1771 in poetry

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

Colonial America

 * Jane Dunlap, Poems upon Several Sermons Preached by the Rev'd George Whitefield, Colonial Massachusetts
 * Levi Frisbie, "A Poem on the Rise and Progress of Moor's Indian Charity School", English, Colonial America
 * John Trumbull, "An Elegy on the Death of Mr. Buckingham St. John", English, Colonial America

United Kingdom

 * James Beattie, The Minstrel; or, The Progress of Genius, Book 1, (Book 2: The English Garden 1774, in 4 volumes 1771–1781)
 * James Cawthorn, Poems
 * John Langhorne, The Fables of Flora
 * Henry Mackenzie, Pursuits of Happiness, published anonymously after a stay in London; Scottish
 * Thomas Percy, The Hermit of Warkworth, published anonymously
 * Henry James Pye, The Triumph of Fashion
 * John Wesley, The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, published in 32 volumes (1771–1774) by the Methodist divine and hymn writer

Other languages

 * Ambrosius Stub, Arier og andre poetiske Stykker ("Arier and Other Poetic Works"), edited by T.S. Heiberg; Denmark, posthumous
 * Martin Wieland, New Amadis, a comic poem in 18 cantos; Germany

Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * April 7 – William Wordsworth (died 1850), English poet
 * Also:
 * Thomas John Dibdin (died 1841), English dramatist and song-writer
 * Thomas Green Fessenden, (died 1837), American
 * Liang Desheng (died 1847), Chinese poet and writer during the Qing Dynasty
 * James Montgomery (died 1854), English editor and poet
 * Sir Walter Scott (died 1832), Scottish historical novelist and poet
 * Sydney Smith (died 1845), English writer and Anglican clergyman
 * Dorothy Wordsworth (died 1855), English author, poet and diarist

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * July 30 – Thomas Gray (born 1716), English poet, classical scholar and professor at Cambridge University; died in Cambridge, then buried beside his mother in the churchyard of Stoke Poges, the setting for his famous 1750 poem, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
 * August 19 – Daniel Schiebeler (born 1741), German writer and poet
 * December 23 – Johann Friedrich Löwen (born 1727), German poet, intellectual, drama theorist and at one time a confidant of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
 * Also:
 * Samuel Bowden
 * John Gambold
 * Christopher Smart (born 1722), English poet
 * Tobias Smollett (born 1721), Scottish poet and author