1940 in poetry

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

Events

 * English poet and writer Aldous Huxley is a screenwriter for the movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice
 * American poet Louis Zukofsky finishes the first half of A

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

Indian poetry in English

 * Mohendra Nath Dutt, Kurukshetra ( Poetry in English ), an epic; Calcutta: P. M. Mukherji
 * P. R. Kaikini, The Recruit ( Poetry in English ), Bombay: New Book Co.
 * Manjeri Sundaraman, Catguts ( Poetry in English ), Madras: Hurley Press

Canada

 * A.M. Klein, Hath Not a Jew.
 * E.J. Pratt, Brebeuf and his Brethren, Toronto: Macmillan, 1940. Detroit: Basilian Press, 1942. Governor General's Award 1940.

United Kingdom

 * W.H. Auden English poet living at this time in the United States:
 * Another Time, including the famous "September 1, 1939"
 * Some Poems
 * Sir John Betjeman, Old Lights for New Chancels
 * Cecil Day Lewis:
 * translation, The Georgics of Virgil (see also his translations of The Aeneid of Virgil 1952 and The Eclogues of Virgil 1963)
 * Poems in Wartime
 * T. S. Eliot:
 * The Waste Land, and Other Poems, The Waste Land first published in 1923
 * East Coker, published in The New English Weekly, Easter Number; published in book form in June; republished in Four Quartets 1944
 * William Empson, The Gathering Storm
 * Roy Fuller, Poems
 * Robert Garioch, pen name of Robert Garioch Sutherland and Sorley MacLean, also known as Somhairle MacGill-Eain, 17 Poems for 6d. in Gaelic, Lowland Scots and English
 * Rayner Heppenstall, Blind Men's Flowers are Green
 * Hugh MacDiarmid, editor, The Golden Treasury of Scottish Poetry
 * Louis MacNeice, The Last Ditch
 * Stephen Spender, Selected Poems
 * Dylan Thomas, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog
 * Henry Treece, 38 Poems
 * W.B. Yeats, Last Poems and Plays, published posthumously

United States

 * Conrad Aiken, And in the Human Heart
 * W. H. Auden English poet living at this time in the United States:
 * Another Time, including the famous "September 1, 1939"
 * Some Poems
 * Leonard Bacon, Sunderland Capture
 * Stephen Vincent Benet, Nightmare at Noon
 * Witter Bynner, Against the Cold
 * John Ciardi, Homeward to America
 * E. E. Cummings, 50 Poems
 * Richard Eberhart, Song and Idea
 * Kenneth Fearing, Collected Poems
 * Robert Hayden, Heart-Shape in the Dust
 * Phyllis McGinley, A Pocketful of Wry
 * Edna St. Vincent Millay, Make Bright the Arrows
 * Ogden Nash, The Face is Familiar
 * Ezra Pound, Cantos LII–LXXI
 * Frederic Prokosch, Death at Sea
 * Kenneth Rexroth, In What Hour
 * Elizabeth Madox Roberts, Song in the Meadow

Other in English

 * E.H. McCormick, Letters and Art in New Zealand, scholarship

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

France

 * Louis Aragon, Le Crève-cœur
 * Paul Éluard, pen name of Eugène Grindel, Le Livre ouvert, published from this year to 1941; France
 * Pierre Reverdy, Plein Verre, France

Greece

 * Odysseus Elytis's first book, Orientations
 * Giorgos Seferis:
 * Τετράδιο Γυμνασμάτων ("Exercise Book")
 * Ημερολόγιο Καταστρώματος Ι ("Deck Diary I")

Indian subcontinent
Including all of the British colonies that later became India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Listed alphabetically by first name, regardless of surname:

Bengali

 * Premendra Mitra, Samrat
 * Rabindranath Tagore:
 * Nabajatak, with themes and images from urban and industrial life (such as radios, railways and airplanes), a sharp contrast to the rural and natural themes of traditional Bengali poetry
 * Rogsayyay, written during his illness and with many images of sickness and worry, but without despondancy (see also Arogya 1941, called a "companion volume" with a contrasting mood)
 * Sanai, poems with a nostalgic tone
 * Chelebela, autobiography concerning the author's childhood
 * Samar Sen, Grahan o Anyana Kabita, Indian, Bengali-language
 * Subhash Mukhopadhyay, Padatik, poems reflecting Marxist ideology and politics in general, with a combination of lyricism and sloganeering; the consonance and speech-like rhythm of these poems became popular and influential in Bengali poetry
 * V. K. Gokak, also known as "Vinayaka", Samudra Gitagalu, poems about the potency and loveliness of the sea; the poems experiment with new diction and meters, including free verse

Hindi

 * Narendra Sharma, Palas Van, mostly sensuous poems of love and beauty
 * Ramadhari Singh Dinakar, Rasavanti
 * Ayodhya Singh Upadhyay, also known as "Hariandha", Vaidehi Vanavas, based on Sita's exile

Kannada

 * B. R. Bendre, also known as Ambikatanaya Datta, Sahitya Samsodhana, literary criticism on some older works of Kannada literature
 * Muliya Timmappayya, Navanita Ramayana, the Ramayana in ragale meter
 * S. V. Parameshwara Bhatt, Ragini, 28 love poems

