1962 in poetry

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

Events

 * Writers in the Soviet Union this year were allowed to publish criticism of Joseph Stalin and were given more freedom generally, although many were severely criticized for doing so. The poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, in the poem, The Heirs of Stalin, wrote that more guards should be placed at Stalin's tomb, "lest Stalin rise again, and with Stalin the past". He also condemns anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union. His poetry readings attracted hundreds and thousands of enthusiastic young people, to the point where police were often summoned to preserve order and disperse the crowds long after midnight. Other young poets also went beyond the previous limits of Soviet censorship: Andrei Voznesensky, Robert Rozhdestvensky, and Bella Akhmadulina (who had divorced Yevtushenko). Alexander Tvardovsky, editor of the literary monthly New World, supported many of the young writers. By the end of the year, the young writers had gained power in the official writers' unions which controlled much of the literary culture of the Soviet Union, and some publications which had attacked them were printing their work.
 * American poet Robert Frost visits Russian poet Anna Akhmatova in her dacha
 * Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath separate
 * Michigan Quarterly Review is founded.
 * October &mdash; Dame Edith Sitwell read from her poetry at a concert at Royal Festival Hall in London given in honor of her 75th birthday.
 * Composer Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, included settings for Wilfred Owen's poems

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

 * Earle Birney, Ice Cod Bell or Stone. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.
 * Wilson MacDonald, *Pugwash. Toronto: Pine Tree Publishing.
 * John Newlove, The Things which Are
 * Alfred Purdy, Poems for All the Annettes
 * James Reaney, Twelve Letters to a Small Town. Governor General's Award 1962.
 * A. J. M. Smith, Collected Poems
 * F.R. Scott, St-Denys Garneau & Anne Hebert: Translations/Traductions. Translated by F. R. Scott. Vancouver: Klanak Press.
 * Raymond Souster, A Local Pride. Toronto: Contact Press.
 * Raymond Souster, Place of Meeting
 * Wilfred Watson, The Sea is Also a Garden

Anthologies

 * Irving Layton, editor, Love Where the Nights Are Long
 * Editors of the Tamarack Review, a selection from its past issues, The First Five Years, including poetry
 * Biography, criticism and scholarship
 * John Glassco, The Journal of Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau (translation)
 * Canadian critics and poets, Masks of Poetry

Indian poetry in English

 * Adil Jussawalla, Landâ€™s End ( Poetry in English ), Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India.
 * Lawrence Bantleman, Graffiti ( Poetry in English ), Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India.
 * M. P. Bhaskaran, The Dancer and the Ring ( Poetry in English ), Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India.

United Kingdom

 * Dannie Abse, Poems, Golders Green, including "The Abandoned", London: Hutchinson
 * George Barker, The View From a Blind I
 * Edmund Blunden, A Hong Kong House
 * Ronald Bottrall, Collected Poems
 * Tony Connor, With Love Somehow, London: Oxford University Press
 * Patrick Creagh, A Row of Pharaohs
 * Allen Curnow, A Small Room with Large Windows (Oxford University Press), selected poems by this New Zealand poet published in the United Kingdom
 * C. Day Lewis, The Gate, including "Not Proven" and "The Disabused"
 * T.S. Eliot, Collected Poems 1909–1962
 * D.J. Enright, Addictions, London: Chatto and Windus with Hogarth Press
 * Roy Fuller, Collected Poems 1936-1961, London: AndrÃ© Deutsch
 * Robert Graves, New Poems 1962
 * Thom Gunn, Fighting Terms, a revision of a collection from the 1950s including "My Sad Captains"
 * Thom Gunn and Ted Hughes, Selected poems by Thom Gunn and Ted Hughes, Faber
 * Richard Kell, Control Tower
 * Thomas Kinsella, Downstream, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
 * Peter Levi, Water, Rock and Sand
 * Norman MacCaig, A Round of Applause, London: Chatto and Windus with Hogarth Press
 * Christopher Middleton, Torse 3
 * Vernon Scannell, A Sense of Danger
 * Dame Edith Sitwell, The Outcasts
 * Stevie Smith, Selected Poems
 * Jon Stallworthy, Out of Bounds
 * R. S. Thomas, The Bread of Truth
 * Anthony Thwaite, The Owl in the Tree
 * J. R. R. Tolkien, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and Other Verses from the 'Red Book'
 * Charles Tomlinson, A Peopled Landscape
 * Derek Walcott, In a Green Night the "most striking" first collection of poetry of 1962, according to Howard Sergeant, editor of Outposts (writing for publication in 1963). Walcott had already gained recognition with his plays.
 * Vernon Watkins, Affinities
 * Anthologies
 * Al Alvarez, editor, The New Poetry an anthology that provoked controversy with its omissions and inclusions
 * James Reeves, editor, Georgian Poetry

