem Epitaphios by a photograph of a dead protester during a massive tobacco-workers demonstration in Thessaloniki; it is published soon afterwards. In August, the right-wing dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas comes to power in Greece and copies are burned publicly at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens.
• August 18 - 38-year-old Spanish dramatist and poet Federico García Lorca is among those arrested by Francoist militia during the White Terror at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War and is never seen again.
• James Laughlin founds New Directions Publishing in New York, which publishes many modern poets for the first time.
• A version of J. R. R. Tolkien's influential lecture "" is published in Proceedings of the British Academy.
• W. B. Yeats begins delivering broadcast lectures on the BBC, and makes recordings of his own verse.

  Works published in English

Canada">Canadian poetry">Canada

• W. E. Collin, The White Savannahs, the first collection of criticism of contemporary poetry in Canada from a modernist perspective; written by a professor of French at the University of Western Ontario
• Kenneth Leslie, Such a Din! Poems. Halifax: McCurdy.
• New Provinces, first anthology of modernist poetry in Canada, including work by F. R. Scott, E. J. Pratt, Robert Finch, A. J. M. Smith, Leo Kennedy, A. M. Klein.
• Marjorie Pickthall, The Complete Poems of Marjorie Pickthall, 2nd edition.. Posthumously published
• Charles G. D. Roberts, Selected Poems of Sir Charles G.D. Roberts..
• Frederick George Scott, Poems

  India">Indian poetry">India, in English">Indian poetry in English">in English

• Harindranath Chattopadhyaya, Strange Journey, Pondicherry: Bharatha Shakthy Nilayam
• Nilima Devi, The Hidden Face, Calcutta: Futurist Publishing House
• P. R. Kaikini, Songs of a Wanderer ; Bombay: New Book Co.
• M. S. Nirmal, Song of Immortality, Lahore: Model Electric Press
• Brajendranath Seal, The Quest Eternal' '
• Subho Tagore, Peacock Plumes'',

  New Zealand">New Zealand poetry">New Zealand

• Ursula Bethell, Time and Place: poems by the author of 'From a garden in the Antipodes, Christchurch: Caxton Press
• Robin Hyde:
• * Passport to Hell
• * Check To Your King

  United Kingdom">English poetry">United Kingdom

• W. H. Auden, Look, Stranger!
• Julian Bell, Work for the Winter
• Roy Campbell, Mithraic Emblems
• Cecil Day-Lewis, Noah and the Waters
• T. S. Eliot, Collected Poems 1909-35, including "Burnt Norton", first of the Four Quartets
• John Gawsworth edits anonymously Edwardian Poetry, Book One
• A. E. Housman, More Poems
• James Joyce, Collected Poems
• Patrick Kavanagh, Ploughman, and Other Poems
• F. R. Leavis, Revaluation: tradition & development in English poetry rejects Milton, Spenser, and Shelley and praises Donne, Pope, Gerard Manley Hopkins, T. S. Eliot, and others
• Louis MacNeice, translation from the original Ancient Greek, The Agamemnon of Aeschylus
• Robert Nichols, A Spanish Triptych
• Ruth Pitter, A Trophy of Arms, preface by James Stephens
• Michael Roberts edits The Faber Book of Modern Verse, which praises poets such as W. H. Auden and T. S. Eliot and ignores poets like Robert Frost and Thomas Hardy
• Sacheverell Sitwell, Collected Poems, introductory essay by Edith Sitwell
• William Soutar, A Handful of Earth
• Dylan Thomas, Twenty-five Poems, including "And death shall have no dominion"
• Edward Thomas, Collected Poems, Faber and Faber
• W. B. Yeats, editor, The Oxford Book of Modern Verse 1892-1935

