- Source: 1951 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
Events
Poet Cid Corman begins Origin magazine in response to the failure of a magazine that Robert Creeley had planned. The magazine typically features one writer per issue and runs, with breaks, until the mid-1980s. Poets featured include Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Larry Eigner, Denise Levertov, William Bronk, Theodore Enslin, Charles Olson, Louis Zukofsky, Gary Snyder, Lorine Niedecker, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams and Paul Blackburn. The magazine also leads to the establishment of Origin Press, which publishes books by a similar range of poets.
Bad Lord Byron, a film directed by David MacDonald about the Romantic poet.
Czesław Miłosz, Polish poet, translator, literary critic, future (1980) winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, becomes an exile this year.
The Dolmen Press is founded in Dublin, Ireland by Liam and Josephine Miller to provide a publishing outlet for Irish poets and artists. The Press operates in Dublin from 1951 until Liam Miller's death in 1987.
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
=Irving Layton, The Black Huntsmen: Poems. Montreal.
Tom MacInnes, In the Old of my Age
Duncan Campbell Scott, Selected Poems, edited by E. K. Brown
A. J. M. Smith, The Worldly Muse
Kay Smith, Footnote to the Lord's Prayer and Other Poems
Raymond Souster, City Hall Street. Toronto: Ryerson.
Anne Wilkinson, Counterpoint to Sleep
= New Zealand
=James K. Baxter, Recent Trends in New Zealand Poetry, scholarship
Allen Curnow, editor, A Book of New Zealand Verse 1923-50, anthology
Denis Glover, Sings Harry, New Zealand
M. H. Holcroft, Discovered Isles, scholarship
Louis Johnson:
Editor, New Zealand Poetry Yearbook, first annual edition, anthology
The Sun Among the Ruins
Roughshod Among the Lilies
Charles Spear, Twopence Coloured
Hubert Witheford, The Falcon Mark
= United Kingdom
=W. H. Auden, Nones, including the poem "In Praise of Limestone"
E. C. Bentley, Clerihews Complete
Basil Bunting, Seeds, a long poem, published by Poetry magazine
Roy Campbell, Light on a Dark Horse, autobiography
Charles Causley:
Farewell Aggie Weston
Hands to Dance
Jack Clemo, The Clay Verge
Keith Douglas, Collected Poems
Robert Graves, Poems and Satires
James Kirkup, The Submerged Village, and Other Poems
John Lehmann, The Age of the Dragon
Iona and Peter Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes
Poems of Today, British poetry anthology, fourth series
Enoch Powell, The Wedding Gift & Dancer’s End (London: Falcon Press,) .
Anne Ridler, The Golden Bird, and Other Poems
Alan Ross, Poetry, 1945–1950
John Wain, Mixed Feelings
= United States
=W. H. Auden, Nones, English-born poet living and published in the United States
John Malcolm Brinnin, The Sorrows of Cold Stone
John Ciardi, From Time to Time, including "My Father's Watch"
Langston Hughes, Montage of a Dream Deferred, including "Harlem"
Randall Jarrell:
Losses, New York: Harcourt, Brace
The Seven-League Crutches, New York: Harcourt, Brace
Hugh Kenner, The Poetry of Ezra Pound, highly influential in causing a re-assessment of Pound's poetry (New Directions), criticism
Robert Lowell, The Mills of the Kavanaughs, New York: Harcourt, Brace
James Merrill, First Poems
Marianne Moore, Collected Poems, winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for poetry in 1952
Ogden Nash, Parents Keep Out
Adrienne Rich, A Change of World, her first volume, selected by W. H. Auden for the Yale Series of Younger Poets
Theodore Roethke, Praise to the End!, 13 long poems about a child's sensibility and developing consciousness
Louis Simpson, Good News of Death and Other Poems, Jamaican-born poet living in the United States
Clark Ashton Smith, The Dark Chateau
Jean Toomer, Cane
Theodore Weiss, The Catch
William Carlos Williams:
Paterson, Book IV
The Collected Earlier Poems
The Autobiography of William Carlos Williams
= Other in English
=Nagendranath Gupta, editor and translator, Eastern Poetry, Allahabad: Indian Press, second edition, Bombay: Hind Kitabs (first edition 1929), anthology; Indian poetry in English
Louis Simpson, ''Good News of Death and Other Poems, Jamaican-born poet living in the United States
Rex Ingamells, The Great South Land, Melbourne, a history of Australia from primordial times, Australia
Works published in other languages
= France
=Pierre Jean Jouve, Ode
Alphonse Métérié, Proella
Jacques Prévert:
Histoires
Spectacle
Jules Supervielle, Naissances
Frédéric Jacques Temple, Foghorn
= India
=In each section, listed in alphabetical order by first name:
Rajendra Shah, Andolan, Gujarati language
Binod Chandra Nayak, Oriya:
Nilacandrara Upatyaka
Candra O tara
Hem Barua, Balichandra, Indian, Assamese
Mangalacharan Chattopadhyay, Mergh Brsti Jar, Bengali