Urdu

 * Muhiuddin Qadri Zor, Ruh-i tanqid, introduction to principles of Western literary criticism
 * Nasiruddin Hashmi, Khavatin-i Dakan Ki Urdu Khidmat, literary history on women Urdu writers from Deccan
 * Syed Mohammad Hasnain, Jauhar-i-Iqbal, literary criticism in Urdu on the poetry of Sir Mohammad Iqbal's Urdu poetry

Other Indian languages

 * Ahad Zargar, Tarana-e-Ahad Zargar, Sufistic ghazals and vatsans; Kashmiri
 * Dimbeshwar Neog, Asamiya Sahityar Buranjit Bhumuki, a comprehensive review of early Assamese literature; criticism
 * K. V. Jaganathan, Tamilkkavyankal, literary history of Tamil epics, compared to the traditions of Sanskrit poetry and world literature
 * Kavi Nhanalal, Kuruksetra, final part of a 12-canto, Gujarati epic about the war of the Mahabharat, written in poetic prose, intersperesed with songs (first canto published 1926
 * Maiyilai Seeni Venkataswamy, Pauttamum Tamilum, literary history on the influence of Buddhism on Tamil culture and literature
 * N. M. Sant and Indira Sant, a poet and couple publishing together; N. M. Sant's poems show influences from Madhav Julian, Indira Sant's reflect folklore; Marathi
 * Prahlad Parekh, Bari Bahar, called a "milestone in the history of Gujarati poetry of the post-Ghandian era" by Indian academic Siser Kumar Das
 * Sankarambadi Sundarachari, Ma Telugu talliki malle pudanda, popular "prayer song" in Andhra, originally written for a film that was never completed, a record of the song was published, and its popularity led the government of Andhra Pradesh to declare it a prayer song to be sung along with Vandemataram

Spain

 * Gerardo Diego, Angeles de Compostela ("Angels of Compostela"), 42 sonnets on diverse topics; Spain
 * Federico García Lorca, Poeta en Nueva York ("A Poet in New York") published posthumously this year (written in 1930;first translation into English in 1988)
 * Dionisio Ridruejo, Poesía en armas ("Poetry in Arms"); Spain

Other in Spanish

 * César Vallejo, España, aparta de mí este cáliz ("Spain, Take This Cup from Me" ), Peruvian poet posthumously published (he died in 1938) in Mexico after the first attempt at publication was interrupted during the Spanish Civil War and all copies were lost. That edition was printed by soldiers of the Army of the East, on paper they themselves had made.
 * José Varallanos, Elegia en el mundo, Peruvian

Awards and honors

 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Mark Van Doren: Collected Poems
 * King's Gold Medal for Poetry: Michael Thwaites
 * Governor General's Award, poetry or drama: Brébeuf and his Brethren, E.J. Pratt

Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * April 16 – Rolf Dieter Brinkmann (died 1975), German
 * May 24 – Joseph Brodsky (died 1996), born Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky in Russia, a Russian-American poet and essayist who won the 1987 Nobel Prize in Literature and was Poet Laureate of the United States (1991–1992)
 * September 8 – Jack Prelutsky, American poet noted for his children's poems
 * October 15 – Fanny Howe, American poet, novelist and short story writer and recipient of the 2009 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize
 * October 20 – Robert Pinsky, American poet and Poet Laureate of the United States (1997-2000)
 * November 1 – William Heyen, American poet, editor, and literary critic
 * December 14 – Carolyn Rodgers, (died 2010), American poet and a leading participant of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s and founded one of the country's oldest and largest black-owned book publishers
 * Also
 * Douglas Barbour
 * Michael Dennis Browne, American (a native Englishman naturalized as a United States citizen in 1978 and living in the U.S.), poet and academic
 * Peter Cooley, American poet and academic
 * Martha Collins, American
 * Angela De Hoyos
 * Gary Hyland
 * Ronald Koertge, American
 * Paul Mariani, American poet and academic
 * David W. McFadden
 * Sterling D. Plumpp, African-American
 * Pattiann Rogers, American
 * Andrew Waterman, English poet and academic
 * Andrew Waterman, English poet and academic

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * January 5 – Humbert Wolfe, poet and epigrammist
 * March 4 – Hamlin Garland (born 1860), American novelist, poet, essayist, and short story writer
 * March 7 – Edwin Markham (born 1852), American poet.
 * March 23 – Minakami Takitarō 水上滝太郎 pen name of Abe Shōzō (born 1887), Showa period Japanese poet, novelist, literary critic and essayist (surname: Minakami)
 * August 21 – Ernest Lawrence Thayer, American writer and poet who wrote Casey at the Bat
 * September 26 – William Henry Davies (born 1871), Welsh-born poet and writer who spent most of his life as a tramp in the United States and United Kingdom, but became known as one of the most popular poets of his time
 * October 11 – Taneda Santōka 種田 山頭火 pen name of Taneda Shōichi 種田 正 (born 1882), Japanese author and haiku poet (surname: Taneda)