1919 in poetry

... 1909
1910
1911
1912
1913
1914
1915 ...

... 1923
1924
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929 ...

In literature: 1916; 1917; 1918; 1919; 1920; 1921; 1922

“

Considering that, all hatred driven hence,

The soul recovers radical innocence
And learns at last that it is self-delighting,
Self-appeasing, self-affrighting,
And that its own sweet will is heaven's will;
She can, though every face should scowl
And every windy quarter howl
Or every bellows burst, be happy still.

”

—From A Prayer for My Daughter by W. B. Yeats, first published this year

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).

Events

The Egoist goes defunct

April 2 — Vladimir Nabokov, novelist and poet, leaves Russia with his family.
October — W. B. Yeats travels to the United States and begins a lecture tour lasting until May, 1920.^[1]
December — The Egoist, a London literary magazine founded by Dora Marsden which published early modernist works, including those of James Joyce, goes defunct.
Two paintings by E. E. Cummings appear in a show of the New York Society of Independent Artists.
The journal Littérature founded in France by André Breton, Philippe Soupault and Louis Aragon.^[2]
Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) writes Notes on Thought and Vision, a prose work; published posthumously in 1982.

Works published in English

Australia

Edwin James Brady, The House of the Winds
John Le Gay Brereton, The Burning Marl, dedicated to "All who have fought nobly"
C. J. Dennis, Jim of the Hills
Shaw Neilson, Heart of Spring, Sydney, Bookfellow

Canada

Charles G.D. Roberts, New Poems. (London: Constable).

India, in English

Swami Ananda Acharya, Snow-birds, London: Macmillan, Indian poetry in English^[3]
Harindranath Chattopadhyaya, The Coloured Garden, Adyar, Madras: The Commonwealth Office; India, Indian poetry in English^[4]
Ardeshir M. Modi, Spring Blossoms, London: Arthur H. Stockwell^[5]
Nanikram Vasanmal Thadani, Krishna's Flute and Other Poems, Bombay: Longmans^[4]

United Kingdom

Richard Aldington^[6]
- Images of Desire
- Images of War
Swami Ananda Acharya, Snow-birds, London: Macmillan, Indian poetry in English^[3]
Eva Dobell, A Bunch of Cotswold Grasses
John Drinkwater, Loyalties^[6]
T. S. Eliot, Ara Vos Prec, including "Gerontion" and the poems later published in Poems – 1920; his "Tradition and the Individual Talent" appears in The Egoist
Ivor Gurney, War's Embers^[6]
F. W. Harvey, Ducks^[7]^[8]
Rudyard Kipling, The Years Between^[6]
C. S. Lewis, writing as Clive Hamilton, Spirits in Bondage: a cycle of lyrics
Bertram Lloyd, ed., The Paths of Glory: a collection of poems written during the War 1914–1919
Rose Macaulay, Three Days
Carola Oman, The Menin Road, and other poems
Ezra Pound, Quia Pauper Amavi^[9]
Siegfried Sassoon, The War Poems of Sigfried Sassoon^[6]
Dora Sigerson (posthumous), Sixteen Dead Men, and Other Ballads of Easter Week^[6]
Osbert Sitwell, Argonaut and Juggernaut^[6]
J. C. Squire, The Birds and Other Poems^[6]
W. B. Yeats, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom:
- The Wild Swans at Coole, significant revision of the 1917 edition: has the poems from the 1917 edition and others, including "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" and "The Phases of the Moon"; contains: "The Wild Swans at Coole", "Ego Dominus Tuus", "The Scholars" and "On being asked for a War Poem"^[6]
- Two Plays for Dancers, (see also, Four Plays for Dancers, published in 1921)^[6]

Djuna Barnes, ca. 1919.

