1954 in poetry

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

Events

 * Robert Creeley founds and edits the Black Mountain Review
 * Jack Kerouac reads Dwight Goddard's A Buddhist Bible, which will influence him greatly.
 * January 25 &mdash; Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood is broadcast on radio

Works published in English
Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:

Canada

 * Fred Cogswell, The Stunted Strong.
 * Daryl Hine, Five Poems
 * Irving Layton, In the Midst of My Fever. Palma de Mallorca, Spain: Divers Press.
 * Irving Layton, The Long Pea-Shooter. Montreal: Laocoon Press. "Irving Layton: Publications," Canadian Poetry Online, Web, May 7, 2011.
 * Jay Macpherson, O Earth Return
 * P. K. Page, The Metal and the Flower, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, Canada
 * Raymond Souster, A Dream That Is Dying. Toronto: Contact Press
 * Raymond Souster, Walking Death. Toronto: Contact Press.
 * F.R. Scott, Events and Signals. Toronto: Ryerson Press.
 * A.J.M. Smith, A Sort of Ecstasy; Michigan State College Press / Ryerson Press.

Indian poetry in English

 * Sri Aurobindo:
 * Collected Poems ( Poetry in English ), Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram
 * Savitri ( Poetry in English ), Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram
 * R. de L. Furtado, The Centre, Hamilton, Ontario: Cromlech Press; Indian author published in Canada
 * Nizamat Jung, Poems ( Poetry in English ), edited and published by Zahir Ahmed in Hyderabad
 * Prithwi Singh Nahar, The Wind of Silence ( Poetry in English ), songs, sonnets and other poems; Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram
 * C. Raju, This Modern Age, foreword by Amarnath Jha
 * K. S. R. Sastry, A Vision of India, Madras: Raja Power Press

United Kingdom

 * W.H. Auden, The Shield of Achilles, English poet living in the United States at this time
 * Sir John Betjeman, A Few Late Chrysanthemums
 * Thom Gunn, Fighting Terms, Fantasy Press
 * John Heath-Stubbs, A Charm Against the Toothace
 * Philip Larkin, The Less Deceived
 * Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United Kingdom
 * P. Cruttwell, The Shakespearean Moment, criticism, United Kingdom
 * G. Hartmann, The Unmediated Vision, criticism, United Kingdom
 * W. K. Wimsatt Jr., The Verbal Icon, criticism, United Kingdom
 * Jon Silkin, The Peaceable Kingdom, including "Death of a Son (who died in a mental hospital aged one)"
 * Dylan Thomas, Quite Early One Morning, New Directions Publishers

United States

 * Leonie Adams, Poems
 * W.H. Auden, The Shield of Achilles, English poet living in the United States at this time
 * Louise Bogan, Collected Poems, 1923–1953
 * E. E. Cummings, Poems, 1923–1954
 * Babette Deutsch, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral
 * Anthony Hecht, A Summoning of Stones
 * Daniel G. Hoffman, An Armada of Thirty Wales
 * Robinson Jeffers, Hungerfield and Other Poems
 * Weldon Kees, Poems 1947–1954
 * Archibald MacLeish, Songs for Eve
 * W. S. Merwin, The Dancing Bears, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press (reprinted as part of The First Four Books of Poems, 1975)
 * Edna St. Vincent Millay, Mine the Harvest
 * Marianne Moore, The Fables of La Fontaine
 * Howard Moss, The Toy Fair
 * Kenneth Patchen, The Famous Boating Party
 * May Swenson, Another Animal
 * Wallace Stevens, The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens, includes "The Rock," previously unpublished section including "The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain," "A Quiet Normal Life," "Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour," "The Rock," "The Planet on the Table," and "Not Ideas about the Thing but the Thing Itself"), Knopf
 * E.B. White, The Second Tree from the Corner
 * William Carlos Williams, The Desert Music and Other Poems
 * Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United States
 * Hugh Kenner, Wyndham Lewis: A Critical Guidebook, criticism, United States
 * W. C. Williams, Selected Essays, criticism, United States

Other

 * Martin Carter, Poems of Resistance, Guyana
 * Wilson Harris, Eternity to Season, Guyana
 * Frank Prince, Soldiers Bathing and Other Poems, South African
 * Keith Sinclair, Strangers or Beasts: Poems, New Zealand

Canadian poetry in French

 * Jean-Guy Pilon, Les cloîtres de l'été, Montréal: l'Hexagone

France

 * Louis Aragon, Les Yeux et la memoire
 * Jean Cocteau, Clair–obscur
 * René Daumal, Poésie noire, poésie blanche, posthumously published (died 1944)
 * Jean Follain, Appareil de la terre
 * Jean Grosjean, Fils de l'homme
 * Henri Michaux, Face au verrous

India
In each section, listed in alphabetical order by first name:

Hindi

 * Girija Kumar Mathur, Dhup ke dhan
 * Namvar Singh, Chayavad, literary criticism that offers a radically new interpretation of the romantic movement in Hindi poetry; shows the social foundations of Hindi romanticism and its ties to the progressive movement that followed it
 * Premchand, Sahitya Ka Uddesya, literary essays; published posthumously

