1908 In Poetry

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

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'' (dedicated to his friend Philadelphia artist William Brooke Smith, who has just died of tuberculosis). 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 (England), 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 comprised mainly amateurs which met 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

* William Wilfred Campbell, ''Poetical Tragedies'' including "Mordred", "Daulac", "Morning" and "Hildebrand"Garvin, John William, editor
''Canadian Poets''
(anthology), published by McClelland, Goodchild & Stewart, 1916, retrieved via Google Books, June 5, 2009
* William Henry Drummond, ''The Great Fight: Poems and Sketches.'' New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.Mary Jane Edwards,
Drummond, William Henry
" Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, Web, Apr. 15, 2011.

United Kingdom

* Lascelles Abercrombie, ''Interludes and Poems''Cox, Michael, editor, ''The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature'', Oxford University Press, 2004,
* 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 KingdomAckroyd, Peter, ''Ezra Pound'', Thames and Hudson Ltd., London, 1980, "Bibliography" chapter, p 121
* 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 KingdomMac Liammoir, Michael, and Eavan Boland, ''W. B. Yeats'', Thames and Hudson (part of the "Thames and Hudson Literary Lives" series), London, 1971, p. 82

United States

* William Stanley Braithwaite, ''The House of Falling Leaves with Other Poems''Ludwig, Richard M., and Clifford A. Nault, Jr., ''Annals of American Literature: 1602–1983'', 1986, New York: Oxford University Press ("If the title page is one year later than the copyright date, we used the latter since publishers frequently postdate books published near the end of the calendar year." — from the Preface, p vi)
* Ezra Pound, American poet published in the United Kingdom and Italy:
** '' A Lume Spento'', Pound's first poetry collection (the title translates as "a dim light") published at his own expense in Venice
** ''A Quinzaine for this Yule'', London

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

* Francis Jammes:
** ''Poèmes mesurés''Web page title
"POET Francis Jammes (1868 - 1938)"
at The Poetry Foundation website, retrieved August 30, 2009. 2009-09-03.
** ''Rayons de miel'', Paris: Bibliothèque de l'Occident
* Valery Larbaud, ''Les Poésies de A. O. Barnabooth''Auster, Paul, editor, ''The Random House Book of Twentieth-Century French Poetry: with Translations by American and British Poets'', New York: Random House, 1982

Canada, in French

* Louis-Joseph Doucet, ''La Chanson du Passant'', French language, Canada
* Albert Ferland, ''Le Canada Chante'', French language, Canada"French-Canadian Literature", article, in Chisholm, Hugh, editor, ''The Britannica Year Book 1913'', London and New York, retrieved via Google Books, June 28, 2009

Other

* C. Subrahamania Bharati, ''Cutecakitankal'', Indian, Tamil-languageDas, Sisir Kumar, "A Chronology of Literary Events / 1911–1956", in Das, Sisir Kumar and various
''History of Indian Literature: 1911-1956: struggle for freedom: triumph and tragedy, Volume 2''
1995, published by Sahitya Akademi, , retrieved via Google Books on December 23, 2008
* José Santos Chocano, ''Fiat Lux'', PeruWeb page title
"José Santos Chocano"
at the Jaume University website, retrieved August 29, 2011
* Louis-Joseph Doucet, ''Chanson du passant''; French language;, CanadaStory, Noah, ''The Oxford Companion to Canadian History and Literature'', "Poetry in French" article, pp 651-654, Oxford University Press, 1967
* Albert Ferland, ''Le Canada chanté'', in four volumes, published from this year to 1910, French language, Canada
* Kahlil Gibran, ''Al-Arwah al-Mutamarrida'' ("Rebellious Spirits"), Lebanese-born Arabic poet in the United States
* Maria Konopnicka, '' Rota'' ("Oath"), Polish

Awards and honors

* Newdigate Prize (University of Oxford) – Julian Huxley, "Holyrood"
* Gaisford Prize for Greek Verse Composition (University of Oxford) – Ronald Knox

Births

Death years link to the corresponding "earin poetry" article:
* February 4 – Julian Bell (killed 1937), 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 (إبراهيم العريّض) (died 2002), Indian-born Bahraini poet
* April 2 – Ronald McCuaig (died 1993), Australian poet and writer
* April 15 – Denis Devlin (died 1959), Irish modernist poet and career diplomat
* April 24 – George Oppen (died 1984), American poet, winner of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize in poetry
* May 25 – Theodore Roethke (died 1963), American poet
* June 14 – Kathleen Jessie Raine (died 2003), English poet, critic and scholar
* August 19 – Josephine Jacobsen (died 2003), American poet, short story writer and critic
* September 9 – Cesare Pavese (died 1950), Italian poet, novelist, literary critic and translator
* October 9 – Harry Hooton (died 1961), Australian poet and anarchist
* October 12 – Paul Engle (died 1991), American poet, writer, editor and novelist
* November 28 – Mary Oppen (died 1990), American activist, artist, photographer and writer
* November 30
** Buddhadeb Bosu (died 1974), Bengali poet
** Eric Irvin (died 1992), Australian

Deaths

* January 15 – James Ryder Randall (born 1839), American journalist and poet
* January 16 – Edmund Clarence Stedman (born 1833), American poet, critic, essayist, banker and scientist
* February 22 – Eliza A. Pittsinger (died 1837), American, "The California Poetess"
* May 23 – François Coppée (born 1842), French writer, ''le poète des humbles''
* May 27 – Alexander Posey (born 1873), Native American poet, humorist, journalist and politician
* June 23 – Kunikida Doppo 國木田 獨歩 (born 1871), Japanese Meiji period romantic poet and one of the novelists who pioneered naturalism in Japan
* September 21 – Ernest Fenollosa (born 1853), American orientalist
* October 21 – Charles Eliot Norton (born 1827), American scholar and man of letters

See also

* 20th century in poetry
* 20th century in literature
* List of years in poetry
* List of years in literature
* French literature of the 20th century
* Silver Age of Russian Poetry
* Young Poland (''Młoda Polska'') a modernist period in Polish arts and literature, roughly from 1890 to 1918
* Poetry

Notes

{{Lists of poets

Poetry
20th-century poetry
*