2010s
- 2014 in poetry
- 2013 in poetry Death of Thomas McEvilley, Taylor Mead, Seamus Heaney
- 2012 in poetry Günter Grass‘s poem “What Must Be Said” leads to him being declared persona non grata
- 2011 in poetry Tomas Tranströmer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature; Liz Lochhead succeeds Edwin Morgan as The Scots Makar
- 2010 in poetry Seamus Heaney‘s Human Chain
2000s
- 2009 in poetry Ruth Padel the first woman elected Oxford Professor of Poetry, only to resign in controversy before taking office; Carol Ann Duffy succeeds Andrew Motion as the UK’s Poet Laureate; Elizabeth Alexander reads “Praise Song for the Day” at presidential inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama; Death of Nicholas Hughes (son of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath)
- 2008 in poetry Death of Harold Pinter,
- 2006 in poetry Seamus Heaney’s District and Circle;
- 2005 in poetry Harold Pinter awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature
- 2004 in poetry Seamus Heaney reads “Beacons of Bealtaine” for 25 leaders of the enlarged European Union; Edwin Morgan named as The Scots Makar;
- 2003 in poetry John Paul II’s Roman Triptych (Meditation); Kenneth Rexroth‘s Complete Poems (posthumous)
- 2001 in poetry Seamus Heaney’s Electric Light; First-ever Griffin Poetry Prize in Canada;
1990s
- 1999 in poetry Andrew Motion succeeds Ted Hughes as the UK’s Poet Laureate;
- 1998 in poetry Ted Hughes’s Birthday Letters; Death of Ted Hughes, Octavio Paz
- 1997 in poetry Death of William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg
- 1996 in poetry Seamus Heaney’s The Spirit Level; Death of Joseph Brodsky
- 1995 in poetry Seamus Heaney awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature; Death of Sir Stephen Spender CBE
- 1994 in poetry Death of Charles Bukowski
- 1993 in poetry Maya Angelou reads “On the Pulse of Morning” at the inauguration of U.S. President Bill Clinton
- 1992 in poetry Derek Walcott awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature;
- 1991 in poetry Death of Dr. Seuss
- 1990 in poetry Octavio Paz awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature; Death of Lawrence Durrell
1980s
- 1989 in poetry Death of Samuel Beckett
- 1987 in poetry Joseph Brodsky awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature; Ezra Pound and Louis Zukofsky, Pound/Zukofsky: Selected Letters of Ezra Pound and Louis Zukofsky, edited by Barry Ahearn (Faber & Faber)
- 1985 in poetry Death of Robert Graves, Philip Larkin
- 1984 in poetry Jaroslav Seifert awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature; Ted Hughes succeeds John Betjeman as the UK’s Poet Laureate (on the refusal of Philip Larkin);
- 1980 in poetry Czesław Miłosz awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature;
1970s
- 1979 in poetry Death of Elizabeth Bishop;
- 1977 in poetry Death of Robert Lowell, Vladimir Nabokov
- 1974 in poetry – Death of Miguel Ángel Asturias, Anne Sexton; Philip Larkin‘s High Windows
- 1973 in poetry – Death of W. H. Auden, Pablo Neruda, J. R. R. Tolkien
- 1972 in poetry – John Betjeman succeeds Cecil Day-Lewis as the UK’s Poet Laureate; Death of Cecil Day-Lewis, Ezra Pound,
- 1971 in poetry Pablo Neruda awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature; Death of Jim Morrison,
1960s
- 1969 in poetry Samuel Beckett awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature; Death of Jack Kerouac, André Salmon
- 1968 in poetry Leonard Cohen, Selected Poems, 1956-1968
- 1967 in poetry Cecil Day-Lewis selected as the UK’s new Poet Laureate (succeeding John Masefield)
- 1966 in poetry Seamus Heaney’s Death of a Naturalist;
- 1965 in poetry Death of T. S. Eliot
- 1964 in poetry John Lennon‘s In His Own Write, containing nonsensical poems, sketches and drawings (a best seller by the member of The Beatles); Something Else Press founded by Dick Higgins in 1963 (publishes concrete poetry by several authors, starting in 1964), Philip Larkin‘s The Whitsun Weddings; Death of Brendan Behan, Dame Edith Sitwell DBE
- 1963 in poetry Bob Dylan’s album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan released (with his most influential early songwriting); Death of Louis MacNeice, Sylvia Plath, Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Tristan Tzara, Jean Cocteau
- 1962 in poetry Death of E. E. Cummings
- 1961 in poetry Allen Ginsberg‘s Kaddish and Other Poems; death of H. D.