  United States">American poetry">United States

• Conrad Aiken, Time in the Rock
• W. H. Auden, Look, Stranger!
• Stephen Vincent Benét, Burning City
• Lilian Bowes Lyon, Bright Feather Fading
• E. E. Cummings, 1/20
• Emily Dickinson, Unpublished Poems
• Paul Engle, Break the Heart's Anger
• John Gould Fletcher, The Epic of Arkansas
• Robert Frost, A Further Range
• Robinson Jeffers, The Beaks of Eagles
• Archibald MacLeish, Public Speech
• Edgar Lee Masters, Poems of People
• Marianne Moore, The Pangolin and Other Verse
• Ogden Nash, The Bad Parents' Garden of Verse
• New Directions publishes its first book and its first "annual", New Directions in Prose and Poetry with contributions from Wallace Stevens, Ezra Pound, Elizabeth Bishop, Marianne Moore, William Carlos Williams and others
• Dorothy Parker, Not So Deep as a Well: Collected Poems
• Kenneth Patchen, Before the Grave
• Frederic Prokosch, The Assassins
• Lizette Woodworth Reese, The Old House in the Country
• Charles Reznikoff, Separate Way, including "The Socialists of Vienna"
• Carl Sandburg, The People, Yes, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
• Winfield Townley Scott, Elegy for Robinson
• Wallace Stevens:
• * Ideas of Order, includes "Farewell to Florida," "The Idea of Order at Key West," "Academic Discourse at Havana," "Like Decorations in a Nigger Cemetery," and "A Postcard from the Volcano"), Knopf, enlarged from the 1935 edition
• * Owl's Clover, Alcestis Press
• John Hall Wheelock, Poems, 1911-1936
• William Carlos Williams, Adam & Eve & The City

  Other in English

• Rex Ingamells, Forgotten People published in Adelaide; including "Garrakeen"; Australia

  Works published in other languages

France">French poetry">France

• Paul Éluard, pen name of Paul-Eugène Grindel, Les Yeux fertiles
• Francis Jammes, Sources, Paris: Le Divan
• Pierre Jean Jouve, Hélène
• Henri Michaux, Voyage en Grand Garabagne
• Benjamin Péret, Je sublime
• Saint-John Perse, Poème pour Valery Larbaud, Liège: A la Lampe d'Aladdin; France

  Indian">Indian poetry">Indian subcontinent

Bengali">Bengali poetry">Bengali

• Mohitlal Majumdar, Smara-garal, Bengali
• Rabindranath Tagore, in these two works as well as in some others of the mid- and early 1930s, the author introduced a new rhythm in poetry that "had a tremendous impact on the modern poets", according to Indian academic Sisir Kumar Das:
• * Patrput
• * Syamali

Urdu">Urdu poetry">Urdu

• Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, "Kulam-i Jauhar", an Urdu poem edited and with an introduction by Abudul Majid Daryabadi
• Sir Muhammad Iqbal, Zarb-i-Kalim, also rendered "Zarbe Kalim", philosophical poetry book in Urdu; the author's third collection in the Urdu language; the 183 poems include some ghazals; divided into six parts, including Islam and Muslims, Education, and Fine Arts
• P. T. Narasimhachar, Mandaliru, 23 lyrics in Sanskritized Urdu

Other Indian languages

• Changampuzha Krishna Pillai Ramanan, Malayalam-language poem about the life, love and death of his friend, the poet Edappalli Raghavan Pillai
• Haridasa Siddhantavagish, Sankara Sambhavam Khandakavya, a mythological poem in Sanskrit
• Idappalli Raghavan Pillai, Maninadam, Malayalam
• Kulachandra Gautam, Prapanica Carca, religious verses in Nepali by an eminent Sanskrit scholar and translator
• Mahadevi Varma, Sandhyagit, considered significant lyrics in the Chayavadi tradition; Hindi
• Mahjoor, Taran-e Vatan, Kashmiri
• Mohan Singh, Save Pattar, Punjabi romantic lyrics
• Sir Muhammad Iqbal, Pas Chih Bayad Kard ay Aqwam-i-Sharq, philosophical poetry book in Persian
• Sumitranandan Pant, Yugant, Hindi poems reflecting the author's transition from the Chayavad tradition to Pragtivad
• Suryakant Tripathi Nirala, Gitika, including poems on God, the beauty of nature, women, national awakening and philosophy; Hindi

  Spanish language

Peru">Peruvian poetry">Peru

• Rafael Méndez Dorich, Dibujos animados
• Enrique Peña Barrenechea, Elegía a Bécquer y retorno a la sombra
• César Vallejo, Nómina de huesos
• José Varallanos, Primer cancionero cholo

  Spain">Spanish poetry">Spain

• Federico García Lorca :
• * Diván del Tamarit ;
• * Sonetos del amor oscuro published this year
• * Primeras canciones published this year
• Jorge Guillén, Cántico, second, enlarged edition, with 125 poems in seven sections
• Miguel Hernández, El rayo que no cesa
• Pedro Salinas, Razón d'amor
• Luis Felipe Vivanco, Cantos de primavera

