1918 in poetry

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).

Events

James Joyce in 1918

• January 23 — Robert Graves marries the painter Nancy Nicholson. Wedding guests include Wilfred Owen (who will be killed by the end of the year).
• April — Hu Shih, chief advocate of the revolution in Chinese literature at this time, publishes an essay, "Constructive Literary Revolution - A Literature of National Speech" in New Youth proposing a four-point reform program.
• Poet Basil Bunting is imprisoned as a conscientious objector.

Works published

Canada

• Marie Joussaye, Selections from Anglo-Saxon Songs.^[1]
• Wilson MacDonald, The Song Of The Prairie Land and Other Poems. Albert E.S. Smythe intr., Toronto: McClelland & Stewart.^[2]

India in English

• The Bengali Writers of English Verse: A Record and an Appreciation, Calcutta: Thacker, Spink U Co., 1918.; London: Longmans, Green and Co., 119 pages; anthology; Indian poetry in English, published in the United Kingdom^[3]
• Harindranath Chattopadhyaya, The Feast of Youth, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House; India, Indian poetry in English^[4]
• Baldoon Dhingra, Symphony of Love, Cambridge: Bowes and Bowes; Indian poet, writing in English, published in the United Kingdom^[4]
• Theodore Douglas Dunn, editor, The Bengali Book of English Verse, Bombay: Longmans, Green and Co.; anthology; Indian poetry in English^[3]

United Kingdom

• Laurence Binyon, The New World: Poems^[5]
• Rupert Brooke, The Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke^[5]
• Walter de la Mare, Motley, and Other Poems^[5]
• Baldoon Dhingra, Symphony of Love, Cambridge: Bowes and Bowes; Indian poet, writing in English, published in the United Kingdom^[4]
• Wilfrid Gibson, Whin^[5]
• Oliver St. John Gogarty, The Ship, and Other Poems* Walter de la Mare, Motley, and Other Poems^[5]
• A. P. Herbert, The Bomber Gipsy, and Other Poems^[5]
• Gerard Manley Hopkins, Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, edited and with notes by Robert Bridges, a friend; Hopkins had been unpublished during his lifetime (posthumous)^[5]
• Aldous Huxley, The Defeat of Youth, and Other Poems^[5]
• D. H. Lawrence, New Poems^[5]
• Morley Roberts, War Lyrics^[5]
• Siegfried Sassoon, Counter-Attack and Other Poems^[5] (text)
• Dora Sigerson, The Sad Years and Other Poems^[5]
• Sacheverell Sitwell, The People's Palace^[5]
• J. C. Squire, Poems, First Series^[5]
• Edward Thomas, Last Poems^[5]
• Arthur Waley, editor and translator, One Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (anthology)^[5]
• W. B. Yeats, Nine Poems,^[5] Irish poet published in the United Kingdom

United States

• Conrad Aiken, The Charnel Rose, Senlin: A Biography, and Other Poems^[6]
• Sherwood Anderson, Mid-American Chants^[6]
• Stephen Vincent Benet, Young Adventure^[6]
• John Gould Fletcher, The Tree of Life^[6]
• Amy Lowell, Can Grande's Castle^[6]
• Edgar Lee Masters, Toward the Gulf^[6]
• Charles Reznikoff, Rhythms, his first book of poetry, a small volume, self-published
• Lola Ridge, The Ghetto and Other Poems^[6]
• Carl Sandburg, Cornhuskers, Holt, Rinehart and Winston^[7]
• Wallace Stevens, "Le Monocle de Mon Oncle" is first published (it will later be included in his first poetry book, Harmonium.^[8]

Other in English

• C. J. Dennis, Australia:
  • Digger Smith
  • Backblock Ballads and Later Verses
• W. B. Yeats, Nine Poems,^[5] Irish poet published in the United Kingdom

Works published in other languages

France

• Guillaume Apollinaire, pen name of Wilhelm Apollinaris de Kostrowitzky, Calligrammes, France^[9]
• Jean Cocteau, Le Cap de Bonne Espérance, about the author's experience as a trapeze artist, written in vers brisés^[10]
• Max Jacob, Le Cornet à Dès^[11]
• Oscar Vladislas de Lubicz-Milosz, also known as O. V. de L. Milosz, Adramandoni^[12]
• Pierre Reverdy,
  • Les Ardoises du toit^[12]
  • Les Jockeys camouflés^[12]
• Tristan Tzara, pen name of Sami Rosenstock, Vingt-cinq poèmes^[12]

Spanish language

• Gerardo Diego, El romancero de la novia ("The Bride's Ballads"), Spain^[13]
• Federico García Lorca, Impressiones y paisajes ("Impressions and Landscapes"), Spain
• César Vallejo, Los heraldos negros ("The Black Heralds" ^[14]) the author's first book is "a bitter interpretation of provincial life" which "represented a break with symbolism and had a profound effect upon contemporary poetry in Peru.^[15]

