1915 in poetry

"In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved, and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields."

- John McCrae, In Flanders Fields

"And I have known the eyes already, known them all— The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase, And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin, When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall, Then how should I begin To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
 * And how should I presume?"

- T.S. Eliot, from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

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

Events

 * Russian poet Sergei Yesenin (1895–1925), published his first book of poems titled "Radumitsa."
 * Ezra Pound begins writing The Cantos
 * Others: A Magazine of the New Verse founded by Alfred Kreymborg in July, it will run until 1917, publishing poetry, other writing, and visual art

Poets and World War I
see also "Deaths in World War I" in the "Deaths" section, below


 * The poem "Into Battle" is published in The Times a few weeks before its author, Julian Grenfell, is killed in battle.
 * Blaise Cendrars, pen name of Frédéric Louis Sauser, a Swiss novelist and poet naturalized as a French citizen in 1916, loses his right arm during his service in World War I

Australia

 * C. J. Dennis, long poem The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, after serialization in The Bulletin since 1909, Australia
 * Henry Lawson, My Army, o my Army! and other Songs, Australia
 * Shaw Neilson, Old Granny Sullivan, Sydney, Bookfellow, Australia

Canada

 * Arthur Stanley Bourinot, Laurentian Lyrics and Other Poems
 * John McCrae, "In Flanders Fields", a war memorial poem, is written on May 3 after McCrae's friend and former student, Lt. Alexis Helmer, was killed in battle (McCrae himself would not survive the war); later in the year the poem is published in Punch (Canadian poet published in the United Kingdom; see text of poem, above)
 * Robert W. Norwood, His Lady of the Sonnets
 * Duncan Campbell Scott, Lines in Memory of Edmund Morris
 * Frederick George Scott, The Gates of Time, and Other Poems (London: Samuel Bagster & Sons.

United Kingdom
 From My Boy Jack by Rudyard Kipling “Has any one else had word of him?”

Not this tide.

For what is sunk will hardly swim,

Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

“Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?”

None this tide,

Nor any tide,

Except he did not shame his kind —

Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.


 * Richard Aldington, Images 1910-15
 * Rupert Brooke, 1914 & Other Poems
 * G.K. Chesterton, Poems
 * John Drinkwater, Swords and Ploughshares
 * T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock published in Poetry magazine in Chicago, then, later this year, in a book in the United Kingdom
 * F.S. Flint, Cadences
 * Wilfrid Gibson, Battle
 * Thomas Hardy, "The Convergence of the Twain," on the sinking of the Titanic
 * Rudyard Kipling, "My Boy Jack", written after his beloved son, John (called Jack) went missing in the Battle of Loos during World War I; years later, Jacks death was confirmed to Kipling and his family; a play and film with the same title were later created, based on the Kipling family's loss
 * Ronald Knox, Absolute and Abitofhell, first published in Oxford Magazine (November 28, 1912); satirical verse on Foundations, 1912
 * Richard Le Gallienne, The Silk-Hat Soldier, and Other Poems
 * Francis Ledwidge, Songs of the Fields, Irish author published in the United Kingdom
 * John McCrae, "In Flanders Fields", a war memorial poem, is written on May 3 after McCrae's friend and former student, Lt. Alexis Helmer, was killed in battle (McCrae himself would not survive the war); later in the year the poem is published in Punch (Canadian poet published in the United Kingdom)
 * Alice Meynell, Poems of the War
 * Ezra Pound, Cathay, American poet published in the United Kingdom
 * Herbert Read, Songs of Chaos
 * George William Russell, ("AE"):
 * Gods of War, with Other Poems
 * Imaginations and Reveries
 * Edith Sitwell, The Mother and Other Poems
 * James Stephens, Irish author published in the United Kingdom:
 * The Adventures of Seumas Beg; The Rocky Road to Dublin
 * Sogns from the Clay
 * Anthologies
 * Poems of Today, British poetry anthology
 * Ezra Pound, editor, Catholic Anthology, London

Some Imagist Poets anthology
Contents to Some Imagist Poets anthology, the first of three books with the same title published in the next two years (includes English and American poets):
 * Richard Aldington: "Childhood", "The Poplar", "Round-Pond", "Daisy", "Epigrams", "The Faun sees Snow for the First Time", "Lemures"
 * H.D. (Hilda Doolittle): "The Pool", "The Garden", "Sea Lily", "Sea Iris", "Sea Rose", "Oread", "Orion Dead"
 * John Gould Fletcher: "The Blue Symphony", "London Excursion"
 * F.S. Flint: "Trees", "Lunch", "Malady", "Accident", "Fragment", "Houses", "Eau-Forte"
 * D.H. Lawrence: "Ballad of Another Ophelia", "Illicit", "Fireflies in the Corn", "A Woman and Her Dead Husband", "The Mowers", "Scent of Irises", "Green"
 * Amy Lowell: "Venus Transiens", "The Travelling Bear", "The Letter", "Grotesque", "Bullion", "Solitaire", "The Bombardment"

