1920 in poetry

Events

• May - Irish poet W. B. Yeats concludes a lecture tour in the United States and crosses the Atlantic to settle in Oxford.
• December - The Poems of English war poet Wilfred Owen are published posthumously in London with an introduction by his friend Siegfried Sassoon; only five of Owen's verses had been published during his lifetime, thus his work is introduced to many readers for the first time, including the 1917 poems "Anthem for Doomed Youth" and "Dulce et Decorum est"; the latter 28-line poem's horrifying imagery makes it one of the best-known condemnations of war ever written.
• Ezra Pound moves from London to Paris where he moves among a circle of artists, musicians and writers who are revolutionising modern art.The Dial, a longstanding American literary magazine, is re-established by Scofield Thayer; the publication becomes an important outlet for Modernist poets and writers, 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.
• First issue of the anthology of Scottish poetry, Northern Notes, edited by Christopher Murray Grieve.
• Russian poet Nikolay Gumilyov co-founds the "All-Russia Union of Writers" in the Soviet Union, where he makes no secret of his anti-Communist views, crosses himself in public, and doesn't care to hide his contempt for half-literate Bolsheviks. His fate changes in 1921.

Works published in English

United Kingdom">English poetry">United Kingdom

• Maurice Baring, Poems 1914–1919
• Edmund Blunden, The Waggoner and Other Poems
• Robert Bridges, October, and Other PoemsCambridge Poets 1914-1920, anthology edited by Edward Davison
• W. H. Davies, The Song of Life, and Other Poems
• Walter de la Mare, Poems 1901 to 1918
• T. S. Eliot:
• * Poems, including Gerontion and Sweeney Among the Nightingales
• * The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism
• Robert Graves, Country Sentiment
• Aldous Huxley, LedaIndia in Song: Eastern Themes in English Verse by British and Indian Poets, an anthology of Indian poetry in English published in the UK
• John Masefield, Enslaved, and Other Poems
• Hope Mirrlees, Paris: A Poem
• Harold Monro, Some Contemporary Poets , criticism
• Wilfred Owen, Poems, introduction by Siegfried Sassoon
• Ruth Pitter, First Poems
• Ezra Pound, American poet published in the United Kingdom:
• * Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, London
• * Umbra, London
• Nina Salaman, The Voices of the Rivers
• Siegfried Sassoon, Picture Show
• Edward Thomas, Collected Poems, foreword by Walter de la Mare
• Iris Tree, PoemsValour and Vision: Poems of the War, 1914-1918, anthology edited by Jacqueline T. Trotter
• Charles Williams, Divorce
• Humbert Wolfe:
• * London Sonnets
• * Shylock Reasons with Mr. Chesterton, and Other Poems
• W. B. Yeats, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom, "The Second Coming" first published in The Dial magazine for November

United States">American poetry">United States

• Stephen Vincent Benét, Heavens and Earth
• Witter Bynner, A Canticle of Pan
• Hart Crane, "My Grandmother's Love Letters" in The Dial, his first real step towards recognition as a poet
• W.E.B. Du Bois, Darkwater
• Robert Frost, Miscellaneous Poems
• William Ellery Leonard, The Lynching Bee
• Edgar Lee Masters, Domesday Book
• Edna St. Vincent Millay, A Few Figs From Thistles
• Ezra Pound, American poet published in the United Kingdom:
• * Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, London
• * Umbra, London
• Lizette Woodworth Reese, Spicewood
• Charles Reznikoff, Poems published by the New York Poetry Book Shop; the book features poems from Reznikoff's Rhythms and Rhythms II

• Lola Ridge, Sun-Up, including "Betty"
• Edward Arlington Robinson:
• * Lancelot
• * The Three Taverns
• Carl Sandburg, Smoke and Steel
• Sara Teasdale, Flame and Shadow, including" There Will Come Soft Rains"
• Galway Wescott, The Bitterns
• William Carlos Williams, ''Kora in Hell. Improvisations''

Other in English

• Yone Noguchi, Japanese Hokkus, Japanese poet writing in English
• Maneck B. Pithawalla, Sacred Sparks, Karachi: M. B. Pithawalla
• Tom Redcam, San Gloria, verse play, Jamaica
• W. B. Yeats, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom, The Second Coming first published in the November issue of The Dial magazine

