1951 in poetry

Events

• Poet Cid Corman begins Origin magazine in response to the failure of a magazine that Robert Creeley had planned. The magazine typically features one writer per issue and runs, with breaks, until the mid-1980s. Poets featured include Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Larry Eigner, Denise Levertov, William Bronk, Theodore Enslin, Charles Olson, Louis Zukofsky, Gary Snyder, Lorine Niedecker, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams and Paul Blackburn. The magazine also leads to the establishment of Origin Press, which publishes books by a similar range of poets.
• Bad Lord Byron, a film directed by David MacDonald about the Romantic poet.
• Czesław Miłosz, Polish poet, translator, literary critic, future winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, becomes an exile this year.
• The Dolmen Press is founded in Dublin, Ireland by Liam and Josephine Miller to provide a publishing outlet for Irish poets and artists. The Press operates in Dublin from 1951 until Liam Miller's death in 1987.

  Works published in English

Canada">Canadian poetry">Canada

• Irving Layton, The Black Huntsmen: Poems. Montreal.
• Tom MacInnes, In the Old of my Age
• Duncan Campbell Scott, Selected Poems, edited by E. K. Brown
• A. J. M. Smith, The Worldly Muse
• Kay Smith, Footnote to the Lord's Prayer and Other Poems
• Raymond Souster, City Hall Street. Toronto: Ryerson.
• Anne Wilkinson, Counterpoint to Sleep

  New Zealand">New Zealand literature">New Zealand

• James K. Baxter, Recent Trends in New Zealand Poetry, scholarship
• Allen Curnow, editor, A Book of New Zealand Verse 1923-50, anthology
• Denis Glover, Sings Harry, New Zealand
• M. H. Holcroft, Discovered Isles, scholarship
• Louis Johnson:
• * Editor, New Zealand Poetry Yearbook, first annual edition, anthology
• *The Sun Among the Ruins
• * Roughshod Among the Lilies
• Charles Spear, Twopence Coloured
• Hubert Witheford, The Falcon Mark

  United Kingdom">English poetry">United Kingdom

• W. H. Auden, Nones, including the poem "In Praise of Limestone"
• E. C. Bentley, Clerihews Complete
• Basil Bunting, Seeds, a long poem, published by Poetry magazine
• Roy Campbell, Light on a Dark Horse, autobiography
• Charles Causley:
• * Farewell Aggie Weston
• * Hands to Dance
• Jack Clemo, The Clay Verge
• Keith Douglas, Collected Poems
• Robert Graves, Poems and Satires
• James Kirkup, The Submerged Village, and Other Poems
• John Lehmann, The Age of the Dragon
• Iona and Peter Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes
• Poems of Today, British poetry anthology, fourth series
• Enoch Powell, The Wedding Gift & Dancer’s End .
• Anne Ridler, The Golden Bird, and Other Poems
• Alan Ross, Poetry, 1945-1950
• John Wain, Mixed Feelings

  United States">American poetry">United States

• W. H. Auden, Nones, English-born poet living and published in the United States
• John Malcolm Brinnin, The Sorrows of Cold Stone
• John Ciardi, From Time to Time, including "My Father's Watch"
• Langston Hughes, Montage of a Dream Deferred, including "Harlem"
• Randall Jarrell:
• * Losses, New York: Harcourt, Brace
• * The Seven-League Crutches, New York: Harcourt, Brace
• Hugh Kenner, The Poetry of Ezra Pound, highly influential in causing a re-assessment of Pound's poetry, criticism
• Robert Lowell, The Mills of the Kavanaughs, New York: Harcourt, Brace
• James Merrill, First Poems
• Marianne Moore, Collected Poems, winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for poetry in 1952
• Ogden Nash, Parents Keep Out
• Adrienne Rich, A Change of World, her first volume, selected by W. H. Auden for the Yale Series of Younger Poets
• Theodore Roethke, Praise to the End!, 13 long poems about a child's sensibility and developing consciousness
• Louis Simpson, Good News of Death and Other Poems, Jamaican-born poet living in the United States
• Clark Ashton Smith, The Dark Chateau
• Jean Toomer, Cane
• Theodore Weiss, The Catch
• William Carlos Williams:
• * Paterson, Book IV
• * The Collected Earlier Poems
• * The Autobiography of William Carlos Williams

  Other in English

• Nagendranath Gupta, editor and translator, Eastern Poetry, Allahabad: Indian Press, second edition, Bombay: Hind Kitabs, anthology; Indian poetry in English
• Louis Simpson, Good News of Death and Other Poems, Jamaican-born poet living in the United States
• Rex Ingamells, The Great South Land'', Melbourne, a history of Australia from primordial times, Australia

  Works published in other languages

France">French poetry">France

• Pierre Jean Jouve, Ode
• Alphonse Métérié, Proella
• Jacques Prévert:
• * Histoires
• * Spectacle
• Jules Supervielle, Naissances

