1717 in poetry

Events

• January - Three Hours After Marriage, a play written by Alexander Pope, John Gay and John Arbuthnot, was staged this year. The play satirized poet and critic John Dennis as "Sir Tremendous Longinus the Critic", Lady Winchilsea as "Clinkett the poetess" and Colley Cibber as "Plotwell". The play was met with massive criticism and had a short run, mortifying Pope.

  Works published

• Joseph Addison, John Dryden, Laurence Eusden, Sir Samuel Garth, John Gay, Alexander Pope and Nicholas Rowe, among others, Ovid's Metamorphoses
• John Durant Breval, published anonymously, The Art of Dress
• Susanna Centlivre, published anonymously, An Epistle to the King of Sweden
• John Dennis, Remarks upon Mr Pope's Translation of Homer In this continuation of the long-running feud between the author and Alexander Pope, Dennis' prose critique mixes bad-faith, petty criticisms with some insights that anticipate Matthew Arnold's thoughts on translating Homer into English, and James Russell Lowell's criticism of Pope's use of the heroic couplet. "The Homer which Lintot prints does not talk like Homer but like Pope," Dennis wrote, noting the simplicity of the original and the artificiality of the translation. Included in the same pamphlet were Dennis' criticisms of Windsor Forest and Temple of Fame. Dennis' criticism was published in February, and he in turn was attacked by Parnell in May ; after which Dennis and Pope reconciled, maintaining peace until a new outbreak of their conflict in 1728.
• Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon and others, Poems by the Earl of Roscomon
• Elijah Fenton, Poems on Several Occasions
• Jane Holt, this volume published under the name "Mrs. Holt" and believed to be Jane Holt, A Fairy Tale Inscrib'd, to the Honourable Mrs. W—, with other Poems
• Thomas Parnell, Homer's Battle of the Frogs and Mice. With the Remarks of Zolius. To which is prefixed, the Life of the said Zolius, an attack on John Dennis
• Alexander Pope:
• * Translator, Homer's Iliad, Book III this year, preceded by Book I in 1715, Book II in 1716 and to be followed by Books IV in 1718, and V-VI in 1720.
• * The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, including:
• ** "Eloisa to Abelard"
• ** "Verses to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady"
• Thomas Purney, A Full Enquiry into the True Nature of Pastoral
• Thomas Tickell, published anonymously, An Epistle from a Lady in England; to a Gentleman at Avignon
• Ned Ward
• * British Wonders; or, A Poetical Description of the Several Prodigies That Have Happen'd in Britain Since the Death of Queen Anne, published anonymously
• * A Collection of Historical and State Poems, Satyrs, Songs, and Epigrams

  Births

• c. February 11 - William Williams Pantycelyn, Welsh poet, prose and hymn writer, a leader of the Welsh Methodist revival
• February 14 - Richard Owen Cambridge, English poet
• November 25 - Alexander Sumarokov, Russian poet and playwright
• December 16 - Elizabeth Carter, English Bluestocking poet, classical scholar and translator
• date not known - Molla Panah Vagif, Azerbaijani poet

  Deaths

• July 16 - John Smith, English poet and playwright
• December 13 - Nicholas Noyes, English Colonial American clergyman, one of those presiding over the Salem witch trials, and poet
• William Diaper, English poet
• Jane Holt, née Wiseman, English actress, poet and playwright