Other languages

• Jacob Anker-Paulsen, Denmark:
  • Europa brænder ("Europe burner")
  • Bade-amour: Erotiske billeder fra Kullen ("Bade-amour: Erotic Images from the Kullen")
• Aleksandr Blok, The Twelve, (Russian: Двенадцать, Dvenadtsat), a controversial long poem, one of the first poetic responses to Russia's 1917 October Revolution
• Deva Kanta Barua, Sagar dekhisa, Indian, Assamese language^[16]
• Aaro Hellaakoski, Nimettömiä lauluja, Finland
• Sir Muhammad Iqbal, Rumuz-e-Bekhudi (The Secrets of Selflessness) published in Persian, his second philosophical poetry book

Births

Richard Aldington in uniform during World War I

Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:

• February 1 – Muriel Spark (dued 2006), Scottish novelist and poet
• February 17 – William Bronk (died 1999), American poet
• April 15 – Louis Coxe, American poet
• April 23 – James Kirkup, English poet, translator and travel writer
• May 10 – Jane Mayhall (died 2009), American poet and novelist.^[17]
• July 9 – John Heath-Stubbs (died 2006), English poet and translator
• August 23 – Vinda Karandikar, also known as C. V. Karandikar, Indian, Marathi-language poet, critic and translator^[16]
• November 16 – Nicholas Moore (died 1986), English poet, associated with the New Apocalyptics in the 1940s, who later dropped out of the literary world
• November 19 – W. S. Graham (died 1986), Scotts poet often associated with Dylan Thomas and the neo-romantic poets
• December 8 – Hans Børli (died 1989), Norwegian poet, novelist and writer
• December 30 – Al Purdy (died 2000), a popular Canadian poet

• Also:
  • M. Gopalakrishna Adiga (died 1992), Indian, Kannada-language poet often said to be the pioneer of the "navya" (modernist) literary movement in Karnataka^[16]
  • Indra Dev Bhojvani, also known as "Indur", Indian, Sindhi-language^[16]
  • Ram Narain Singh Dardi, Indian, Punjabi-language poet who wrote in the Lahndi dialect^[16]
  • Maheswar Neog, Indian, Assamese-language scholar and poet^[16]
  • Shimizu Motoyoshi 清水基吉, Japanese Showa and Heisei period novelist and poet (surname: Shimizu)
  • Siddayya Puranika, Indian, Kannada-language poet^[16]
  • Amritdhari Singha, Indian, Maithili-language writer, philosopher and poet^[16]

Deaths

John McCrae's grave at Wimereux cemetery

Note two subsections, below. Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:

• January 1 – Wilfred Campbell, Canadian poet (b. 1858)
• June 10 – Arrigo Boito, Italian poet, journalist, novelist and composer (b. 1842)
• June 26 – Peter Rosegger, 54, Austrian poet
• October 12 – Mary Hannay Foott (born 1846), Australian

• Also:
  • A. R. Raja Raja Varma (born 1863), Indian, Malayalam-language poet, grammarian, scholar, critic and writer; nephew of Kerala Varma Valia Koyittampuran^[18]
  • Balakavi, pen name of Tryambak Bapuji Thomare (born 1890), Indian, Marathi-language poet; died in a train accident^[16]
  • Edwin John Luce (born 1881), English writer and journalist in Jèrriais, the Norman language of Jersey.
  • Gobinda Rath (born 1848), Indian, Oriya-language poet and satirist^[16]
  • Govind Vasudev Kanitkar (born 1854), Indian, Marathi-language poet and translator^[16]
  • Dora Sigerson (born 1866), Irish poet

Killed in World War I

Sgt. Joyce Kilmer, American poet and a member of the 69th Volunteer Infantry Unit

• January 28 – John McCrae, 35, Canadian poet, author of In Flanders Fields and lieutenant colonel serving as a field surgeon in the war, from pneumonia
• April 1 – Isaac Rosenberg, 28, English war poet; killed in Fampoux in the Somme at dawn (there is a dispute as to whether his death occurred at the hands of a sniper or in close combat); first buried in a mass grave, but in 1926, his remains were identified and reinterred, at Bailleul Road East Cemetery,^[19][20] Plot V, St. Laurent-Blangy, Pas de Calais, France.
• July 30 – Joyce Kilmer (born 1886), American, died in the Second Battle of Marne after volunteering to join Major William "Wild Bill" Donovan's First Battalion to lead the day's attack; while scouting, Kilmer was shot in the head near the village of Seringes, in France; he was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre.
• November 4 – Wilfred Owen (born 1893), English war poet is killed in action at the Sambre-Oise Canal just a week before World War I ends. (See Events)
• See also, Guillaume Apollinaire, below

Killed in the Great Flu Epidemic

• October 21 – E. J. Luce, 37, Jèrriais poet and journalist.^[21]
• November 9 – Guillaume Apollinaire, 38, French language poet, writer, and art critic credited with coining the word surrealism. Two years after being wounded in World War I, and still vulnerable from his injury, he died from influenza during the Great Flu Epidemic.
• December 2 – Edmond Rostand, 50, French poet and dramatist, died from influenza during the Great Flu Epidemic

Awards and honors

• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Sara Teasdale: Love Songs

See also

Poetry portal

• List of years in poetry
• Dada
• Imaginism movement in Russian poetry
• Modernist poetry in English
• Silver Age of Russian Poetry
• Young Poland (Polish: Młoda Polska) modernist period in Polish arts and literature
• Poetry

Notes