1812 in poetry

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

Events

 * January 15 &mdash; Lord Byron takes his seat at Parliament.

United Kingdom

 * Lord Byron:
 * The Curse of Minerva
 * Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Parts I-II, on March 20, with other books published in following years, up to 1818. Fourteen shorter poems also included. The publication of these first two cantos were received with acclamation, and Byron wrote, "I awoke one morning and found myself famous." The poem describes the travels and reflections of a world-weary young man who, disillusioned with a life of pleasure and revelry, looks for distraction in foreign lands; in a wider sense, it is an expression of the melancholy and disillusionment felt by a generation weary of the wars of the post-Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras. The title comes from the term childe, a medieval title for a young man who was a candidate for knighthood.
 * H.F. Cary, translator, Dante, Purgatorio and Paradiso
 * Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Eighteen Hundred and Eleven
 * Bernard Barton, Metrical Effusions' or, Verses on Various Occasions, published anonymously
 * William Combe, The Tour of Dr Syntax, in Search of the Picturesque, published anonymously; first published in monthly segments in 1809; The Second Tour of Doctor Syntax (1820); The Third Tour (1821); inspired various imitations, including The Tour of Doctor Syntax Through London and Doctor Syntax in Paris, both 1820
 * George Crabbe, Tales
 * Mary Elliott, Simple Truths in Verse, published under the author's maiden name, "Mary Belson"; for children
 * Reginald Heber, Poems and Translations
 * Felicia Dorothea Browne, The Domestic Affections, and Other Poems
 * Walter Savage Landor, Count Julian: A tragedy
 * M.G. Lewis, Poems
 * Elizabeth Macauley, Effusions of Fancy
 * Thomas Love Peacock, The Genius of the Thames, Palmyra, and Other Poems (Palmyra, 1806; The Genius of the Thames, 1810)
 * Samuel Rogers, Poems by Samuel Rogers
 * Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Devil's Walk, a broadside ballad on a single sheet
 * Horatio Smith and James Smith, Rejected Addresses; or, The New Theatrum Poetarium, published anonymously; many editions follow, including the 18th in 1833, with a new preface by Horatio Smith; 21st edition in 1847
 * John Wilson, The Isle of Palms, and Other Poems

United States

 * Robert Treat Paine, Jr., The Works, in Verse and Prose, of the Late Robert Treat Paine, Jun. Esq. With Notes. To which are prefixed, sketches of his life, character and writings, contains "Philenia to Menander" by Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton, Boston: Printed and published by J. Belcher; posthumously published, with poems in such genres as political satire, drama criticism, neoclassical verse and spiritual prose, all selected by Charles Prentiss,
 * John Pierpont, The Portrait, a Federalist poem praising George Washington and Alexander Hamilton while denouncing Thomas Jefferson

Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * February 7 – Charles Dickens (died 1870), English novelist, writer, poet and playwright
 * February 28 – Berthold Auerbach (died 1882), German-Jewish poet and novelist
 * March – Iswarchandra Gupta (ঈশ্বরচন্দ্র গুপ্ত) (died 1859) Bengali poet and writer
 * May 2 – Edward Lear (died 1888) English artist, illustrator and writer known for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose, especially his limericks, a form he popularised
 * May 7 – Robert Browning (died 1899), English poet and playwright
 * July 20 – Louisa Anne Meredith (died 1895), Australian
 * Also:
 * Tachibana Akemi, 橘曙覧 (died 1868), Japanese poet and classical scholar (surname: Tachibana)

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * Werner Hans Frederik Abrahamson (born 1744), Danish
 * Joel Barlow, American
 * Isaac Bickerstaffe (born 1733), Irish poet and playwright
 * Duncan Ban MacIntyre (born 1724), Scottish Gaelic poet