1954 in poetry

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

List of years in poetry (table)
… 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 …
In literature 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957
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Events

• January 25 – Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood is broadcast posthumously on BBC Radio.
• February – W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman move to an apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
• Spring – Robert Creeley founds and edits the Black Mountain Review.[1]
• Publication of American literary theorist William K. Wimsatt's collected essays Verbal Icon: Studies in the Meaning of Poetry, including the influential critical essays “The Intentional Fallacy” and “The Affective Fallacy” cowritten with Monroe Beardsley.[2]
• Jack Kerouac reads Dwight Goddard's A Buddhist Bible, which will influence him greatly.

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

• Daryl Hine, Five Poems[3]
• Irving Layton, In the Midst of My Fever. Palma de Mallorca, Spain: Divers Press.[4]
• Irving Layton, The Long Pea-Shooter. Montreal: Laocoon Press.[4][5]
• Jay Macpherson, O Earth Return[3]
• P. K. Page, The Metal and the Flower, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, Canada[6]
• Raymond Souster, A Dream That Is Dying. Toronto: Contact Press[7]
• Raymond Souster, Walking Death. Toronto: Contact Press.[7]
• F. R. Scott, Events and Signals. Toronto: Ryerson Press.[8]
• A. J. M. Smith, A Sort of Ecstasy; Michigan State College Press / Ryerson Press.

India, in English

• Sri Aurobindo:
  • Collected Poems (Poetry in English), Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram[9]
  • Savitri ( Poetry in English ), Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram[10]
• R. de L. Furtado, The Centre, Hamilton, Ontario: Cromlech Press; Indian author published in Canada[11]
• Nizamat Jung, Poems (Poetry in English), edited and published by Zahir Ahmed in Hyderabad[12]
• Prithwi Singh Nahar, The Wind of Silence (Poetry in English), songs, sonnets and other poems; Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram[13]
• C. Raju, This Modern Age, foreword by Amarnath Jha[11]
• K. S. R. Sastry, A Vision of India, Madras: Raja Power Press[14]

United Kingdom

• W. H. Auden, The Shield of Achilles, English poet living in the United States at this time
• Sir John Betjeman, A Few Late Chrysanthemums
• George Mackay Brown, The Storm, Scotland
• Thom Gunn, Fighting Terms, Fantasy Press
• John Heath-Stubbs, A Charm Against the Toothace
• Philip Larkin, The Less Deceived
• David Raikes (posthumous), The Poems of David Raikes

Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United Kingdom

• P. Cruttwell, The Shakespearean Moment, criticism, United Kingdom[15]
• G. Hartmann, The Unmediated Vision, criticism, United Kingdom[15]
• W. K. Wimsatt Jr., The Verbal Icon, criticism, United Kingdom[15]
• Jon Silkin, The Peaceable Kingdom, including "Death of a Son (who died in a mental hospital aged one)"
• Dylan Thomas, Quite Early One Morning, New Directions Publishers

United States

• Léonie Adams, Poems[16]
• W. H. Auden, The Shield of Achilles, English poet living in the United States at this time
• Louise Bogan, Collected Poems, 1923–1953[16]
• E. E. Cummings, Poems, 1923–1954[16]
• Babette Deutsch, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral[16]
• Anthony Hecht, A Summoning of Stones[16]
• Daniel G. Hoffman, An Armada of Thirty Wales[16]
• Robinson Jeffers, Hungerfield and Other Poems[16]
• Weldon Kees, Poems 1947–1954[16]
• Archibald MacLeish, Songs for Eve[16]
• W. S. Merwin, The Dancing Bears, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press (reprinted as part of The First Four Books of Poems, 1975)[17]
• Edna St. Vincent Millay, Mine the Harvest[16]
• Marianne Moore, The Fables of La Fontaine[16]
• Howard Moss, The Toy Fair[16]
• Kenneth Patchen, The Famous Boating Party[16]
• May Swenson, Another Animal[16]
• Wallace Stevens, The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens, includes "The Rock," previously unpublished section including "The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain," "A Quiet Normal Life," "Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour," "The Rock," "The Planet on the Table," and "Not Ideas about the Thing but the Thing Itself"), Knopf[18]
• E. B. White, The Second Tree from the Corner[16]
• William Carlos Williams, The Desert Music and Other Poems

Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United States

• Hugh Kenner, Wyndham Lewis: A Critical Guidebook, criticism, United States
• W. C. Williams, Selected Essays, criticism, United States[19]

Other

• Martin Carter, Poems of Resistance, Guyana[20]
• Wilson Harris, Eternity to Season, Guyana[20]
• Frank Prince, Soldiers Bathing and Other Poems, South African
• Keith Sinclair, Strangers or Beasts: Poems, New Zealand

Works published in other languages

French language

Canada, in French

• Jean-Guy Pilon, Les cloîtres de l'été, Montréal: l'Hexagone[21]

France

• Louis Aragon, Les Yeux et la memoire[22]
• Jean Cocteau, Clair–obscur[23]
• René Daumal, Poésie noire, poésie blanche, posthumously published (died 1944)[23]
• Jean Follain, Appareil de la terre[23]
• Jean Grosjean, Fils de l'homme[23]
• Henri Michaux, Face au verrous[22]

India

In each section, listed in alphabetical order by first name:

Hindi

• Girija Kumar Mathur, Dhup ke dhan[24]
• Namvar Singh, Chayavad, literary criticism that offers a radically new interpretation of the romantic movement in Hindi poetry; shows the social foundations of Hindi romanticism and its ties to the progressive movement that followed it[24]
• Premchand, Sahitya Ka Uddesya, literary essays; published posthumously[24]

Malayalam

• P. K. Paramesvaran Nair, Adhunika Sahitya Caritram, history of Malayalam literature (later translated into English and published by Sahitya Akademi in 1967 under the title History of Malayalam Literature)[24]
• P. Kunjiraman Nair, Kaliyacchan, poems reflecting traditional ways of life in Kerala[24]
• Sreedhara Menon, Kunnimenikal[24]
• Sukumar Azhikode, Asante Sitakavyam, critical assessment of Kumaran Asan's Cintavishtayaya[24]

Urdu

• Gian Chand Jain, Urdu ki nasri dastanen, literary criticism on classical Urdu fiction ("dastan"), written in that language[24]
• Jigar Brelvi, Payam-i Savitri, a narrative poem on Savitri, a figure from Hindu mythology; Urdu[24]
• Masood Husain Khan, Urdu zaban aur adab, critical study on the Urdu language and literature[24]

Other languages of the Indian subcontinent

• Baldev Gajra, also known as "Gumnam", Gumnam Sada, nationalist poems; Sindhi[24]
• Buddhadeb Basu, Sahitya Carca, essays on various literary topics; Bengali[24]
• Jayant Pathak, Marmar, the author's first poetry collection; Gujarati[24]
• M. Gopalakrishna Adiga, Cendemaddale, Kannada[24]
• Mohan Singh, Awazan, lyrics with a "romantic progressive ideology", according to Indian academic Sisir Kumar Das; Punjabi[24]
• Nand Lal Ambardar, Loel Ta Husun, including "Roopavat", Kashmiri[24]
• Nirendranath Chakraborty (also transliterated into English as Nirendranath Chakravarti, ), Nilnirjan (also transliterated into English as Nirendranath Chakravarti), mostly love poems, although one or two have political elements,[24] Kolkata: Signet Press; Bengali-language[25]
• Raghunath Singh Samyal, Dogra Desa Te Dogari Boli, Dogri poetry praising Dograland, Dogra people and the Dogri language[24]
• Tulasibahadur Chetri, nicknamed "Apatan", Samkalpa ("Resolve"), Nepali[24]
• Madhunapantula Satyanarayanashastri, also spelled "Madhunapantula Satyanarayana Sastri", Andhra Puranamu, Telugu, (surname: Madhunapantula)[24]
• Manoj Das, Padadvani, Oriya[24]
• Satramdas, also known as "Sail", Rama Katha, 32 cantos in a Persian meter, written in the wake of the partition of India in 1947; Sindhi[24]
• Visvanatha Satyanarayana, Nannayagari prasanna Katha Kalitartha Yukti, critical appraisal of Nannaya; Telugu[24]

