1731 in poetry

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.

Events

January 1 - The Gentleman's Magazine is started and edited by Edward Cave in London. Published monthly through September, it will continue into the 20th century.
October 23 - Fire at Ashburnham House in London damages the nationally-owned Cotton library, housed here at this time. The original manuscript of the Old English The Battle of Maldon is destroyed; the unique manuscript of Beowulf is damaged but saved.

Ebenezer Cooke, attributed, The Maryland Muse, a collection, including "The History of Colonel Nathaniel Bacon's Rebellion"
Richard Lewis, Food for Criticks, criticizing fellow American colonists for not respecting and revering the land as the Indians did
John Seccomb, "Father Abbey's Will", popular, humorous verse, written when the author was a student at Harvard, about one of the college's custodians and bed-makers; it prompts a sequel, "A Letter of Courtship", addressed to Father Abbey's widow from a custodian at Yale, an example of the rivalry between the two early schools

Nicholas Amhurst, writing under the pen name "Caleb D'Anvers", A Collection of Poems on Several Occasions
Samuel Boyse, Translations and Poems Written on Several Subjects
Robert Dodsley:
* An Epistle from a Footman in London to the Celebrated Stephen Duck, published anonymously
* A Sketch of the Miseries of Poverty, anonymous
Aaron Hill, Advice to the Poets
Alexander Pope, An Epistle to the Right Honourable Richard Earl of Burlington, also known later as The Epistle "Of Taste" (see also Bramston, The Man of Taste 1733
John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, Poems on Several Occasions. By the R. H. the E. of R., London, posthumous

Death years link to the corresponding " in poetry" article:

January 9 - John Scott, English poet and friend of Samuel Johnson
April 16 - Jacob Bailey, Church of England clergyman and poet born in the United States, immigrated to Nova Scotia, Canada in 1779
Before June 11 - Francis Grose, English antiquary, draughtsman and lexicographer
September 2 - Johann Friedrich von Cronegk, German dramatist, poet and essayist
September 21 - Samuel Bishop, English poet
November 26 - William Cowper, English poet
December 12 - Erasmus Darwin, English physician, natural philosopher, physiologist, inventor and poet
John Freeth, English provincial poet and coffee-house proprietor
Ephraim Kuh, German poet
Approximate date - William Woty, English writer of light verse and law clerk

Birth years link to the corresponding " in poetry" article:

February 3 - Elizabeth Thomas, English poet
February 20 - Frances Norton, Lady Norton, English religious poet and prose writer
March 5 - Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi, Syrian Arabic scholar
April 24 or April 25 - Daniel Defoe, English author, writer, journalist, spy and poet, probably while in hiding from his creditors. He is interred in Bunhill Fields, London, where his grave can still be visited
May 11 - Mary Astell, English feminist writer
June 20 - Ned Ward, English satirical writer and publican
December 26 - Antoine Houdar de la Motte, 59, French poet and author