  India">Indian poetry">India

• Rajendra Shah, Andolan, Gujarati language
• Binod Chandra Nayak, Oriya:
• * Nilacandrara Upatyaka
• * Candra O tara
• Hem Barua, Balichandra, Indian, Assamese
• Mangalacharan Chattopadhyay, Mergh Brsti Jar, Bengali
• Sumitra Kumari Sinha, Panthini, Hindi-language
• Sundaram, Yatra Gujarati language
• V. A. Anandakkuttan, Dipavali, Malayalam
• Naresh Guha, Duranta Dupur, Bengali
• Ajneya, editor, Dusara Saptak, Hindi, influential anthology in the Nai Kavita movement, which has been said to have started with this book, which contains poetry from Bhavani Prasad Misra, Sakunta Mathur, Hari Narayan Vyas, Shamasher Bahadur Singh, Naresh Mehta, Raghuvir Sahay and Dharamvir Bharati

  Other

• Simin Behbahani, Seh-tar-e Shekasteh, Persia
• Alberto de Lacerda, Poemas, Portugal
• Uri Zvi Greenberg, Reḥovot Hanahar, poems lamenting the loss of Jews in Europe; Hebrew-language, Israel
• Cesare Pavese, Verrà la morte ed avrà i tuoi occhi, Turin: Einaudi; Italy

  Awards and honors

• Nobel Prize in Literature: Pär Lagerkvist, Swedish poet, author, playwright and writer
• Guggenheim Fellowship awarded to E.E. Cummings
• National Book Award for Poetry: Wallace Stevens, The Auroras of Autumn
• Pulitzer Prize for poetry: Carl Sandburg, Complete Poems
• Bollingen Prize: John Crowe Ransom
• Canada: Governor General's Award, poetry or drama: The Mulgrave Road, Charles Bruce

  Births

• January 1 - Abul Bashar, Bengali poet and writer
• January 29 - Neil Shepard, American poet, essayist, professor of creative writing and literary magazine editor
• February 23 - Leevi Lehto, Finnish poet, translator and programmer
• March 12 - Susan Musgrave, Canadian poet and children's author
• March 21 - Lesley Choyce, Canadian novelist, writer, children's book writer, poet, and academic, founder of Pottersfield Press, host of the television program "Choyce Words" and "Off the Page"; born in the United States and immigrated to Canada in 1979
• April 5 - Lillian Allen, Canadian dub poet
• April 21 - Brigit Pegeen Kelly, American poet and academic, daughter of author Robert Glynn Kelly and married to poet Michael Madonick
• April 22 - Andrew Hudgins, American poet, essayist and academic
• May 9:
• * Christopher Dewdney, Canadian poet, writer, artist, creative writing teacher and writer in residence at various universities
• * Jorie Graham, American poet and academic
• * Joy Harjo, Native-American poet, musician and author
• May 30 - Garrett Hongo, American poet and academic, born in Volcano, Hawaii
• June 20:
• * Paul Muldoon Irish poet living in the United States
• * Noel Rowe, Australian, poet, writer, academic and Roman Catholic priest in the Marist order
• July 10 - Robert Priest, English-born Canadian poet and children's author
• July 25 - Angela Jackson, African American
• September 13 - Suzanne Lummis, American poet, teacher and co-founder of the Los Angeles Poetry Festival
• October 8 - Jenny Boult, also known as "MML Bliss", Australian
• October 12 - Peter Goldsworthy, Australian poet, novelist, short-story writer, opera librettist and medical practitioner
• November 13 - Robert Hilles, Canadian poet and novelist
• December 13 - Anne-Marie Alonzo, Canadian playwright, poet, novelist, critic and publisher
• Also:
• * Ralph Angel, American poet and translator
• * Robin Becker, American
• * Peter Boyle, Australian
• * Ron Charach, Canadian
• * Peter Christensen, Canadian
• * Stephen Edgar, Australian poet, editor and indexer
• * James Galvin, American poet, novelist and writer
• * Robert Harris, Australian
• * Peter Johnson, American
• * Jill Jones, Australian poet and writer
• * Anne Kellas, South African poet, critic and editor, immigrant to Australia
• * Kim Maltman, Canadian poet and physicist
• * Pi O, "П O", Australian poet and anarchist
• * Betsy Struthers, Canadian poet and novelist
• * Ania Walwicz, Australian poet, writer and artist
• * Afaa M. Weaver, American
• * Robert Wrigley, American poet and academic
• * Eddy Yanofsky, American
• * Ray A. Young Bear, American

  Deaths

• January 17 - Jyoti Prasad Agarwala, playwright, songwriter, poet, writer and film maker; Indian, writing in Assamese
• January 31 - Seemab Akbarabadi سیماب اکبرآبادی Urdu poet from India
• April 3 - Henrik Visnapuu, Estonian
• June 18 - Angelos Sikelianos, Greek
• June 28 - Fumiko Hayashi 林 芙美子, novelist, writer and poet
• July 3 - Sydney Jephcott, Australian poet
• September 18 - Gelett Burgess, American artist, art critic, poet, author, and humorist
• December 4 - Pedro Salinas, Spanish
• Also:
• * Kaykobad, Bengali poet
• * Hertha Kraftner, German
• * Sotiris Skipis, Greek