United States

 * Brother Antoninus, The Hazards of Holiness, 1957-1960
 * John Ashbery, The Tennis Court Oath
 * Robert Bly, Silence in the Snowy Fields, Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press
 * Kay Boyle, Collected Poems
 * Gregory Corso, Long Live Man
 * Robert Creeley, For Love: Poems 1950-1960, collected lyrics from his seven previous volumes, New York: Scribner's
 * James Dickey, Drowning With Others
 * William Everson (also known as Brother Antoninus, The Hazards of Holiness, Garden City, New York: Doubleday
 * William Faulkner, Prose and Poetry, fiction, nonfiction, verse
 * Ian Hamilton Finlay, The Dancers Inherit the Party, Ventura California an dWorcester, England: Migrant Press* Robert Creeley, For Love: Poems 1950-1960, New York: Scribner's British poet
 * Robert Frost, In the Clearing, his first collection of new poems in 15 years
 * Paul Goodman, The Lordly Hudson: Collected Poems, New York: Macmillan
 * Robert Hayden, A Ballad of Remembrance
 * John Hollander, Movie-Going and Other Poems
 * Richard Howard, Quantities
 * Weldon Kees, Collected Poems, published posthumously
 * Hugh Kenner, editor, T. S. Eliot: A Collection of Critical Essays (Prentice-Hall), Canadian writing and published in the United States; criticism
 * Kenneth Koch, Thank You and Other Poems
 * Denise Levertov, The Jacob's Ladder
 * Hugh MacDiarmid, Collected Poems, New York: Macmillan, Briton publishing in the United States
 * Norman Mailer, Deaths for the Ladies
 * James Merrill, Water Street
 * W. S. Merwin, The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes
 * Christopher Middleton, torse 3, New York: Harcourt, Brace
 * Ogden Nash, Everyone But Thee and Me, light verse
 * Howard Nemerov, The Next Room of the Dream, University of Chicago Press
 * Sylvia Plath, The Colossus and Other Poems
 * Charles Reznikoff, By the Waters of Manhattan: Selected Verse
 * David Ross, Three Ages of Lake Light, his first book of poems
 * Muriel Rukeyser, Waterlily Fire: Poems 1935-1962,
 * James Schevill, Private Dooms and Public Destinations: Poems 1945-1962, Denver: Alan Swallow
 * Winfield Townley Scott, Collected Poems
 * Anne Sexton, All My Pretty Ones, including "The Truth the Dead Know", Boston: Houghton Mifflin
 * Edith Shiffert, In Open Woods, her first book of poems
 * William Stafford, Traveling Through the Dark, New York: Harper & Row
 * Diane Wakoski, Coins and Coffins
 * Theodore Weiss, Gunsight, New York University Press
 * Reed Whittemore, The Boy from Iowa
 * William Carlos Williams, Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems


 * Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United States
 * Karl Shapiro, Prose Keys to Modern Poetry

Other in English

 * Kendrick Smithyman, Inheritance, New Zealand
 * Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Eight Metropolitan Poems, Adelaide: Australian Letters, Australia

