Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
Quick Facts List of years in poetry (table) ...
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- January - Lord Byron writes his semi-autobiographical tale in verse The Corsair while snowed up at Newstead Abbey in England with his half-sister, Augusta Leigh. It is published on February 1 by John Murray
- April 15 - Augusta Leigh bears a daughter, Elizabeth Medora Leigh, perhaps by Byron.
- July 28–September 13 - English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley abandons his pregnant wife and runs away with the 16-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, accompanied by her stepsister Jane Clairmont (also 16), to war-ravaged France, quickly moving on to Switzerland.[1]
- September 12–15 - Battle of Baltimore (War of 1812): American lawyer Francis Scott Key, witnessing the bombardment of Baltimore, Maryland, from a British ship, writes "Defence of Fort McHenry". His brother-in-law arranges to have the poem published in a broadside with a recommended tune on September 17 and on September 20, both the Baltimore Patriot and The American print it; the song quickly becomes popular, with seventeen newspapers from Georgia to New Hampshire reproducing it. In 1931 as "The Star-Spangled Banner" it is officially adopted at the national anthem of the United States:
- O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand,
- Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation,
- Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land,
- Praise the Power that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
- Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
- And this be our motto — "In God is our Trust;"
- And the star-spangled Banner in triumph shall wave,
- O'er the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
—last stanza of Francis Scott Key's "The Battle of Fort McHenry"[2]
- Thomas Brown, The Paradise of Coquettes[3]
- Lord Byron:
- The Corsair, sells 10,000 copies on the first day (February 1),[4] and over 25,000 copies in the first month, going through seven editions
- "Lara, a Tale"[3] written May 14–June 14 and published anonymously in the summer, it sells 6,000 copies by early August; published together with "Jacqueline, a Tale" by Samuel Rogers
- "Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte", published anonymously[3] written April 9 when Napoleon abdicates, published April 16
- Henry Cary, translation of Dante's Divine Comedy, complete in blank verse
- George Daniel, The Modern Dunciad, published anonymously[3]
- Pierce Egan (the elder), The Mistress of Royalty; or, The Loves of Florizel and Perdita, published anonymously; about the relationship between the Prince of Wales ("Florizel") and Mrs. Mary Robinson ("Perdita")[3]
- James Hogg, writing as "J. H. Craig, of Douglas", The Hunting of Badlewe[3]
- Leigh Hunt, The Feast of the Poets, revised and enlarged in 1815, first published in The Reflector, 1810[3]
- Isabella Lickbarrow, Poetical Effusions[3]
- Thomas Love Peacock:
- Sir Hornbrook; or, Childe Launcelot's Expedition[3]
- Sir Proteus: A satirical ballad, dedicated to Lord Byron; written under the name "P. M. O'Donovan"[3]
- J. H. Reynolds, The Eden of the Imagination[3]
- Robert Southey:
- Odes to the Prince Regent, the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia, the author's first work as Poet Laureate; republished in 1821 as Carmen Triumphale, for the Commencement of the Year 1814[3]
- Roderick, the Last of the Goths[3]
- William Wordsworth, The Excursion: Being a portion of The Recluse, a poem[3]
- Francis Scott Key, "The Battle of Fort McHenry" (see Events above)
- William Littell, Festoons of Fancy, Consisting of Compositions Amatory, Sentimental and Humorous in Verse and Prose, mostly poems on women and on love but notable for satires on government officials, a recently passed law on divorce and on the process of elections[5]
- Salmagundi; or, the Whim–whams and Opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, Esq. and Others ... A New and Improved Edition, with Tables of Contents and a Copious Index, including poems by James Kirke Paulding, New York: Published by David Longworth, United States[6]
- Esther Talbot, "Peace", words dated April 4, unpublished until music setting in Music in Stoughton: A Brief History (1989)[7]
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
- January 7 – Robert Nicoll, Scottish (died 1837)
- January 10 – Aubrey Thomas de Vere, Irish (died 1902)
- March 9 (February 25 O.S.) – Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian poet and artist (died 1861)
- May 21 – Louis Janmot, French painter and poet (died 1892)
- June 28 – Frederick William Faber, English poet, hymnodist, theologian and Catholic convert (died 1863)
- August 26 – Johann Pucher (Janez Puhar), Slovene Catholic priest, inventor, scientist, photographer, artist and poet in Slovene and German (died 1864)
- September 3 – James Joseph Sylvester, English mathematician and translator (died 1897)
- December 18 – Sarah T. Bolton, née Sarah Tittle Barrett, American (died 1893)
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
Cox, Michael, editor, The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature, Oxford University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-19-860634-6 Neal T. Jones, editor, A Book of Days for the Literary Year, New York and London: Thames and Hudson (1984), unpaginated, ISBN 0-500-01332-2 Preminger, Alex and T. V. F. Brogan, et al., The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, 1993. New York: MJF Books/Fine Communications