United States

John Jay Chapman, Songs and Poems^[10]
Babette Deutsch, Banners^[10]
Vachel Lindsay, Bryan, Bryan, Bryan, Bryan, a poem chronicling William Jennings Bryan's 1896 presidential campaign through the eyes of an idealistic sixteen-year-old
Amy Lowell, Pictures of a Floating World^[10]
Edgar Lee Masters, Starved Rock^[10]
John G. Neihardt, The Song of Three Friends^[10]
Ezra Pound, Quia Pauper Amavi^[9]
John Crowe Ransom, Poems About God^[10]
Charles Reznikoff, Rhythms II, including "The Idiot"
Louis Untermeyer, editor, Modern American Poetry, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe; anthology, more than 130 poems, including "Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight", by Vachel Lindsay and verse by Ezra Pound, Sara Teasdale, Stephen Vincent Benét, and Emily Dickinson^[11]
John Hall Wheelock, Dust and Light^[10]

Other

On being asked for a War Poem
by W. B. Yeats

I THINK it better that in times like these
A poet keep his mouth shut, for in truth
We have no gift to set a statesman right;
He has had enough of meddling who can please
A young girl in the indolence of her youth,

Or an old man upon a winter’s night.

W. B. Yeats, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom:
- The Wild Swans at Coole, significant revision of the 1917 edition: has the poems from the 1917 edition and others, including the title poem and:^[6]
  - "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death"
  - "The Phases of the Moon"
  - "Ego Dominus Tuus"
  - "The Scholars"
  - "On being asked for a War Poem" (originally written on February 6, 1915 in response to a request by Henry James that Yeats compose a political poem about World War I and sent to James in a letter that year; first published in Edith Wharton's volume, The Book of the Homeless 1916, with minute differences in wording from the later version but under the significantly different title "A Reason for Keeping Silent")
- Two Plays for Dancers, (see also, Four Plays for Dancers, published in 1921)^[6]
- A Prayer For My Daughter, first published in the November issue of Poetry magazine (later published in Michael Robartes and the Dancer in 1921)

Works published in other languages

France

Paul Claudel, La Messe là-bas
Léon-Paul Fargue, Poèmes^[12]
Yvan Goll, ed., Le coeur de l’ennemi: Anthologie de poèmes contre la guerre
Max Jacob, La Defense de Tartuffe^[2]
Francis Jammes, La Vierge et les sonnets, Paris: Mercure de France^[13]
Pierre Reverdy, La Guitare endormie^[2]

Indian subcontinent

Including all of the British colonies that later became India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Listed alphabetically by first name, regardless of surname:

Ardoshir Faramji Kharbardar, Bharatno Tankar (Parsi writing in Gujarati)^[14]
Basavaraju Appa Rao, Selayeti ganamu, Telugu-language^[15]
Duvvuri Rami Reddi, Krsivaludu, has been called the most prominent poem of the Telugu-language romantic movement; depicts peasants and rural life^[15]
Gopala Krishna Pattanayak, Gopalakrsna Padyabali, Oriya-language, vaishnav lyrics, posthumous edition^[15]
Jammuneshwar Khataniyar, Arun, her first collection of poems, Indian, Assamese-language^[15]
Kumaran Asan, Malayalam-language:
- Cintavistayaya Sita ("Sita's Story"),^[15]^[16]
- Prarodanam, elegy on the death of A. R. Rajara Varma, a poet, critic and scholar; similar to Percy Bysshe Shelley's Adonais but with a distinctly Indian philosophical attitude^[15]
Nilkanth Sharma Dal, Ramayana, Kashmiri-language poem based for the most part on the Ramacarita-Manas of Tulsidas^[15]
Syama Sundara Das, editor, Parmala Raso, Hindi-language epic poem; written in a language mixing Brjibhasa, Kannauji and Bundeli, published by Kashi Nagari Pracharini Sabha^[15]

Spanish language

Spain

Juan Ramón Jiménez, Piedra y cielo ("Stone and Sky"), Spain^[17]
Ramón del Valle Inclán, La pipa de Kif ("Kif's Pipe"), Spain^[17]

