1939 IN POETRY

— W.H. Auden, from "September 1, 1939"

Contents

Events

Works published

Awards and honors

Births

Deaths

See also

Events

★ Last issue of ''The Criterion'' is published.

★ ''Gunga Din'', a film directed by George Stevens, based loosely on Rudyard Kipling's poem of the same name

★ Poetry London, a magazine founded by Dylan Thomas, its editor James Meary Tambimuttu, and others

★ Carl Rakosi begins a 28-year hiatus from writing poetry

★ The Kenyon Review is founded by John Crowe Ransom

Works published

★ W.H. Auden's '"September 1, 1939"' a poem written on the occasion of the outbreak of World War II, first published in ''The New Republic'' on October 18, and which will later appear in Auden's collection ''Another Time'' (1940)

★ 'T.S. Eliot' - ''The Idea of a Christian Society'', ''Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats''

★ J. F. Hendry and Henry Treece, editors of the anthology ''The New Apocalypse'', an early anthology of the New Apocalyptics poets in Britain

★ Dylan Thomas, ''The Map of Love''

★ Christopher Smart, ''Rejoice in the Lamb: A Song from Bedlam'', posthumously edited by W.F. Stead

★ 'W.B. Yeats', ''Last Poems and Two Plays''

Awards and honors

===United States===

★ American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Poetry: Robert Frost

★ Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: John Gould Fletcher: ''Selected Poems''

Births

★ January 23 — Fred Wah Chinese-Canadian poet, novelist, and scholar

★ February 5 — Siv Cedering, Swedish-American poet, painter, sculptor, illustrator, and author

★ March 26 — Patrick Lane, Canadian poet

★ April 13 — Seamus Heaney, Irish writer and lecturer from Northern Ireland who awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995

★ May 31 — Al Young, American poet, novelist and writer of musical memoirs named poet laureate of California in 2005

★ June 30 — José Emilio Pacheco Mexican poet, essayist, translator, novelist and short story writer

★ July 22 — Quincy Troupe, American poet, editor, journalist, and academic

★ July 27 — Michael Longley, Northern Irish poet

★ August 31 — Dennis Lee Canadian children's writer and poet

★ October 24 — Paula Gunn Allen, Native American poet, literary critic, activist and novelist

★ November 18 - Margaret Atwood, novelist and poet

★ November 23 — bill bissett Canadian poet famous for his anti-conventional style who does not capitalise his name


★ February 26 — Clark Coolidge, American poet

★ date not known:

★
★ Dick Allen

★
★ Frank Bidart American poet.

★
★ Stephen Dunn, American poet and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

★
★ Lee Harwood, British poet

★
★ James McMichael, American poet

★
★ Stanley Plumly, American poet and academic

★
★ Primus St. John

Deaths

★ January 28 — William Butler Yeats, 73, poet

★ February 18 — Okamoto Kanoko, tanka

★ February 22 — Antonio Machado

★ date not known — Rose Hartwick Thorpe

See also

★ Poetry

★ List of poetry awards

★ List of years in poetry