1942 in poetry

Events

• March 28 – Spanish poet Miguel Hernández dies of tuberculosis as a political prisoner in a prison hospital having scrawled his last verse on the wall.
• April 3 – French poet Paul Éluard 's poem "Liberté" is first published in the collection Poésie et vérité in Paris. In June it is reprinted by the magazine Fontaine, titled "Une seule pensée", to reach Vichy France. It is published by Éditions de Minuit and printed in London by the official Gaullist magazine La France libre. Thousands of copies are parachuted into Occupied France by aircraft of the British Royal Air Force.
• October – English poet Keith Douglas takes part in the Second Battle of El Alamein.
• December – BIM magazine founded in Barbados.
• American poet George Oppen forces his induction into the U.S. Army.
• Preview, a small literary magazine, is founded in Canada ; it is published by F. R. Scott, A. J. M. Smith, A. M. Klein and P. K. Page, led by English-born poet and travel writer Patrick Anderson.
• First Statement, a mimeographed, small literary magazine, is founded in Canada ; it is published by John Sutherland; Irving Layton and Louis Dudek are also involved.
• French poet André Breton delivers a lecture entitled "Situation du surealisme entre les deux guerres" at Yale University.

  Works published

Canada">Canadian poetry">Canada

• Earle Birney, David and Other Poems, the title piece, David, a long, narrative poem, was one of the most frequently taught poems in Canadian schools for decades Governor General's Award, 1942.
• Arthur Bourinot, Canada at Dieppe.
• Ralph Gustafson ed., Anthology of Canadian Poetry, including work by F. R. Scott, A. M. Klein, A. J. M. Smith, , E. J. Pratt, Finch, Dorothy Livesay, P. K. Page and Earle Birney; Penguin
• Anne Marriott, Salt Marsh, Toronto: Ryerson Press.

  India">Indian poetry">India, in English">Indian poetry in English">in English

• Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems and Plays, in two volumes, Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram
• Raul De Loyola Furtado, also known as Joseph Furtado, Selected Poems, Bombay: published by the author in a limited edition of 100 copies
• P. R. Kaikini, The Snake in the Moon, Bombay: New Book Co.
• Poetry in War Time, London: Faber and Faber; anthology; Indian poetry, published in the United Kingdom
• Manjeri Sundaraman, Penumbra

  United Kingdom">English poetry">United Kingdom

• Walter de la Mare, Collected Poems
• T. S. Eliot, Little Gidding, long poem, last of his Four Quartets, published in The New English Weekly September
• Roy Fuller, The Middle of a War
• W. S. Graham, Cage Without Grievance
• John Heath-Stubbs, Wounded Thammuz
• J. F. Hendry, The Bombed Happiness
• Agnes Grozier Herbertson, This is the Hour: Poems
• Patrick Kavanagh, The Great Hunger
• Sidney Keyes, The Iron Laurel
• Alun Lewis, Raiders' Dawn, and Other Poems, on a soldier's life in the World War II
• Robert Nichols, Such Was My Singing
• Leslie Norris, Tongue of Beauty
• William Plomer, In a Bombed House, 1941: Elegy in Memory of Anthony Butts
• Poetry in Wartime: An Anthology, edited by Tambimuttu, London: Faber and Faber
• John Pudney, Dispersal Point, and Other Air Poems, including "For Johnny"
• Henry Reed, "Naming of Parts", part 1 of his "Lessons of the War" sequence, published in the New Statesman August 8
• Stevie Smith, Mother, What is Man?
• Stephen Spender, Ruins and Visions
• Dorothy Wellesley, Lost Planet, and Other Poems

  United States">American poetry">United States

• Conrad Aiken, Brownstone Eclogues
• Stephen Vincent Benét, They Burned the Books
• John Berryman, Poems
• R. P. Blackmur, The Second World
• John Malcolm Brinnin:
• * The Garden Is Political
• * The Lincoln Lyrics
• Malcolm Cowley, A Dry Season
• Robert Frost, A Witness Tree
• Langston Hughes, Shakespeare in Harlem
• Randall Jarrell, Blood for a Stranger
• Edna St. Vincent Millay, The Murder of Lidice
• Kenneth Patchen, The Teeth of the Lion
• Muriel Rukeyser, Wake Island
• Karl Shapiro:
• * Person, Place and Thing
• * The Place of Love
• Wallace Stevens:
• * Parts of a World, includes "The Poems of Our Climate," "The Well Dressed Man with a Beard," and "Examination of the Hero in a Time of War", Knopf
• *Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction, Cummington Press
• Mark Van Doren, Our Lady Peace
• Margaret Walker, For My People
• Robert Penn Warren, Eleven Poems on the Same Theme
• Edmund Wilson, Notebooks of Night

  Other in English

• Louise Bennett, Dialect Verses, Caribbean

  Works published in other languages

France">French poetry">France

• Louis Aragon, Les Yeux d'Elsa
• René-Guy Cadou:
• * Bruits du coeur
• * Lilas du soir
• Paul Claudel, Cent phrases pour éventails
• Robert Desnos, Fortunes
• Paul Éluard, pen name of Paul-Eugène Grindel:
• * Le livre ouvert
• * Poésie et Vérité
• Pierre Emmanuel, pen name of Noël Mathieu,
• * Cantos
• * Jour de colère
• Léon-Paul Fargue, Refuges
• Jean Follain, Canisy
• Eugène Guillevic, Terraqué
• Loys Masson, Déliverez-nous du mal, war poems
• Alphonse Métérié, Prix Lasserre
• Henri Michaux, Au pays de la magie
• Saint-John Perse, pen name of Alexis Saint-Léger Léger, Exil
• Francis Ponge, Le parti pris des choses, 32 short to medium-length prose poems
• Raymond Queneau, Pierrot mon ami
• Jean Tortel, De mon vivant''