Works published in other languages

France">French poetry">France

• Louis Aragon, Feu de joie
• Natalie Clifford Barney, American resident and published in France, Poems & Poemes: Autres Alliances
• Jean Cocteau, Poésies 1917–1920
• Philippe Soupault, Rose des vents
• Tristan Tzara, pen name of Sami Rosenstock, Cinéma calendrier coeur abstrait maisons
• Charles Vildrac, ''Chants du désespéré''

Indian">Indian poetry">Indian subcontinent

[Telugu poetry]

• Garimella Satyanarayana, Makoddi tella doratanamu, a Telugu-language song famously used by Indians marching for freedom; the very militant lyric was banned for a time by the colonial government, which arrested the poet
• Rami Reddi also known as "Duvvuri":
• * Jaladangana, celebrates farming season and the beauty of nature in the rural countryside, Indian, Telugu-language
• * Venakumari, Telugu-language pastoral poems depicting the struggles of peasants

Other Indian languages

• Ananda Chandra Agarwala, Jilikani, Assamese-language poem reflecting ancient Assamese ballads
• Bhaskar Ramchandra Tambe, Tambe Yanci Kavita, Marathi-language poems; edited by V. G. Mayadev
• Chanda Jha, Mahes Vani Sanghra, Maithili-language devotional songs addressed to Lord Siva
• Dharanidhar Sharma Koirala, Naibedya, Nepali-language poetry, didactic poems popular in Darjeeling
• Lala Kirpa Sagar, Laksmi Devi, Punjabi-language, long, narrative epic poem modeled on Sir Walter Scott's The Lady of the Lake; depicts Maharaja Ranjit Singh's battles with Jaimal Singh, a hill chieftain
• Pt. Ram Naresh Tripathi, Pathik, very popular Hindi-language Khanda Kavya which went into 30 editions; patriotic and expressing love of the rural countryside; strongly influenced by Gandhi's thought
• Surendra Jha 'Suman', also known as "Suman", Candi Carya, adaptation of Durgasaptasati in verse, Maithili-language
• Vaijanath Kashinath Rajwade, Kesavasutanci Kavita, Marathi-language article offering the first thematic classification and detailed analysis of Keshavsut's poems, criticism published in the monthly Manoranjan in July, September, October and November

Spanish language

• Enrique Bustamante y Ballivián, Poemas autóctonos, Peru
• León Felipe, Veersos y oraciones del caminante, first volume, Spain
• Alfonsina Storni, Langour, Argentina
• Miguel de Unamuno, El Christo de Velázquez, Spain

Other languages

• Piaras Béaslaí, "Bealtaine 1916" agus Dánta Eile, Ireland
• António Botto, Canções do Sul, Portugal
• Ernst Enno, Valge öö, Estonia
• Kahlil Gibran, Al-'Awāsif and Spirits Rebellious, Lebanese-born Arabic poet in the United States
• Vladislav Khodasevich, The Way of Corn, Russia
• Tom Kristensen, Pirate Dreams, Denmark
• Jan Lechon, The Scarlet Poem, Poland
• Boleslaw Lesmian, The Meadow, Poland
• Eugenio Montale, Ossi di seppia, ItalyLes Poètes contre la guerre, France
• Anton Schnack, Tier rang gewaltig mit Tier, Germany
• Edith Sodergran, The Shadow of the Future, Sweden
• Georg Trakl, Der Herbst des Einsamen, Austrian native published in Germany
• Pavlo Tychyna, Instead of Sonnets or Octaves, Ukraine
• Tin Ujević, Lelek sebra, Croatian
• Henrik Visnapuu, Talihari, Hõbedased kuljused and Käoorvik, Estonia