Latin America

Alfonsina Storni, Without Remedy, Argentina

Other languages

Khalil Gibran, The Procession, long ode, Arabic^[16]
Charles Gill, Le Cap Éternité: suivi des Étoiles filantes; French language;, Canada^[18]
Kitahara Kakushu, Heretics, Japan^[16]
Angiolo Silvio Novaro, Il Fabbro armonioso ("The Harmonious Blacksmith"), Italy
Kurt Pinthus, editor, Menscheitsdämerung ("The Twilight of Mankind"), anthology of Expressionist poetry, published in Berlin, Germany^[19]^[20]
Anton Schnack, Strophen der Gier ("Verses of greed"), Der Abenteurer ("The adventurer") and Die tausend Gelächter ("The thousand laughs"), Germany
Kurt Schwitters, "An Anna Blume" ("To Anna Flower" also translated as "To Eve Blossom"), widely noticed and controversial work variously described as a parody of a love poem, an emblem of the chaos and madness of the era, and as a harbinger of a new poetic language; much parodied; originally published in August in Der Sturm magazine, then later in the year in Schwitters' book, Anna Blume, Dichtungen, published by Verlag Paul Steegemann, Hannover (revised edition 1922), Germany
Edith Sodergran, Gaudy Observations, Sweden^[16]
August Stramm, Tropfblut, Germany, posthumous
Giuseppe Ungaretti, Allegria di naufragi ("The Joy of Shipwrecks") and La guerra ("The War"), Italy^[16]

Awards and honors

Nobel Prize in Literature: Carl Friedrich Georg Spitteler, Swiss poet and novelist
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Margaret Widdemer, Old Road to Paradise and Carl Sandburg, Corn Huskers

Births

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

January 7 – Robert Duncan (died 1988), American poet associated with the Black Mountain poets and the beat generation, and a key player in the San Francisco Renaissance
January 9 – William Morris Meredith, Jr. (died 2007), American poet
January 14
- Kaifi Azmi (died 2002), Indian, Hindi- and Urdu-language poet^[15] lyricist and songwriter
- Syed Abdul Malik (died 2000), Indian, Assamese-language short-story writer and poet^[15]
January 19 – Joan Brossa (died 1998), Spanish Catalan poet^[16]
January 20 – Silva Kaputikyan (died 2006), Armenian poet
February 12 – Subhash Mukhopadhyay (died 2003), Bengali poet and Marxist^[15] (surname: Mukhopadhyay)^[16]
March 17 – Abdul Rahman Pazhwak, عبدالرحمن پژواک (died 1995), Afghan, Pashto-language poet, novelist, playwright and diplomat^[16]
March 24 – Lawrence Ferlinghetti, born Lawrence Ferling, American beat poet, painter and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers
April 15 – Emyr Humphreys, Welsh novelist, playwright and poet^[16]
April 17 – Juan Rodolfo Wilcock (died 1978), Argentine-born author, poet and translator
May 28 – May Swenson (died 1989), American poet and playwright
July 19 – Miltos Sachtouris, Μίλτος Σαχτούρης (died 2005), Greek
August 30 – Jiří Orten, born Jiří Ohrenstein (died 1941), Czech
August 31 – Amrita Pritam (died 2005), Punjabi poet and novelist; a woman^[15]
September 2 – Binod Chandra Nayak, Indian, Oriya-language poet^[15]
September 3 - Edwin Honig (died 2011), American poet, critic and translator known for his English renditions of seminal works of Spanish and Portuguese literature^[21]
September 7 – Louise Bennett-Coverley, aka "Miss Lou" (died 2006), Jamaican folklorist, writer and poet
September 18 – M. Govindan (died 1988), Indian, Malayalam-language poet, short-story writer, playwright and essayist^[15]^[22]
September 26 – Matilde Camus (died 2012), Spanish poet and researcher
September 29 - Ruth Dallas, born Ruth Mumford (died 2008), New Zealand poet
October 1 – G. D. Madgulkar (died 1978), Indian, Marathi-language poet, songwriter and short-story writer^[15]
November 4 – Patricia Beer (died 1999), English poet and critic
November 18 – Madeline DeFrees (died 2015), American poet
Also:
- Lance Jeffers (died 1985), African American
- Michalis Katsaros (died 1998), Greek
- Kuroda Saburu, Japanese (surname: Kuroda)^[16]
- Bani Ray, Bengali writer, novelist, poet and critic, a woman^[15]
- Buddhidhari Singha, Maithili-language poet and fiction writer
- Girija Kumar Mathur (died 1994), Indian, Hindi-language poet^[15]
- Yoshioka Minoru (died 1990), Japanese (surname: Yoshioka) ^[16]

Deaths