1806 in poetry

Events

Sir Roger Newdigate founds the Newdigate Prize for English Poetry at the University of Oxford. The first winner is John Wilson ("Christopher North").
William Wordsworth completes his first revision of The Prelude: or, Growth of a Poet's Mind in 13 Books, a version started in 1805. It would be further revised later in his life. His work this year and next revised the original, two-part 1798-1799 version. The book is not published in any form until shortly after his death in 1850.^[1]
Following publication of Irish-born poet Thomas Moore's Epistles, Odes, and Other Poems, Francis Jeffrey denounces it in the July Edinburgh Review as "licentious". Moore challenges Jeffrey to a duel in London but their confrontation is interrupted by officials and they become friends.^[2]

Works published in English

Elizabeth Bath, Poems, on Various Occasions
James Beresford, The Miseries of Human Life; or, The Groans of Timothy Testy, and Samuel Sensitive, published anonymously^[3]
Robert Bloomfield, Wild Flowers; or, Pastoral and Local Poetry^[3]
Lord Byron, Fugitive Pieces, including "The First Kiss of Love", published anonymously and privately printed; the author's first publication^[3]
John Wilson Croker, The Amazoniad; or, Figure and Fashion, published anonymously^[3]
Thomas Holcroft, Tales in Verse^[3]
Walter Savage Landor, Simonidea
James Montgomery, The Wanderer of Switzerland, and Other Poems^[3]
Thomas Moore, Epistles, Odes, and Other Poems
Thomas Love Peacock, Palmyra, and Other Poems^[3]
Mary Robinson, The Poetical Works of the Late Mrs. Mary Robinson (posthumous)^[3]
William Roscoe, The Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast, a children's classic
Sir Walter Scott, Ballads and Lyrical Pieces
Jane Taylor and Ann Taylor, Rhymes for the Nursery, including "Twinkle, twinkle, little star"

Hugh Henry Brackenridge, Gazette Publications By Hugh Henry Brackenridge, Carlisle: Printed by Alexander & Phillips^[4]
Thomas Green Fessenden:
- Democracy Unveiled, or, Tyranny Stripped of the Garb of Patriotism. By Christopher Caustic, L. L. D. &c.&c.&c.&c.&c.&c.&c.&c.&c. In Two Volumes ... Third edition, with large additions (New York: Printed for I. Riley, & Co.^[4] The most well-known poetic attack on Thomas Jefferson and other prominent Democratic Republicans; in six cantos of mock-heroic footnotes and including many footnotes^[5]
- Original Poems, Philadelphia: Printed at the Lorenzo Press of E. Bronson^[4]
John Blair Linn, Valerian, epic poem on the persecution of early Christians; published unfinished after Linn died of tuberculosis; with an introduction by Charles Brockden Brown, his brother-in-law^[5]
Alexander Wilson, The Foresters, a description of nature and events during a walking trip from Philadelphia to Niagara Falls and back again^[5]

Births

Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:

January 9 – Joseph-Isidore Bédard (died 1833), Canadian poet, lawyer and politician
January 20 – Nathaniel Parker Willis, also known as N. P. Willis, (died 1867) American author, poet and editor who worked with notable writers including Edgar Allan Poe and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
March 6 – Elizabeth Barrett Browning (died 1861), English
April 17 – William Gilmore Simms (died 1870), American poet, novelist and historian
date not known – Charles Tompson (died 1883), Australian public servant and said to be the first published Australian-born poet

Deaths

Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:

February 19 – Elizabeth Carter (born 1717), English poet, classicist, writer, translator and a prominent member of the Bluestocking circle
March 3 – Heinrich Christian Boie (born 1744), German author and poet
May 6 – Ann Yearsley (born c. 1753), English poet and writer
July 16 – Caterino Mazzolà (born 1745), Italian poet and librettist
October 19 – Henry Kirke White (born 1785), English
October 28 – Charlotte Turner Smith (born 1749), English poet and novelist
date not known – Jupiter Hammon (born 1711), English Colonial American

Events