Births

• January 24 – Keith Douglas, English poet
• February 21 – Ishigaki Rin 石垣りん, Japanese poet; she was an employee of the Industrial Bank of Japan, sometimes called "the bank teller poet"
• February 23 – David Wright, South African-born English poet
• February 29 – Howard Nemerov, American poet, United States Poet Laureate from 1963 to 1964 and from 1988 to 1990
• March 5 – Madhunapantula Satyanarayana Sastry, Indian, Telugu-language poet
• March 11 – D. J. Enright, English academic, poet, novelist and critic
• March 24 – Balachandra Rajan, Indian critic, novelist and writer of Indian poetry in English
• April 27 – Edwin Morgan, Scottish poet and translator
• June 13 – Ruth Guimarães, Afro-Brazilian classicist, fiction writer and poet
• June 15 – Amy Clampitt, American poet and author
• June 18 – Rosemary Dobson, Australian poet
• July 18 – Zheng Min, Chinese poet
• August 16 – Charles Bukowski, American poet, novelist and short-story writer
• August 18 – Harbhajan Singh, Indian, Punjabi poet in the Sahajvadi tradition, also a critic, cultural commentator and translator
• September 6 – Barbara Guest née Barbara Ann Pinson, American poet and critic
• September 18 – Doris Mühringer, Austrian poet, short-story writer and children's writer
• October 24 – Robert Greacen, Irish poet
• November 3 – Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Australian poet, actress, writer, teacher, artist and campaigner for Aboriginal causes
• November 23 – Paul Celan, German-language poet born to a German-speaking Jewish family in a place at this time part of Romania
• November 28 – Alexander Scott, Scottish poet and literary scholar
• Also:
• * V. A. Anandakkuttan, Indian, Malayalam-language poet and author of humorous essays and farces
• * Bernardino Evaristo Mendes, also known as B. E. Mendes, Indian, Konkani-language poet known for philosophical and theosophical writing
• * Birendra Chattopadhyay, Bengali-language poet and Marxist
• * Jayant Pathak, Indian, Gujarati-language poet and critic
• * K. B. Nikumb, Indian, Marathi-language poet
• * Manmohan Misra, Indian poet and essayist in Orissa
• * Natvarlal Kuberdas Pandya, Indian, Gujarati-language poet and critic
• * Okiyuma Gwaynn, Indian poet writing Indian poetry in English and then in Nepali; born in Hong Kong to a Japanese father and Tibetan mother, he settles in Darjeeling in 1946
• * Ram Lal Papiha, Indian, Dogri-language poet
• * Rentala Gopalakrishna, Indian, Telugu-language poet and playwright
• * Santokh Singh Dheer, Indian, Punjabi poet and fiction writer in the largely romantic and progressive-in-outlook Amrita-Mohan Singh tradition of Punjabi
• * Tulasibahadur Chetri, nicknamed "Apatan", Indian, Nepali-language poet and playwright

Deaths

• February 7 – Dollie Radford, 61, English poet and writer
• February 8 – Richard Dehmel, 56, German poet
• February 19 – Ernest Hartley Coleridge, English scholar and poet, grandson of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• May 11 – William Dean Howells, 83, American literary critic, author and poet
• June 5 – Julia A. Moore, the "Sweet Singer of Michigan", 72, American poetaster, famed for her notoriously bad poetry
• July 3 – Charles E. Carryl, 78, American children's poet
• September 16 – Dan Andersson, 32, Swedish poet, accidentally poisoned
• October 25 – Terence MacSwiney, 41, Irish playwright, poet and politician, hunger strike
• November 2 – Louise Imogen Guiney, 59, American-born poet
• November 18 – Matthías Jochumsson, 85, Icelandic lyric poet, playwright, translator and pastor
• December 21 – Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, 56, Somali poet, religious and nationalist leader who for 20 years led armed resistance to the British, Italian, and Ethiopian forces in Somalia and used his patriotic poetry to rally his supporters
• December 24 – Matilda Maranda Crawford, 76, American-Canadian poet, writer, correspondent
• Also:
• * Devendranath Sen, Indian, Bengali-language poet
• * Divakarla Tirupti Shastri, Indian, Telugu-language poet; one of the two poets known in Telugu literature as "Triupati Vankata Kavulu"
• * Eknath Pandurang Randalkar, Indian, Marathi-language poet and translator from Sanskrit, English, Bengali and Gujarati poetry
• * Jammuneshwar Khataniyar, Indian, Assamese-language poet; a woman
• * Mian Hidayatulla, Indian, Punjabi-language poet
• * Nagesh Vishwanath Pai, also spelled "Nagesh Vishvanath Pai", Indian, Marathi-language poet and fiction writer
• * Vishvanatha Dev Varma, Indian, Sanskrit-language poet