1984 in poetry

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

Events

 * December 19 - Philip Larkin turns down the British Poet Laureateship, and Ted Hughes becomes Poet Laureate.
 * After Ghazi al-Gosaibi, the Saudi Arabian minister of health, publishes a poem, "A Pen Bought and Sold", that criticized the corruption and privilege of the country's elite, he was fired from his post.

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

 * Bert Almon, Deep North.
 * Roo Borson, The Whole Night, Coming Home, ISBN 0-7710-1579-8 (nominated for a Governor General's Award) American-Canadian
 * Dionne Brand, Chronicles of the Hostile Sun
 * Leonard Cohen, Book of Mercy
 * Robert Finch, Double Tuning. Erin, ON: Porcupine's Quill.
 * Robert Finch, Sailboat and Lake.. Erin, ON: Porcupine's Quill.
 * Paulette Jiles, Celestial Navigation
 * George Johnston, Ask Again.
 * Irving Layton, The Love Poems of Irving Layton: With Reverence & Delight. Oakville, Ontario: Mosaic Press, 1984.
 * Irving Layton, A Spider Danced a Cosy Jig. Toronto: Stoddart.
 * Dorothy Livesay, Feeling the Worlds: New Poems. Fredericton: Goose Lane.
 * Miriam Mandel, The Collected Poems of Miriam Mandel. Sheila Watson, ed. Edmonton: Longspoon Press. ISBN 0920316506 ISBN 978-0920316504
 * Michael Ondaatje, Secular Love, Toronto: Coach House Press, ISBN 0-88910-288-0, ISBN 0-393-01991-8 ; New York: W. W. Norton, 1985
 * James Reaney, Imprecations: The Art of Swearing. Black Moss Press.
 * Charles Sangster, The St. Lawrence and the Saguenary and other poems (revised edition), edited by Frank M. Tierney (Tecumseh)
 * Raymond Souster, Jubilee of Death: The Raid On Dieppe. Ottawa: Oberon Press.
 * Raymond Souster, Queen City. Ottawa: Oberon Press.

Indian poetry in English

 * Kamala Das, Collected Poems Volume 1 ( Poetry in English ), Trivandrum: Kamala Das
 * Nissim Ezekiel, Latter-Day Psalms ( Poetry in English ), Delhi
 * Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Middle Earth ( Poetry in English ), New Delhi: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-561604-9
 * Suniti Namjoshi, From the Bedside Book of Nightmares ( Poetry in English ), Fredericton, New Brunswick : Fiddlehead, ISBN 0864920318

Ireland

 * Seamus Heaney Northern Ireland native at this time living in the United States:
 * Hailstones, Gallery Press
 * Station Island, Faber & Faber,
 * Sweeney Astray (see also Sweeney's Flight 1992)
 * Verses for a Fordham Commencement, Nadja Press
 * Thomas McCarthy, The Non-Aligned Storyteller, Anvil Press, London, Ireland
 * Medbh McGuckian, Venus and the Rain, first edition (see revised edition 1994), Oldcastle: The Gallery Press
 * Derek Mahon, A Kensington Notebook, Northern Ireland poet published in the United Kingdom

New Zealand

 * Fleur Adcock, editor, Oxford Book of Contemporary New Zealand Poetry
 * Charles Brasch, Collected Poems, Auckland: Oxford University Press, posthumous
 * Alan Brunton, And She Said, New York:Red Mole
 * Lauris Edmond, Selected Poems, winner of the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1985
 * Bill Manhire, Zoetropes: Poems 1972-82
 * Cilla McQueen, Anti Gravity
 * Ian Wedde:
 * Georgicon
 * Tales of Gotham City