  Indian">Indian poetry">Indian subcontinent

Bengali">Bengali poetry">Bengali

• Birendra Chattopadhyay, Grahacyta
• Dinesh Das, Kabita 1343-48
• Jibanananda Das, Banalata Sen

  Other Indian languages

• Akhtar Ansari Akbarabadi, Abgine, Urdu
• Hari Daryani, Koda, Sindhi-language
• K. S. Narasimha Swami, Mysuru Malige, Indian, Kannada-language, called "the most famous collection of love poems in Kannada"
• N. Gopla Pillai, Sita-Vicara-Lahari, translation into Sanskrit from the Malayalam of Kumaran Asan's poem Cintavistayaya Sita
• Pritam Singh Safir, Pap de Sohle, Indian, Punjabi-language
• Sumitra Kumari Sinha, ' 'Asa Parva' ', Hindi-language

  Other languages

• Chairil Anwar, "Nisan", Indonesian
• D. Gwenallt Jones, Cnoi Cil, Welsh poet published in the United Kingdom
• Erik Lindegren, Manen utan väg, Sweden
• Cesare Pavese, Lavorare stanca, expanded version nearly double the size of the first edition published in 1936; Italy
• César Moro, pen name of César Quíspez Asín, La tortuga ecuestre, Peru
• Saint-John Perse, Exil: poème, Marseilles: Editions Cahiers du Sud; France
• Francis Ponge, Le parti pris des choses, Gallimard; France
• Stella Sierra, Sinfonía jubilosa en doce sonetos, Panama
• Hannah Szenes, "A Walk to Caesarea", Modern Hebrew poetry

  Awards and honors

• Governor General's Award, poetry or drama: David and Other Poems, Earle Birney

  United States">American poetry">United States

• Robert Frost Medal: Edgar Lee Masters
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: William Rose Benét, The Dust Which Is God

  Births

• January 17 - Muhammad Ali, African-American heavyweight boxer and occasional poet
• January 19 - Pat Mora, female Mexican-American author and poet
• February 14 - Rafiq Azad, Bengali poet, editor and academic
• February 20 - Hugo Williams, English poet, journalist and travel writer
• February 23 - Haki R. Madhubuti, African-American poet, author and academic
• March 13 - Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet and prose writer
• March 23 - Ama Ata Aidoo Ghanaian author, poet and playwright
• March 26 - Erica Jong, American author and poet
• April 10 - Stuart Dybek, American poet and author
• April 27 - Sadakazu Fujii 藤井 貞和, Japanese poet and literary scholar
• June 21 - Henry S. Taylor, Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet
• September 19 - David Henderson, American poet associated with the Umbra workshop and Black Arts Movement
• October 5 - Nick Piombino, American poet, essayist and psychotherapist, sometimes associated with Language poets, because of his frequent appearance in the seminal L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E magazine early in his poetic career
• October 11 - William Corbett, American poet, essayist, editor, educator, and publisher
• October 23 - Douglas Dunn, Scottish poet, academic and critic
• November 9 - Karin Kiwus, German poet
• November 11 - William Matthews, American poet and essayist
• November 19 - Sharon Olds, American poet
• November 27 - Marilyn Hacker, American poet, critic and reviewer
• November 28 - Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Irish poet
• December 9 - David Harsent, English poet and crime novelist
• December 16
• * Arthur Nortje, South African poet
• * Peter Seaton, American associated with the Language poets
• Also:
• * Gladys Cardiff, American poet and academic
• * Pat Ingoldsby, Irish television presenter and poet
• * Peter Klappert, American poet
• * Sydney Lea, American poet
• * Charles Martin, American poet, critic and translator
• * Macdara Woods, Irish poet

  Deaths

• January 4 - Joan Vincent Murray, English-born Canadian American poet
• February 2 - Daniil Kharms early Soviet-era surrealist and absurdist poet, writer, dramatist, and founder of Oberiu poetry school, probably of starvation in his Leningrad prison asylum cell
• February 15 - Marie Heiberg, Estonian poet, insane
• March 26 - Carolyn Wells, American novelist and poet
• March 28 - Miguel Hernández, Spanish poet, from tuberculosis in harsh conditions during imprisonment
• April 19 - José María Eguren, Peruvian symbolism poet
• April 24 - Lucy Maud Montgomery, known as "L. M. Montgomery", Canadian poet and author best known for a series of novels beginning with Anne of Green Gables
• c. Early May - Jakob van Hoddis, German-Jewish Expressionist poet, in Sobibór extermination camp
• May 7 - William Baylebridge, pseudonym of Charles William Blocksidge, Australian poet and short story writer
• May 11 - Sakutarō Hagiwara 萩原 朔太郎, Taishō and early Shōwa period Japanese literary critic and free-verse poet called the "father of modern colloquial poetry in Japan"
• May 12 - Shaw Neilson, Australian poet
• May 26 - Libero Bovio, Italian poet in the Neapolitan dialect
• May 29 - Akiko Yosano 与謝野 晶子 pen name of Yosano Shiyo, late Meiji period, Taishō period and early Shōwa period Japanese poet, pioneering feminist, pacifist and social reformer; one of the most famous, and most controversial, post-classical woman poets of Japan
• October 29 - Màrius Torres, Catalan Spanish poet, from tuberculosis
• November 2 - Hakushū Kitahara 北原 白秋, pen name of Kitahara Ryūkichi 北原 隆吉, Taishō and Shōwa period Japanese tanka poet
• November 4 - Clementine Krämer, German poet and short-story writer, in Theresienstadt concentration camp
• December 23 - Konstantin Balmont, Russian Symbolist poet, in Paris