- 1960 in poetry Death of Boris Pasternak
1950s
- 1958 in poetry Boris Pasternak awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature; Ezra Pound‘s indictment for treason is dismissed. He is released from St. Elizabeths Hospital, an insane asylum in Maryland, after spending 12 years there (starting in 1946)
- 1957 in poetry Howl obscenity trial in San Francisco, Ted Hughes‘s The Hawk in the Rain;
- 1956 in poetry Allen Ginsberg‘s Howl and Other Poems, a signature of the Beat Generation published by City Lights Books, United States;
- 1955 in poetry Death of Wallace Stevens;
- 1953 in poetry Death of Dylan Thomas
1940s
- 1948 in poetry T. S. Eliot awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature
- 1947 in poetry Cleanth Brooks‘s The Well Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry (a classic statement of the New Criticism);
- 1946 in poetry “On Raglan Road” first published, with the title “Dark Haired Miriam Ran Away”; Ezra Pound brought back to the United States on treason charges, but found unfit to face trial because of insanity and sent to St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C., where he remained for 12 years; Death of Gertrude Stein
- 1945 in poetry Birth of Van Morrison, OBE
- 1943 in poetry Birth of Jim Morrison; T. S. Eliot‘s Four Quartets published as a whole
- 1941 in poetry Death of James Joyce, Birth of Bob Dylan,
- 1940 in poetry Birth of Joseph Brodsky, John Lennon
1930s
- 1939 in poetry Death of W. B. Yeats; Birth of Seamus Heaney
- 1936 in poetry Killing of Federico García Lorca, Death of Rudyard Kipling;
- 1935 in poetry Charles G. D. Roberts knighted for his poetry; 1934 in poetry Birth of Leonard Cohen,
- 1932 in poetry Death of Hart Crane; Birth of, Sylvia Plath
- 1930 in poetry John Masefield succeeds Robert Bridges as the UK’s Poet Laureate; Death of D. H. Lawrence; birth of Harold Pinter, Derek Walcott
1920s
- 1928 in poetry Death of Thomas Hardy
- 1926 in poetry Death of Rainer Maria Rilke, Birth of Allen Ginsberg
- 1923 in poetry W. B. Yeats is the first Irishman awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature; Edna St. Vincent Millay is the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry;
- 1922 in poetry T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land“; Rainer Maria Rilke completes both the Duino Elegies and the Sonnets to Orpheus; Birth of Jack Kerouac
- 1920 in poetry The Dial, a longstanding American literary magazine, is re-established by Scofield Thayer, with the publication becoming an important outlet for Modernist poets and writers (until 1929), with contributors this year including Sherwood Anderson, Djuna Barnes, Kenneth Burke, Hart Crane, E. E. Cummings, Charles Demuth, Kahlil Gibran, Gaston Lachaise, Amy Lowell, Marianne Moore, Ezra Pound, Odilon Redon, Bertrand Russell, Carl Sandburg, Van Wyck Brooks, and W. B. Yeats; Birth of Paul Celan, Charles Bukowski
1910s
- 1918 in poetry Wilfred Owen; Gerard Manley Hopkins‘s Poems published posthumously by Robert Bridges
- 1917 in poetry Birth of Robert Lowell; T. S. Eliot‘s Prufrock and other Observations
- 1916 in poetry The Dada movement in art, poetry and literature coalesced at Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, Switzerland, where Hugo Ball, Emmy Hennings, Tristan Tzara, Hans Arp, Richard Huelsenbeck, Sophie Täuber and others discussed art and put on performances expressing their disgust with World War I and the interests they believed inspired it;
- 1915 in poetry Death of Rupert Brooke
- 1914 in poetry Death of William Burroughs, Octavio Paz, Dylan Thomas
- 1913 in poetry Robert Bridges succeeds Alfred Austin as the UK’s Poet Laureate; The launch of Imagism in the pages of Poetry magazine by H.D., Richard Aldington and Ezra Pound, Robert Frost‘s A Boy’s Will
- 1912 in poetry Adelaide Crapsey creates her couplet form
- 1911 in poetry Adelaide Crapsey creates the American Cinquain form; Birth of Leah Goldberg, Czesław Miłosz
1900s
- 1909 in poetry Birth of Stephen Spender
- 1907 in poetry Rudyard Kipling awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature; Birth of W. H. Auden, Louis MacNeice
- 1906 in poetry Birth of Samuel Beckett
- 1900 in poetry Death of Oscar Wilde