United Kingdom

 * Peter Ackroyd, T. S. Eliot: A Life (biography)
 * Samuel Beckett, Collected Poems 1930–78
 * Alison Brackenbury, Breaking Ground
 * George Mackay Brown, Christmas Poems
 * Charles Causley, Secret Destinations
 * David Constantine, Mappa Mundi
 * Gavin Ewart:
 * The Ewart Quarto
 * Festival Nights
 * U. A. Fanthorpe, Voices Off
 * Alison Fell, Kisses for Mayakovsky
 * James Fenton, Children in Exile: Poems 1968-1984 Salamander Press version, poems from this volume were combined with those from The Memory of War to make the Penguin volume titled The Memory of War and Children in Exile; that combined volume was published in the United States, also under the title Children in Exile
 * Roy Fuller, Mianserin Sonnets
 * Geoffrey Grigson, Montaigne's Tower, and Other Poems
 * Seamus Heaney Northern Ireland native at this time living in the United States:
 * Hailstones, Gallery Press
 * Station Island, Faber & Faber,
 * Sweeney Astray (see also Sweeney's Flight 1992)
 * Verses for a Fordham Commencement, Nadja Press
 * Selima Hill, Saying Hello at the Station
 * Liz Lochhead, Dreaming Franenstein and Collected Poems (includes Memo for Spring 1972, Islands 1978 in poetry, ''The Grimm Sisters 1981)
 * Medbh McGuckian, Venus and the Rain
 * Derek Mahon, A Kensington Notebook, Northern Ireland poet published in the United Kingdom
 * E. A. Markham, Human Rites
 * Christopher Middleton, Serpentine
 * Edwin Morgan, Sonnets from Scotland
 * Blake Morrison, Dark Glasses
 * Andrew Motion, Dangerous Play
 * Grace Nichols, The Fat Black Woman's Poems, Virago
 * Fiona Pitt-Kethley, London
 * Peter Porter, Fast Forward
 * Craig Raine, Rich
 * Peter Reading, C
 * Jeremy Reed, By the Fisheries
 * Charles Tomlinson, Notes from New York; and Other Poems

United States

 * John Ashbery, A Wave, awarded the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and the Bollingen Prize
 * Charles Bernstein and Bruce Andrews, The L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Book, "selected" pieces from the 13 issues of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E magazine (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press)
 * Joseph Brodsky, To Urania
 * Alan Brunton, And She Said, Red Mole, book by a New Zealand poet published in the United States
 * Louise Erdrich, Jacklight
 * Seamus Heaney Northern Ireland native at this time living in the United States:
 * Station Island, Faber & Faber,
 * Verses for a Fordham Commencement, Nadja Press
 * Hailstones, Gallery Press* Denise Levertov, Breathing the Water, her 19th book of poetry
 * Sharon Olds, The Dead and the Living
 * Michael Palmer, First Figure (North Point Press)
 * Molly Peacock, Raw Heaven
 * Kenneth Rexroth, Selected Poems
 * Rosmarie Waldrop, Differences for Four Hands (Singing Horse)

Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United States

 * 'The Rhapsodic Fallacy' by Mary Kinzie appears in Salmagundi 65

Other English language

 * Robert Gray, The Skylight, Australia
 * Chris Wallace-Crabbe, D. Goodman and D.J. Hearn, editors, Clubbing of the Gunfire: 101 Australia War Poems, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, anthology
 * Hariprasad Sastri, editor and translator, Indian Mystic Verse, 3rd revised and enlarged edition; New Delhi: Macmillan (first edition 1941) anthology

Denmark

 * Klaus HÃ¸eck; Denmark:
 * BlÃ¥vand revisited, with Asger Schnack, publisher: SchÃ¸nberg
 * International Klein Bleu, publisher: Gyldendal
 *  Marienbad, publisher: BrÃ¸ndum
 * Henrik Nordbrandt, 84 digte ("84 Poems"); Copenhagen: Gylendal, 125 pages

Poland

 * S. BaraÅ„czak, editor, Poeta pamieta, anthology
 * StanisÅ‚aw BaraÅ„czak, Uciekinier z utopii. O poezji Zbigniewa Herberta ("Fugitive from Utopia: On the Poetry of Zbigniew Herbert"), criticism; London: Polonia
 * CzesÅ‚aw MiÅ‚osz, Nieobjeta ziemia ("The Unencompassed Earth"); Paris: Instytut Literacki
 * JarosÅ‚aw Marek Rymkiewicz, Mogila Ordona ("Ordon's Grave")

India
Listed in alphabetical order by first name:
 * Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Nuskha-hae Wafa; Urdu-language * Nirendranath Chakravarti; Bengali-language:
 * Roop-Kahini, Kolkata: Ananda Publishers
 * Shomoi Boro Kom, Kolkata: Proma Prokashoni
 * Rituraj, Nahin Prabodhachandrodya, Bikaner: Dharati Prakashan; Hindi-language
 * Saroop Dhruv, Mara Hathni Vat, Ahmedabad: Nakshatra Trust, Ahmedabad; Gujarati-language
 * K. Satchidanandan, Socrateesum Kozhiyum, ("Socrates and the Cock"); Malayalam-language

