1759 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Events
- August 12 — Battle of Kunersdorf : German poet Major Ewald Christian von Kleist is fatally injured.
- September 12 — Just before the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, in the Seven Years' War, British General James Wolfe is said to have recited Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard to his officers, adding, "Gentlemen, I would rather have written that poem than take Quebec tomorrow".
- Christopher Smart, confined to St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics in London, begins to write Jubilate Agno.
- Johann Ernst Immanuel Walch becomes professor of rhetoric and poetry at the University of Jena.
Works published
- Samuel Butler, The Genuine Remains in Verse and Prose, posthumous
- Edward Capell, editor, Prolusions; or, Select Pieces of Antient Poetry, published anonymously this year, although the book states 1760
- John Gilbert Cooper, translator, Ver-Vert; or, The Nunnery Parrot, published anonymously, translated from the French of Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset's mock epic Ver-Vert 1733
- Frances Greville, "Prayer for Indifference", published in the Edinburgh Chronicle
- Mary Latter, The Miscellaneous Works
- William Mason, Caractacus
- Augustus Toplady, Poems on Sacred Subjects, published anonymously in the author's 18th birthday year
- Francis Williams, "Ode to Governor Haldane", the first known published poem by a Jamaican black
- Edward Young, ''Conjectures on Original Composition''
Births
Death years link to the corresponding " in poetry" article:- January 25 - Robert Burns, also known as "Rabbie Burns", "Scotland's favourite son", "the Ploughman Poet", "the Bard of Ayrshire" and, in Scotland, simply "The Bard", Scottish poet and lyricist, called the national poet of Scotland
- March 26 - John Mayne, Scottish poet, journalist and printer
- November 10 - Friedrich Schiller, German poet and dramatist
- date not known:
- *A. Flowerdew, English poet and hymnist
- *Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton, American
Deaths
Death years link to the corresponding " in poetry" article:- June 12 - William Collins, 37, English poet
- August 24 - Ewald Christian von Kleist, German poet
- November 2 - Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, Welsh diplomat and satiric poet
- Approximate year
- * Martha Wadsworth Brewster, American poet
- * Mary Masters, English poet