United States
See also "Some Imagist Poets" subsection, above
 * Djuna Barnes, The Book of Repulsive Women, her first book of poems, which she described as a collection of "rhythms and drawings"
 * Stephen Vincent Benet, Five Men and Pompey
 * Adelaide Crapsey, Verse, featuring her invention of the quintain, a five-line form
 * T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock first published in Poetry magazine
 * John Gould Fletcher, Irradiations: Sand and Spray
 * Ring Lardner, Bib Ballads
 * Archibald MacLeish, Songs for a Summer's Day
 * Edgar Lee Masters, Spoon River Anthology
 * John G. Neihardt, The Song of Hugh Glass
 * Ezra Pound:
 * Cathay, American poet published in the United Kingdom
 * Editor, Catholic Anthology, London
 * Sara Teasdale, Rivers to the Sea

Other in English

 * Roby Datta, Indian poet writing in English:
 * Poems: Pictures and Songs to which is prefixed "The Philosophy of Art" Calcutta: Das Gupta and Co.
 * Stories in blank verse to which is added an epic fragment, Calcutta: Das Gupta & Co.
 * Francis Ledwidge, Songs of the Fields, Irish author published in the United Kingdom
 * James Stephens, Irish author published in the United Kingdom:
 * The Adventures of Seumas Beg; The Rocky Road to Dublin
 * Songs from the Clay

France

 * Guillaume Apollinaire, pen name of Wilhelm Apollinaris de Kostrowitzky, Case d'armons
 * Paul Claudel, Corona benignitatis anni dei
 * Oscar Vladislas de Lubicz-Milosz, also known as O. V. de L. Milosz, Poèmes
 * Pierre Reverdy, Poèmes en prose

Other languages

 * Sir Muhammad Iqbal, Asrar-i-Khudi (Urdu: اسرار خودی) or The Secrets of the Self his first philosophical book of poetry, published in Persian
 * Narasinghrao, Smaranasamhita, an elegy to his son (Indian, writing in Gujarati)
 * Georg Trakl, Sebastian im Traum (Sebastian in the Dream); Austrian native's work published in Germany

Awards and honors

 * Nobel Prize for Literature: Romain Rolland (French)

Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * January 3 – James Elroy Flecker (born 1884), English poet, novelist and playwright
 * January 15 – Chaganti Somayajulu (died 1994), Indian, Tegulu-language short-story writer and poet
 * January 31 – Thomas Merton (died 1968), American poet, author and monk
 * March 12 – José Luis Rodríguez Vélez (died 1984), Panamanian composer, orchestra director, saxophonist, clarinetist and guitarist.
 * April 21 – John Manifold (died 1985), Australian
 * April 22 – Hem Barua (died 1977), Indian, Assamese-language poet and politician
 * May 28 – Dorothy Auchterlonie (died 1991), Australian
 * May 30 – Michael Thwaites (died 2005), Australian poet, academic, intelligence officer, and activist
 * May 31 – Judith Wright (died 2000), Australian
 * June 8 – Ruth Stone, American poet, recipient of the 2002 National Book Award and the 2002 Wallace Stevens Award
 * July 1 – Alun Lewis, Welsh war poet
 * July 7 – Margaret Walker, poet and novelist
 * July 16 – David Campbell (died 1979), Australian
 * August 4 – Patrick Anderson (died 1979), English-born Canadian
 * August 28 – Claude Roy, pen name of Claude Orland (died 1997), French poet, novelist, essayist, art critic and journalist; an activist in the Communist Party until his expulsion in 1956
 * November 8 – G. S. Fraser, poet and critic
 * December 8 – Nikos Gatsos (died 1992), Greek
 * December 22 – David Martin (died 1997), Australian
 * December 27 – John Cornford
 * Also:
 * Nanina Alba, African American
 * Margaret Esse Danner, African-American
 * Akhtarul Imam, Indian, Urdu-language poet in the "Halqa-i-Arba-i Zauq" movement
 * Bawa Balwant (died 1973), Indian, Punjabi poet
 * K. S. Narasimha Swami, better known as "K.S. NA", Indian, Kannada-language poet
 * Manmohan, pen name of Gopal Narhar Natu, Indian, Marathi-language poet
 * Nand Lal Ambardar (died 1973), Indian, Kashmiri-language poet
 * Palagummi Padmaraju (died 1983), short-story writer, poet, film-industry writer
 * Prabhu Chugani, "Wafa", Indian, Sindhi-language poet
 * Rameshvar Shukla, pen name: Anchal, wrote in Khadi Boli and Braj Bhasa dialects of Hindi, poet, short-story writer and novelist
 * Sumitra Kumari Sinha, Indian, Hindi-language poet and short-story writer

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * January 3 – James Elroy Flecker, 28, English poet, novelist and dramatist, from tuberculosis in Switzerland
 * February 8 – Takashi Nagatsuka 長塚 節 (born 1879, Japanese poet and novelist
 * Also:
 * Stuart Merrill, American poet who wrote in French and belonged to the Symbolist school.
 * Eric Roach of Tobago
 * V. C. Balakrishna Panikker (born 1889), Indian, Malayalam-language poet

Killed in World War I
see also "Poets and World War I" in the "Events" section, above
 * April 23 – Rupert Brooke (born 1887); English poet and writer, died from septic pneumonia from an infected mosquito bite while sailing with the British Mediterranean Expeditionary Force off the island of Lemnos in the Aegean on its way to Gallipoli
 * May 26 – Julian Grenfell, war poet, killed at Ypres
 * October 13 – Charles Hamilton Sorley, 20, British poet, shot in the head by a sniper, at the Battle of Loos in France (see also, Rudyard Kipling poem, "My Boy Jack", above)