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

Canada, in French

 * GÃ©rard Bessette, PoÃ¨mes temporels
 * Gilles HÃ©nault, SÃ©maphore

France

 * Yves Bonnefoy, Anti-Platon, France
 * AndrÃ© du Bouchet, Dans la chaleur vacante
 * RenÃ© Char, La Parole en archipel
 * Jean Cocteau, La Requiem
 * Jean-Paul de Dadelsen, Jonas, published posthumously (died 1957)
 * Pierre Emmanuel, EvangÃ©liaire
 * AndrÃ© FrÃ©naud, Il n'y a pas de paradis
 * Jean Follain, PoÃ¨mes et Pros choisis, displaying some similarities to haiku
 * Jean Grosjean, Apocalypse
 * Pierre Jean Jouve, Moires
 * StÃ©phane MallarmÃ©, Pour un tombeau d'Anatole, an abandoned and previously unpublished work, consisting of notes and drafts of an elegy the poet expected to write on his dead son (posthumous); edited by J. P. Richard
 * Robert Marteau, Royaumes
 * Henri Michaux, Vents et poussiÃ¨res, Paris: Flinker
 * Saint-John Perse:
 * Hommage Ã  Rabindranath Tagore, LiÃ¨ge: Editions Dynamo
 * L'ordre des oiseaux, Paris: SociÃ©te d'Editions d'art; republished as Oiseaux, Paris: SociÃ©te d'Editions d'art
 * ValÃ©ry Larbaud; ou, L'Honneur littÃ©raire, LiÃ¨ge: Editions Dynamo
 * Marcelin Pleynet, Provisoires Amants des nÃ¨gres
 * Francis Ponge, Le Grand Recueil in three volumes
 * Jean Claude Renard:
 * Incantation du temps
 * Incantation des eaux
 * Michel Sager, XXI poÃ¨mes nocturnes

Criticism and scholarship

 * J. P. Richard, L'Univers imaginaire de MallarmÃ©

Germany

 * G. Benn, Lyrik des expressionistischen Jahrzehnts, anthology
 * Marie-Luise Kaschnitz, Dein Schweigen-meine Stimmen
 * Hilde Domin, RÃ¼ckkehr der Schiffe
 * Wilhelm Lehmann, Abschiedslust, Gedichte aus den Jahren 1957-1961, 37 poems
 * Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Viele schÃ¶ne Kinderreime, 777 poems for children

Hebrew

 * Anonymous author from the Soviet Union, Zion Halo Tishali, poems originally written in Russian and clandestinely sent to Israel, edited and translated by A. Shlonsky and M. Sharett
 * Avigdor Hameiri, Belivnat ha-Sapir ("Clear-cut Sapphire"), collected poems
 * Levi Ben-Amittai, Matana Mimidbar ("Gift of the Desert")
 * Yitzahak Ogen, Shirim ("Poems")
 * P. Elad-Lander, Ke'raiah ha-Sadeh ("As the Fragrance of the Field")
 * A. Halfi, Mul Kohavim ve-Afar ("Against Stars and the Dust")
 * A. Meyrowitz, Avnai Bait ("Stones of a House")
 * D. Avidan, Shirai Lahatz ("Poems of Pressure")
 * Uri Bernstein, Beoto ha-Heder Beoto ha-Or ("In the Same Room, In the Same Light")
 * T. Carmi, Nehash ha-Nehoshet ("Brass Serpent")
 * J. Lichtenbaum, Shiratenu ("Our Poetry"), a two-volume anthology of Hebrew poetry from the end of the 18th century
 * J. J. Schwartz, Kentucky, the only volume of Hebrew poetry published in the United States, according to The Britannica Book of the Year 1963 (covering events of 1962)

India
Listed in alphabetical order by first name:
 * Barnardino Evaristo Mendes, also known as B. E. Mendes, Goenchem Git, Konkani
 * Gulzar, Jaanam, New Delhi: Vanagi Publications; Urdu
 * Maheswar Neog, Asamiya Sahityar Ruprekha, Assamese-language
 * Ratnadhwaj Josi, Hamro Kavya Paramparama Usaiko Lagi ("Our Poetic Tradition"), criticism, Nepali

Italy

 * A. Gatto, Carlomagno nella grotta
 * Eugenio Montale, Satura, published in a private edition, Verona: Oficina Bodoni
 * Cesare Pavese, Poesie edite e inedite, edited by Italo Calvino, Turin: Einaudi (posthumous)
 * Maria Luisa Spaziani, Il gong
 * P. Volponi, Memoriale

Latin America

 * HÃ©ctor Rojas Herazo, Mascando las tinieblas en el odio (Colombia)
 * Alberto Hidalgo, Historia peruana verdadera
 * JosÃ© MartÃ­, Versos (Cuban), posthumous; with an introduction by Eugenio Florit
 * Pablo Neruda, a bilingual anthology of his selected verse; with an introduction by Louis MonguiÃ³
 * RubÃ©n Bonifaz NuÃ±o, Fuego de pobres (Mexico)
 * Carlos Pellicer, Material poÃ©tico (Mexico)