Malayalam

 * P. K. Paramesvaran Nair, Adhunika Sahitya Caritram, history of Malayalam literature (later translated into English and published by Sahitya Akademi in 1967 under the title History of Malayalam Literature)
 * P. Kunjiraman Nair, Kaliyacchan, poems reflecting traditional ways of life in Kerala
 * Sreedhara Menon, Kunnimenikal
 * Sukumar Azhikode, Asante Sitakavyam, critical assessment of Kumaran Asan's Cintavishtayaya

Urdu

 * Gian Chand Jain, Urdu ki nasri dastanen, literary criticism on classical Urdu fiction ("dastan"), written in that language
 * Jigar Brelvi, Payam-i Savitri, a narrative poem on Savitri, a figure from Hindu mythology; Urdu
 * Masood Husain Khan, Urdu zaban aur adab, critical study on the Urdu language and literature

Other languages of the Indian subcontinent

 * Baldev Gajra, also known as "Gumnam", Gumnam Sada, nationalist poems; Sindhi
 * Buddhadeb Basu, Sahitya Carca, essays on various literary topics; Bengali
 * Jayant Pathak, Marmar, the author's first poetry collection; Gujarati
 * M. Gopalakrishna Adiga, Cendemaddale, Kannada
 * Mohan Singh, Awazan, lyrics with a "romantic progressive ideology", according to Indian academic Sisir Kumar Das; Punjabi
 * Nand Lal Ambardar, Loel Ta Husun, including "Roopavat", Kashmiri
 * Nirendranath Chakraborty (also transliterated into English as Nirendranath Chakravarti, ), Nilnirjan (also transliterated into English as Nirendranath Chakravarti), mostly love poems, although one or two have political elements, Kolkata: Signet Press; Bengali-language
 * Raghunath Singh Samyal, Dogra Desa Te Dogari Boli, Dogri poetry praising Dograland, Dogra people and the Dogri language
 * Tulasibahadur Chetri, nicknamed "Apatan", Samkalpa ("Resolve"), Nepali
 * Madhunapantula Satyanarayanashastri, also spelled "Madhunapantula Satyanarayana Sastri", Andhra Puranamu, Telugu, (surname: Madhunapantula)
 * Manoj Das, Padadvani, Oriya
 * Satramdas, also known as "Sail", Rama Katha, 32 cantos in a Persian meter, written in the wake of the partition of India in 1947; Sindhi
 * Visvanatha Satyanarayana, Nannayagari prasanna Katha Kalitartha Yukti, critical appraisal of Nannaya; Telugu

Other languages

 * José Santos Chocano, Obras completas, pról. de Luis Alberto Sánchez Madrid, Aguilar, Peruvian poetry published in Spain
 * Haim Gouri, Shirei Hotam ("Poems of the Seal"), Israeli writing in Hebrew
 * Sorley MacLean, Hallaig, Scottish Gaelic (in Gairm 8)
 * Maria Luisa Spaziani, Le acque del sabato, Italy
 * Wisława Szymborska, Pytania zadawane sobie ("Questioning Yourself"), Poland

Awards and honors

 * National Book Award for Poetry: Conrad Aiken, Collected Poems
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Theodore Roethke: The Waking
 * King's Gold Medal for Poetry: Ralph Hodgson
 * Bollingen Prize: W. H. Auden
 * Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Louise Townsend Nicholl and Oliver St. John Gogarty
 * Canada: Governor General's Award, poetry or drama: The Metal and the Flower, P.K. Page

Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * March 26 – Dorothy Porter (died 2008), Australian
 * April 17 – Erin Mouré, Canadian
 * May 25 – Alexei Parshchikov (died 2009), Russian poet, critic and translator who emigrated to the United States in 1991
 * July 19 – Jane Eaton Hamilton, Canadian short story writer, poet and photographer
 * July 31 – Kim Addonizio, American poet and novelist
 * August 6 – Lorna Dee Cervantes, American
 * August 8 – Yu Jian, China
 * August 15 – Mary Jo Salter, American
 * October 15 – Peter Bakowski, Australian
 * November 10 – Joy Goswami, Indian Bengali poet (a man)
 * December 5 – Lynda Hull, American
 * December 20 – Sandra Cisneros, American poet and author


 * Also:
 * Catherine Anderson (poet), American
 * David Baker, American
 * Robert Boates, Canadian
 * Janet Charman, New Zealand
 * Cornelius Eady, African American poet
 * David Hallett, Australian
 * Kevin Hart, Australian
 * Sotiris Kakisis, Greek
 * Jan Heller Levi, American
 * Thylias Moss, African American poet, writer, and playwright
 * Luis J. Rodriguez, American poet, novelist, journalist, critic, and columnist
 * Stephen Sartarelli, poet and translator
 * Vijay Seshadri poet, essayist, and literary critic
 * Deb Westbury, Australian

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * January 1 – Leonard Bacon (poet), 66 (born 1887)
 * March 28 – Francis Brett Young, 73 (born 1884), English novelist and poet
 * May 26 – Maxwell Bodenheim, 62 (born 1892), American poet and novelist known as the "King of Greenwich Village Bohemians"
 * August 3 – Fumiko Nakajo 中城ふみ子, pen name of Noe Fumiko 野江富美子 (born 1922), Japanese tanka poet who died at age 32 after a turbulent life and struggle with breast cancer, as recorded in her poetry (surname: Nakajo)
 * August 18 – Samukawa Sokotsu 寒川鼠骨(born 1875),Haiku poet in Japan of Meiji period.　Masaoka Shiki's pupil.
 * October 22 – Jibananda Das (born 1899), Bengali poet