Sumitra Kumari Sinha, Panthini, Hindi-language
Sundaram, Yatra Gujarati language
V. A. Anandakkuttan, Dipavali, Malayalam
Naresh Guha, Duranta Dupur, Bengali
Ajneya, editor, Dusara Saptak, Hindi, influential anthology in the Nai Kavita ("New Poetry") movement, which has been said to have started with this book, which contains poetry from Bhavani Prasad Misra, Sakunta Mathur, Hari Narayan Vyas, Shamasher Bahadur Singh, Naresh Mehta, Raghuvir Sahay and Dharamvir Bharati (see also Tar Saptak 1943)
= Other
=Simin Behbahani, Seh-tar-e Shekasteh ("The Broken Lute"), Persia
Alberto de Lacerda, Poemas, Portugal
Hushang Ebtehaj (H. E. Sayeh) سراب ("Mirage"), Persian poet published in Iran
Uri Zvi Greenberg, Reḥovot Hanahar ("The Streets of the River"), poems lamenting the loss of Jews in Europe; Hebrew-language, Israel
Cesare Pavese, Verrà la morte ed avrà i tuoi occhi ("Death Will Come and Will Have Your Eyes"), Turin: Einaudi; Italy
Awards and honors
Nobel Prize in Literature: Pär Lagerkvist, Swedish poet, author, playwright and writer
Guggenheim Fellowship awarded to E.E. Cummings
National Book Award for Poetry: Wallace Stevens, The Auroras of Autumn
Pulitzer Prize for poetry: Carl Sandburg, Complete Poems
Bollingen Prize: John Crowe Ransom
Canada: Governor General's Award, poetry or drama: The Mulgrave Road, Charles Bruce
Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
January 1 – Abul Bashar, Bengali poet and writer
January 29 – Neil Shepard, American poet, essayist, professor of creative writing and literary magazine editor
February 23 – Leevi Lehto (died 2019), Finnish poet, translator and programmer
March 12 – Susan Musgrave, Canadian poet and children's author
March 21 – Lesley Choyce, Canadian novelist, writer, children's book writer, poet, and academic, founder of Pottersfield Press, host of the television program "Choyce Words" and "Off the Page"; born in the United States and immigrated to Canada in 1979
April 5 – Lillian Allen, Canadian dub poet
April 21 – Brigit Pegeen Kelly, American poet and academic, daughter of author Robert Glynn Kelly and married to poet Michael Madonick
April 22 – Andrew Hudgins, American poet, essayist and academic
May 9:
Christopher Dewdney, Canadian poet, writer, artist, creative writing teacher and writer in residence at various universities
Jorie Graham, American poet and academic
Joy Harjo, Native-American poet, musician and author
May 30 – Garrett Hongo, American poet and academic, born in Volcano, Hawaii
June 20:
Paul Muldoon Irish poet living in the United States
Noel Rowe (died 2007), Australian, poet, writer, academic and Roman Catholic priest in the Marist order
July 10 – Robert Priest, English-born Canadian poet and children's author
July 25 – Angela Jackson, African American
September 13 – Suzanne Lummis, American poet, teacher and co-founder of the Los Angeles Poetry Festival
October 8 – Jenny Boult, also known as "MML Bliss" (died 2005), Australian
October 12 – Peter Goldsworthy, Australian poet, novelist, short-story writer, opera librettist and medical practitioner
November 13 – Robert Hilles, Canadian poet and novelist
December 13 – Anne-Marie Alonzo (died 2005), Canadian playwright, poet, novelist, critic and publisher
Also:
Ralph Angel, American poet and translator
Robin Becker, American
Peter Boyle, Australian
Ron Charach, Canadian
Peter Christensen, Canadian
Stephen Edgar, Australian poet, editor and indexer
James Galvin, American poet, novelist and writer
Robert Harris (died 1993), Australian
Peter Johnson, American
Jill Jones, Australian poet and writer
Anne Kellas, South African poet, critic and editor, immigrant to Australia
Kim Maltman, Canadian poet and physicist
Pi O, "П O", Australian poet and anarchist
Betsy Struthers, Canadian poet and novelist
Ania Walwicz, Australian poet, writer and artist
Afaa M. Weaver, American
Robert Wrigley, American poet and academic
Eddy Yanofsky, American
Ray A. Young Bear, American
Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
January 17 – Jyoti Prasad Agarwala (born 1903), playwright, songwriter, poet, writer and film maker; Indian, writing in Assamese
January 31 – Seemab Akbarabadi سیماب اکبرآبادی (born 1882) Urdu poet from India
April 3 – Henrik Visnapuu (born 1890), Estonian
June 18 – Angelos Sikelianos (born 1884), Greek
June 28 – Fumiko Hayashi 林 芙美子 (born 1903 or 1904; sources disagree), novelist, writer and poet (a woman; surname: Hayashi)
July 3 – Sydney Jephcott (born 1864), Australian poet
September 18 – Gelett Burgess (born 1866), American artist, art critic, poet, author, and humorist
December 4 – Pedro Salinas (born 1891), Spanish
Also:
Kaykobad (born 1857), Bengali poet
Hertha Kraftner (born 1928), German
Sotiris Skipis (born 1881), Greek
See also
Poetry
List of poetry awards
List of years in poetry