Spain

 * Jorge GuillÃ©n, Lenguaje y poesÃ­a
 * A collaboration of 50 poets and 14 illustrators, Versos para Antonio Machado (published in France)

Yiddish

 * Eliyohu Bokher, Bovo-bukh ("Buovo d'Antona") (posthumous) a 16th-century epic poem translated into modern Yiddish by Moyshe Knaphes
 * Yaykev Glatshteyn, Di freyd fun yidishn vort ("The Joy of the Yiddish World'')
 * N. I. Gotlib, a book of poetry
 * Chaim Grade, Der mench fun fayer ("The Man of Fire")
 * Rokhl Korn, a book of poetry
 * Kadye Molodovsky, editor, Lider fun khurbn ("Poems of the Catastrophe"), an anthology in which emphasized the theme of the Holocaust
 * Shloyme Shenhud, a book of poetry
 * A. N. Shtensl, a book of poetry
 * I. J. Shvarts, a book of poetry
 * I. Taubes, a book of poetry
 * Meyer Ziml Tkach, a book of poetry
 * Shneyer Vaserman, a book of poetry
 * Avrom Zak, a book of poetry
 * Reyzl Zhykhlinsky, a book of poetry

Other

 * Inger Christensen, Lys: digte ("Light"), Denmark
 * WisÅ‚awa Szymborska: SÃ³l ("Salt"), Poland

United Kingdom

 * Eric Gregory Award: Donald Thomas, James Simmons, Brian Johnson, Jenny Joseph
 * Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Christopher Fry

United States

 * Bollingen Prize: John Hall Wheelock and Richard Eberhart
 * National Book Award for Poetry: Alan Dugan, Poems
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Alan Dugan: Poems
 * Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: John Crowe Ransom
 * Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition: Jack Gilbert: Monolithos

Awards in other nations

 * Grand Prix National des Lettres (France): Pierre Jean Jouve
 * Grand prix de LittÃ©rature de l'AcadÃ©me FranÃ§aise (France): Luc Estang, for his work as a whole
 * Canada: Governor General's Award, poetry or drama: Twelve Letters to a Small Town and The Winter Sun and Other Plays, James Reaney
 * Canada: Governor General's Award, PoÃ©sie et thÃ©Ã¢tre: Les insolites et les violons de l'automne, Jacques Languirand

Births

 * May 30 – Elizabeth Alexander, American poet
 * October 9 – Durs Grunbein, German
 * December 6 – Julia Kasdorf, is an American poet
 * December 31 – Machi Tawara ä¿µä¸‡æ™º, Japanese writer, translator and poet


 * Also:
 * Paul Beatty, African-American poet and author
 * Stacy Doris
 * Glyn Maxwell, British poet
 * Virgil SuÃ¡rez, Cuban American poet and novelist

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * January 20 – Robinson Jeffers, 85 (born 1887), American poet and playwright
 * March 18 – George Sylvester Viereck, 77 (born 1884), American poet and novelist, as well as a pro-German propagandist during both World War I and World War II
 * May 26 – Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, 83 (died 1878), English poet
 * June 2 – Vita Sackville-West, 70 (born 1892), English novelist and poet
 * June 8 – William Stanley Braithwaite (born 1878), American
 * June 22 – John Holmes, 58, American educator and poet
 * July 27 – Richard Aldington, 70, English writer and poet
 * August 9 – Herman Hesse, 95, Swiss novelist and poet in German
 * August 18 – Rosemary Carr BenÃ©t, 65(?), poet and widow of Stephen Vincent BenÃ©t
 * September 3 – E.E. Cummings, at 67 (born 1894), American poet, of a stroke;
 * October 3 – Dakotsu Iida é£¯ç”° è›‡ç¬, commonly referred to as "Dakotsu", pen names of Takeji Iida é£¯ç”° æ­¦æ²» (born 1885), Japanese haiku poet; trained under Takahama Kyoshi
 * November 3 – Ralph Hodgson, 91 (born 1871), English poet
 * December 3 – Dame Mary Gilmore, 97, Australian socialist, poet and journalist


 * Also:
 * Alan Mulgan (born 1881), New Zealand