1857 in poetry

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

Australia

 * James Lionel Michael, Songs without Music, lyrics.

Canada

 * Charles Heavysege, Saul: A Drama in Three Parts, first edition (second edition, 1869).

United Kingdom

 * Edward Bulwer-Lytton, writing under the pen name "Owen Meredith", The Wanderer
 * Elizabeth Gaskell, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, Smith, Elder & Co., biography
 * Frederick Locker Lampson, London Lyrics (12 re-editions to 1893)
 * Denis MacCarthy, Underglimpses, and Other Poems
 * Theodore Martin, translated from Adam Oehlenschlager, Aladdin; or, The Wonderful Lamp

United States

 * William Allen Butler, Nothing to Wear, published posthumously (first published anonymously in Harper's Weekly); the poem sold well, despite the financial panic; when a woman declared she was the author, the resulting controversy helped sales (see Mortimer Thomson's poem describing the controversy, below)
 * Paul Hamilton Hayne, Sonnets and Other Poems
 * Francis Scott Key, Poems
 * James Lawson, Poems
 * Alexander Beaufort Meek, Songs and Poems of the South
 * Mortimer Thomson, writing under the pen name "Q. K. Philander Doesticks, P. B." (Without the pen name's abbreviations: "Queer Kritter Philander Doesticks, Perfect Brick"), Nothing to Say: A Slight Slap at Mobocratic Snobbery, Which Has "Nothing to Do" with "Nothing to Wear" on the controversy over the authorship of William Allen Butler's poem Nothing to Wear; Thomson was offered a dollar a line for a poem on the subject, submitted an 800-line poem and was paid in full; illustrated by John McLenan; the book sold well
 * Richard Henry Stoddard, Songs of Summer
 * John Greenleaf Whittier:
 * The Sycamores
 * The Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier

France

 * Théodore de Banville, Odes funambulesques, France
 * Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal (Flowers of Evil).

Other

 * Rosalia de Castro, La Flor, Galician Spanish poet, writing in Spanish

Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * April 11, – John Davidson (died 1909), Scottish poet and playwright
 * June 13 – Hubert Newman Wigmore Church (died 1932), Australian
 * September 22 – James Hebblethwaite (died 1921), Australian
 * Also:
 * Jane Barlow (died 1917), Irish poet and novelist
 * Benjamin Franklin King, American poet
 * Moyinkutty Vaidyar (died 1891), Indian, Malayalam-language poet

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * February 9 – Dionysios Solomos Διονύσιος Σολωμός (born 1798), Greek poet best known for the Hymn to Liberty, the first two stanzas  of which became the Greek national anthem
 * March 11 – Manuel José Quintana (born 1772), Spanish
 * April 11 – John Davidson (died 1909), Scottish poet and playwright
 * May 2 – Alfred de Musset (born 1810), French poet and novelist
 * November 26 – Joseph von Eichendorff (born 1788), German poet and novelist
 * June 25 – Isabella Kelly (born 1759), novelist and poet
 * December 13 – Richard Furness (born 1791), British
 * Also:
 * Kaykobad কায়কোবাদ) (also spelt "Kaikobad" and also known as Mohakobi Kaykobad ("Kaykobad the great poet") was the pen name of Kazem Ali Quereshi (died 1951), Bengali poet