1838 in poetry

Events

• Jane Johnston Schoolcraft writes the first known poems in the Ojibwe language.
• William Wordsworth granted an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree by Durham University.
• December 13 - Irish-born Australian poet Eliza Hamilton Dunlop's "The Aboriginal Mother" is first published, in The Australian newspaper, between the perpetrators of the Myall Creek massacre being sentenced and hanged.

Works published

United Kingdom">English poetry">United Kingdom

• Elizabeth Barrett, later Elizabeth Barrett Browning, The Seraphim, and Other Poems
• Alexander Bethune, written with John Bethune, Tales and Sketches of the Scottish Peasantry
• Richard Hurrell Froude, died 1836, edited by John Keble and John Henry Newman, Remains of the late Richard Hurrell Froude
• Leigh Hunt Abou Ben Adhem and "Jenny Kissed Me"
• Letitia Elizabeth Landon, died October 15, writing under the pen name "L.E.L.", Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1839
• Monckton Milnes, Memorials of Residence upon the Continent and Poems of Many Years
• Robert Southey, The Poetical Works of Robert Southey, volumes 3-5
• Isaac Williams, The Cathedral; or, The Catholic and Apostolic Church in England
• William Wordsworth's ''The Sonnets of William Wordsworth''

United States">American poetry">United States

• George Moses Horton, Hope of Liberty — Poems by a Slave, a third edition of Hope of Liberty, originally published in 1829 together with poetry by Phillis Wheatley; a second edition was published in Philadelphia in 1837 by an abolitionist group, as was this Boston edition; Horton received no royalties, and likely didn't even know that these editions had been published in the North
• James Russell Lowell, "Class Poem", the author's first published poem, a satire on new ideas and reforms, including Transcendentalism, abolitionism, women's rights and temperance; Lowell later supported many of these ideas and grew to regret writing humorously at their expense
• George Pope Morris, The Deserted Bride and Other Poems, the first of numerous editions; includes the author's most popular poem, "Woodman, Spare That Tree!"
• John Greenleaf Whittier, Poems, expanded edition of the unauthorized work published in 1837

Other

• Emil Aarestrup, Digte, also called Erotiske Situationer ; Denmark
• August Kopisch, Agrumi, volksthümliche Posien aus allen Mundarten Italiens und seiner Inseln, Germany

Births

• January 29 - David Gray, Scottish
• February 5 - Abram Joseph Ryan, American
• February 16 - Henry Adams, American historian and poet
• February 22 - Margaret Elizabeth Sangster, American
• June 13 - Elizabeth Otis Dannelly American Southern poet
• June 26 - Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Bengali
• September 20 - William Reed Huntington, American
• September 21 - Charles Mair, Canadian
• October 8 - John Hay, American statesman and poet
• Date not known - Sarah Elizabeth Carmichael, American

Deaths

• March 12 - Richard Polwhele, Cornish historian and poet
• July 11 - Charles Morris, Anglo Irish army officer and songwriter
• October 15 - Letitia Elizabeth Landon, English
• November 7 - Anne Grant, Scottish poet and author
• November 25 - Margaret Miller Davidson, American, sister to Lucretia Maria Davidson
• December 18 - Annabella Plumptre, English writer and poet