January 1 –The Gentleman's Magazine is started and edited by Edward Cave ("Sylvanus Urban") in London. Published monthly through September, it will continue into the 20th century.[1]
Richard Lewis, Food for Criticks, criticizing fellow American colonists for not respecting and revering the land as the Indians did[3]
John Seccomb, "Father Abbey's Will", popular, humorous verse, written when the author was a student at Harvard, about one of the college's custodians and bed-makers; it prompts a sequel, "A Letter of Courtship", addressed to Father Abbey's widow from a custodian at Yale, an example of the rivalry between the two early schools[3]
Alexander Pope, An Epistle to the Right Honourable Richard Earl of Burlington, also known later as The Epistle "Of Taste" (see also Bramston, The Man of Taste1733[1]
John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, Poems on Several Occasions. By the R. H. the E. of R., London, posthumous[4]
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
April 16 –Jacob Bailey (died 1808), Church of England clergyman and poet born in the United States (colony of New Hampshire), immigrated to Nova Scotia, Canada in 1779
April 24 or April 25 (exact date unknown) –Daniel Defoe (born 1659), English author, writer, journalist, spy and poet, probably while in hiding from his creditors. He is interred in Bunhill Fields, London, where his grave can still be visited