Other languages

 * Christoph Buchwald, general editor, and Gregory Laschen, guest editor, Luchterhand Jahrbuch der Lyrik 1984 ("Luchterhand Poetry Yearbook 1984"), publisher: Luchterhand; anthology; Germany
 * Matilde Camus, RaÃ­z del recuerdo ("Root of remembrance"), Spain
 * Odysseus Elytis, Î—Î¼ÎµÏÎ¿Î»ÏŒÎ³Î¹Î¿ ÎµÎ½ÏŒÏ‚ Î±Î¸Î­Î±Ï„Î¿Ï… Î‘Ï€ÏÎ¹Î»Î¯Î¿Ï… ("Diary of an Invisible April"), Greece
 * Ndoc Gjetja, Ã‡aste ("Moments"); Albania
 * Alexander Mezhirov, Ð¢Ñ‹ÑÑÑ‡Ð° Ð¼ÐµÐ»Ð¾Ñ‡ÐµÐ¹ ("A thousand small things"), Russia, Soviet Union
 * Eugenio Montale, Tutte le poesie, enlarged from the original 1977 edition; publisher: Mondadori; posthumous; Italy
 * Jacques PrÃ©vert, La CinquiÃ¨me Saison, published posthumously (died 1977); France
 * Jean Royer, Jours d'atelier, Saint-Lambert: Le NoroÃ®t; Canada, in French
 * HÃ¥kan Sandell, Efter sjÃ¶mÃ¤nnen ; Elektrisk mÃ¥ne (literal translation: "After Sailor; Electric Moon"), Sweden

Awards and honors
Nobel Prize in Literature: Jaroslav Seifert, a Czech poet

Australia

 * Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Les Murray, The People's Other World

Canada

 * Gerald Lampert Award
 * See 1984 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
 * Pat Lowther Award: Bronwen Wallace

Japan

 * Japanese 100 yen note, starting this year and through 2004, features a portrait of Natsume SÅseki å¤ç›® æ¼±çŸ³ (commonly referred to as "SÅseki"), pen name of Natsume Kinnosuke å¤ç›®é‡‘ä¹‹åŠ© (1867–1916), Meiji Era novelist, haiku poet, composer of Chinese-style poetry, writer of fairy tales and a scholar of English literature

United Kingdom

 * Cholmondeley Award: Michael Baldwin, Michael Hofmann, Carol Rumens
 * Eric Gregory Award: Martyn Crucefix, Mick Imlah, Jamie McKendrick, Bill Smith, Carol Ann Duffy, Christopher Meredith, Peter Armstrong, Iain Bamforth

United States

 * Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Arthur Smith, Elegy on Independence Day
 * Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Gjertrud Schnackenberg, "Imaginary Prisons", and (separately) Sharon Ben-Tov, "Carillon for Cambridge Women"
 * Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (later the post would be called "Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress"): Robert Fitzgerald appointed this year in a health-limited capacity, but was not present at the Library of Congress.
 * Frost Medal: Jack Stadler
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Mary Oliver: American Primitive
 * Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Richmond Lattimore and Robert Francis

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * January 18 – Ary dos Santos (born 1937), Portuguese
 * February 6 – Jorge GuillÃ©n
 * February 8 – Ishizuka Tomoji çŸ³å¡šå‹äºŒ the kanji (Japanese writing) is a pen name of Ishizuka Tomoji, which is written with the different kanji çŸ³å¡šå‹æ¬¡, but in English there is no difference (born 1906), Japanese, Showa period haiku poet and novelist
 * February 17 – Jesse Stuart, 76 (born 1906), American, from a stroke
 * February 26 – Richard Lattimore, 77, of cancer
 * March 3 – Tatsuko Hoshino æ˜Ÿé‡Žç«‹å­ (born 1903), Japanese, Showa period haiku poet and travel writer; founded Tamamo, a haiku magazine exclusively for women; in the Hototogisu literary circle; haiku selector for Asahi Shimbun newspaper; contributed to haiku columns in various newspapers and magazines (a woman)
 * April 15 – Sir William Empson, 77 (born 1906 in poetry), English
 * May 19 – Sir John Betjeman, 77 (born 1906), of Parkinson's disease
 * July 2 – George Oppen, 76 (born 1908), of Alzheimer's disease
 * September 29 – Hal Porter, Australian writer, novelist, playwright and poet, at 73
 * December 14 – Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish poet
 * date not known – Richard Brautigan 49, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The exact date of his suicide is unknown, but it is speculated that Brautigan ended his life on September 14. His body was not found until October 25.