1908 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Events
- March - Ezra Pound leaves America for Europe. In April, he moves to Venice, where in July he self-publishes his first collection of poems, A Lume Spento. In August he settles in London, where he will remain until 1920 and in December publish A Quinzaine for this Yule.
- Summer - The Marlowe Society stages a production at the New Theatre, Cambridge, of Milton's masque Comus directed by Rupert Brooke.
- Renée Vivien attempts suicide by overdose of laudanum at the Savoy Hotel in London.
The Poets' Club
- Founding in London of the Poets' Club, a group comprising mainly amateurs who meet monthly for most of the year.
- Late in the year - T. E. Hulme reads to the Poets' Club his paper, A Lecture on Modern Poetry, a concise statement of his influential advocacy of free verse.
Works published in English
Canada">Canadian poetry">Canada
- William Wilfred Campbell, Poetical Tragedies including "Mordred", "Daulac", "Morning" and "Hildebrand"
- William Henry Drummond, The Great Fight: Poems and Sketches. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.
United Kingdom">English poetry">United Kingdom
- Lascelles Abercrombie, Interludes and Poems
- Hilaire Belloc, Cautionary Tales for Children
- William Henry Davies, Nature Poems and Others
- Edmund Gosse, The Autumn Garden
- Thomas Hardy, The Dynasts: Part 3
- Minnie Louise Haskins, The Desert, including the poem The Gate of the Year
- Edith Nesbit, Ballads and Lyrics of Socialism
- Stephen Phillips, New Poems
- Ezra Pound, A Quinzaine for this Yule, American poet published in the United Kingdom
- Katharine Tynan, Experiences, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
- William Butler Yeats, The Collected Works in Verse and Prose, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
United States">American poetry">United States
- William Stanley Braithwaite, The House of Falling Leaves with Other Poems
- Ezra Pound, American poet published in the United Kingdom and Italy:
- * A Lume Spento, Pound's first poetry collection published at his own expense in Venice
- * A Quinzaine for this Yule, London
- George Sterling, ''A Wine of Wizardry and Other Poems''
Other in English
- John Le Gay Brereton, Sea and Sky, Australia
- Katharine Tynan, Experiences, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
- Albert D. Watson, The Wing of the Wild-Bird
- William Butler Yeats, The Collected Works in Verse and Prose, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
Works published in other languages
French language
France">French poetry">France
- Francis Jammes:
- * Poèmes mesurés
- * Rayons de miel, Paris: Bibliothèque de l'Occident
- Valery Larbaud, ''Les Poésies de A. O. Barnabooth''
Canada">Canadian poetry">Canada, in French
- Louis-Joseph Doucet, La Chanson du Passant, French language, Canada
- Albert Ferland, Le Canada Chante, French language, Canada
Other
- C. Subrahamania Bharati, Cutecakitankal, Indian, Tamil-language
- José Santos Chocano, Fiat Lux, Peru
- Louis-Joseph Doucet, Chanson du passant; French language;, Canada
- Albert Ferland, Le Canada chanté, in four volumes, published from this year to 1910, French language, Canada
- Kahlil Gibran, Al-Arwah al-Mutamarrida, Lebanese-born Arabic poet in the United States
- Maria Konopnicka, Rota, Polish
Awards and honors
- Newdigate Prize - Julian Huxley, "Holyrood"
- Gaisford Prize for Greek Verse Composition - Ronald Knox
Births
Death years link to the corresponding " in poetry" article:- February 4 - Julian Bell, English poet, and a member of a family whose notable members include his parents, Clive and Vanessa Bell; his aunt, Virginia Woolf; his younger brother, writer Quentin Bell; and writer and painter Angelica Garnett, his half-sister
- March 8 - Ebrahim Al-Arrayedh, Indian-born Bahraini poet
- April 2 - Ronald McCuaig, Australian poet and writer
- April 15 - Denis Devlin, Irish modernist poet and career diplomat
- April 24 - George Oppen, American poet, winner of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize in poetry
- May 25 - Theodore Roethke, American poet
- June 14 - Kathleen Jessie Raine, English poet, critic and scholar
- August 19 - Josephine Jacobsen, American poet, short story writer and critic
- September 9 - Cesare Pavese, Italian poet, novelist, literary critic and translator
- October 9 - Harry Hooton, Australian poet and anarchist
- October 12 - Paul Engle, American poet, writer, editor and novelist
- November 28 - Mary Oppen, American activist, artist, photographer and writer
- November 30
- * Buddhadeb Bosu, Bengali poet
- * Eric Irvin, Australian
Deaths
- January 15 - James Ryder Randall, American journalist and poet
- January 16 - Edmund Clarence Stedman, American poet, critic, essayist, banker and scientist
- February 22 - Eliza A. Pittsinger, American, "The California Poetess"
- May 23 - François Coppée, French writer, le poète des humbles
- May 27 - Alexander Posey, Native American poet, humorist, journalist and politician
- June 23 - Kunikida Doppo 國木田 獨歩, Japanese Meiji period romantic poet and one of the novelists who pioneered naturalism in Japan
- September 21 - Ernest Fenollosa, American orientalist
- October 21 - Charles Eliot Norton, American scholar and man of letters