  Other languages

• Gottfried Benn, Ausgewählte Gedichte ; when first published in May, the book contains two poems that are deleted for the next edition in November : "Mann und Frau gehen durch die Krebsbaracke" and "D-Zug". The vast majority of the first editions are collected and destroyed.
• Paul la Cour, Dette er vort Liv, Denmark
• Martinus Nijhoff, Het Uur U, Netherlands
• Millosh Gjergj Nikolla, Vargjet e lira, suppressed by government censors; enlarged edition with two poems deleted published in 1944, Albania
• Cesare Pavese, Lavorare stanca, shortened by four poems deleted by Fascist censors; enlarged edition nearly double in size published in 1942; Florence: Solaria, Italy
• August Sang, Üks noormees otsib õnne, Estonia

  Awards and honors

• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Robert P. Tristram Coffin: Strange Holiness

  Births

• February 19 - Frederick Seidel, American poet
• March 19 - Anri Volokhonsky, Russian poet
• March 24 - John Robert Colombo, Canadian poet, editor and humorist
• March 31 - Marge Piercy, American poet, novelist and social activist
• April 6 - John Pepper Clark, Nigerian poet and playwright originally publishing under the name "J. P. Clark"
• April 29 - Alejandra Pizarnik, Argentinian poet
• May 28 - Fred Chappell, American poet, author and academic
• June 24 - J. H. Prynne, English poet, writer, academic, key figure in the British Poetry Revival and a major contributor to The English Intelligencer
• June 26 - Elisabeth Harvor, Canadian novelist and poet
• June 27 - Lucille Clifton, African-American poet and feminist
• July 9 - June Jordan, African-American political activist, writer, poet and teacher
• July 11 - Al Mahmud, Bengali poet
• September 11 - Sandra Hochman, American poet
• November 4 - C. K. Williams, American poet
• November 17 - Tarapada Roy, Bengali poet, essayist and short-story writer known for his satirical sense of humour
• November 25 - William McIlvanney, Scottish novelist, short story writer and poet
• November 27 - Dahlia Ravikovitch, Israeli poet
• December 1
• * George Bowering, Canadian novelist, poet, historian and biographer
• * Saqi Farooqi, Indian-born Pakistani Urdu poet
• December 4 - Ken Smith,, English poet, academic and an editor of the quarterly Stand from in 1963 to 1972
• December 17 - Frank Martinus Arion, Curaçaoan novelist and poet
• December 26 - Tormod MacGill-Eain, Scottish Gaelic comedian, novelist, poet, musician and broadcaster
• December 27 - Sandra Gilbert, American poet, critic and academic
• Also:
• * Stewart Conn, Scottish poet and playwright
• * Rashid Hussein, Palestinian Arabic poet
• * Brendan Kennelly, Irish poet and novelist
• * Clarence Major, American poet, novelist and painter
• * Christopher Wiseman, English-born Canadian poet
• * David Young, American poet and translator, editor and co-founder of FIELD magazine

  Deaths

• January - Jamil Sidqi al-Zahawi, 73, Arab poet, philosopher and champion of women's rights
• January 18 - Rudyard Kipling, 70, English author and poet, winner of the Nobel prize for literature in 1907
• March 1 - Mikhail Kuzmin, 64, Russian poet, novelist and composer
• March 3 - Govinda Krishna Chettur, 37, Indian poet writing in English
• March 6 - Carlos Oquendo de Amat, 31, Peruvian-born poet, author of 5 Meters of Poems
• April 30 - A. E. Housman, 77, English poet, writer and classical scholar, best known for his cycle of poems A Shropshire Lad
• June 11 - Robert E. Howard, 30, American pulp fiction writer and poet, suicide
• June 14 - G. K. Chesterton, 62, English writer, journalist, poet, biographer and Catholic apologist
• July 4 - Edappally Raghavan Pillai, 27, Indian, Malayalam-language poet, suicide
• August 19 - Federico García Lorca, 38, Spanish dramatist, poet, painter, pianist, composer and emblematic member of the Generation of '27, killed by Nationalist partisans at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War
• September 26 - Harriet Monroe, 75, American editor, scholar, literary critic and patron of the arts best known as founder and longtime editor of Poetry magazine, of a cerebral haemorrhage
• October 5 - J. Slauerhoff, 38, Dutch poet and novelist, of aggravated tuberculosis
• December 28 - John Cornford, 21, English Communist poet, in the Spanish Civil War
• December 31 - Miguel de Unamuno, 72, Spanish essayist, novelist, poet, playwright, and philosopher
• Also:
• * Kattakkayathil Cherian Mappila, Indian, Malayalam-language poet