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

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)
• Ursula Bethell, Day and Night : Poems 1924-34, by the author of 'Time and Place, Christchurch: Caxton Press, New Zealand^[1]
• Charles Brasch, The Land and the People, and Other Poems, Christchurch: Caxton Press, New Zealand^[2]
• Allen Curnow, Not in Narrow Seas (Caxton), New Zealand^[3]
• T. S. Eliot:
  • Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
  • "The Marching Song of the Pollicle Dogs" and "Billy M'Caw: The Remarkable Parrot", contributions to The Queen's Book of the Red Cross anthology
• 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 7 — Volker Braun, German
• 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

Yeats' gravestone, with his famous epitaph.

• February 26 — Clark Coolidge, American poet
• August 8 — Dick Allen American poet born in Troy, NY

• date not known:
  • 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
• August 29 — Robin Hyde (born 1906), New Zealand
• date not known — Rose Hartwick Thorpe

See also

Poetry portal

• Poetry
• List of poetry awards
• List of years in poetry

References