1731 in poetry

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

Events

 * The only complete manuscript of Beowulf and the original manuscript of The Battle of Maldon are damaged in a fire at the archives of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton.
 * The Gentleman's Magazine is started and edited by Edward Cave ("Sylvanus Urban"). Published monthly from January through September, it would continue publishing into the 20th century.

Colonial America

 * Ebenezer Cooke, attributed, The Maryland Muse, a collection, including "The History of Colonel Nathaniel Bacon's Rebellion"
 * Richard Lewis, Food for Criticks, criticizing fellow American colonists for not respecting and revering the land as the Indians did
 * John Seccomb, "Father Abbey's Will", popular, humorous verse, written when the author was a student at Harvard, about one of the college's custodians and bed-makers; it prompts a sequel, "A Letter of Courtship", addressed to Father Abbey's widow from a custodian at Yale, an example of the rivalry between the two early schools

Great Britain

 * Nicholas Amhurst, writing under the pen name "Caleb D'Anvers", A Collection of Poems on Several Occasions
 * Samuel Boyse, Translations and Poems Written on Several Subjects
 * Robert Dodsley:
 * An Epistle from a Footman in London to the Celebrated Stephen Duck, published anonymously
 * A Sketch of the Miseries of Poverty, anonymous
 * Aaron Hill, Advice to the Poets
 * Alexander Pope, An Epistle to the Right Honourable Richard Earl of Burlington, also known later as The Epistle "Of Taste" (see also Bramston, The Man of Taste 1733
 * John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, Poems on Several Occasions. By the R. H. the E. of R., London, posthumous

Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * January 9 – John Scott (died 1783), 53, English poet and friend of Samuel Johnson
 * February – Charles Churchill (died 1764), English poet
 * April 16 – Jacob Bailey, (died 1808), Church of England clergyman and poet born in the United States (colony of New Hampshire), immigrated to Nova Scotia, Canada in 1779
 * September 2 – Johann Friedrich von Cronegk (died 1758), German dramatist, poet and essayist
 * November 26 – William Cowper (died 1800), English poet
 * December 12 – Erasmus Darwin (died 1802), English physician, natural philosopher, physiologist, inventor and poet (grandfather of Charles Darwin)
 * Also:
 * Samuel Bishop (died 1758), English poet
 * John Freeth (?)
 * Francis Grose (died 1791), Swiss antiquary, draughtsman, and lexicographer
 * Ephraim Moses Kuh (died 1790), German
 * William Woty

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * April 24 or April 25 – Daniel Defoe (the exact date is unknown), (born 1659), English author, writer, journalist, spy and poet, probably while in hiding from his creditors. He was interred in Bunhill Fields, London, where his grave can still be visited.
 * December 26 – Antoine Houdar de la Motte (born 1672), 59, French poet and author
 * Also:
 * 'Abd al-ghani al-Nabulusi
 * Mary Astell (born 1666), English feminist writer
 * Penelope Aubin (born 1679), English novelist and translator
 * Frances Norton, Lady Norton (born 1644), English religious poet and prose writer
 * Elizabeth Thomas (born 1675), English
 * Edward Ward (born 1660), satirical writer and publican