Other languages

• Simin Behbahani, Ja-ye Pa ("Footprint"), Persia
• José Santos Chocano, Obras completas, pról. de Luis Alberto Sánchez Madrid, Aguilar, Peruvian poetry published in Spain[26]
• Haim Gouri, Shirei Hotam ("Poems of the Seal"), Israeli writing in Hebrew[27]
• Sorley MacLean, Hallaig, Scottish Gaelic (in Gairm 8)[28]
• Pier Paolo Pasolini, La meglio gioventù, Italy (dialect)
• Maria Luisa Spaziani, Le acque del sabato, Italy
• Wisława Szymborska, Pytania zadawane sobie ("Questioning Yourself"), Poland
• Tin Ujević, Žedan kamen na studencu ("Thirsty stone at the wellspring"), Croatian

Awards and honors

• National Book Award for Poetry: Conrad Aiken, Collected Poems
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Theodore Roethke: The Waking
• King's Gold Medal for Poetry: Ralph Hodgson
• Bollingen Prize: W. H. Auden
• Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Louise Townsend Nicholl and Oliver St. John Gogarty
• Canada: Governor General's Award, poetry or drama: The Metal and the Flower, P. K. Page[29]

Births

Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:

• February 9 – Ian Duhig, English poet
• February 13 – Vijay Seshadri, Indian poet, essayist and literary critic who emigrates to the United States c. 1959
• February 21 – Francisco X. Alarcón (died 2016), Mexican-American poet
• February 27 – Thylias Moss, African-American poet, writer and playwright
• March 4 – Irina Ratushinskaya, Russian samizdat poet
• March 26 – Dorothy Porter (died 2008), Australian
• April 17 – Erin Mouré, Canadian
• May 5 – Hamid Ismailov, Uzbek writer
• May 25 – Alexei Parshchikov (died 2009), Russian poet, critic and translator who emigrates to the United States in 1991
• July 5 – Kevin Hart, Australian
• July 19 – Jane Eaton Hamilton, Canadian short story writer, poet and photographer
• July 31 – Kim Addonizio, American poet and novelist
• August 6 – Lorna Dee Cervantes, American poet
• August 8 – Yu Jian, China[30]
• August 15 – Mary Jo Salter, American
• October 15 – Peter Bakowski, Australian
• November 10 – Joy Goswami, Indian Bengali poet (a man)
• December 5 – Lynda Hull, American
• December 20 – Sandra Cisneros, American poet and author
• December 27 – David Baker, American
• Also:
  • Catherine Anderson (poet), American
  • Robert Boates, Canadian
  • Janet Charman, New Zealand
  • Imtiaz Dharker, Pakistan-born British
  • Cornelius Eady, African American
  • David Hallett, Australian
  • Sotiris Kakisis, Greek
  • Jan Heller Levi, American
  • Ahmed Matar, Iraqi poet
  • Ibrahim Nasrallah, Jordanian-Palestinian poet and novelist
  • Luis J. Rodriguez, American poet, novelist, journalist, critic and columnist
  • Stephen Sartarelli, poet and translator
  • Deb Westbury (died 2018),[31] Australian

Deaths

Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:

• January 1 – Leonard Bacon, 66 (born 1887), American poet
• February 6 – Maxwell Bodenheim, 62 (born 1892), American poet and novelist known as the "King of Greenwich Village Bohemians", murdered
• March 28 – Francis Brett Young, 73 (born 1884), English novelist and poet
• August 3 – Fumiko Nakajo 中城ふみ子, pen name of Noe Fumiko 野江富美子, 32 (born 1922), Japanese tanka poet who dies young after a turbulent life and struggle with breast cancer, as recorded in her poetry (surname: Nakajo)
• August 18 – Samukawa Sokotsu 寒川鼠骨 (born 1875), Japanese, Meiji period haiku poet; Masaoka Shiki's pupil.
• October 22
  • Jibanananda Das (born 1899), Bengali poet
  • Oswald de Andrade (born 1890), Brazilian poet and polemicist

See also

• Poetry
• List of poetry awards
• List of years in poetry

Notes

1. Everett, Nicholas, "Robert Creeley's Life and Career" at the Modern American Poetry website, accessed May 1, 2008
2. Leitch, Vincent B.; Cain, William E.; Finke, Laurie A.; Johnson, Barbara E.; McGowan, John; Williams, Jeffrey J. (2001). "William K. Wimsatt Jr. and Monroe C. Beardsley". In Leitch, Vincent B. (ed.). The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: W. W. Norton & Co. pp. 1371–1374.
3. Gustafson, Ralph, The Penguin Book of Canadian Verse, revised edition, 1967, Baltimore, Maryland: Penguin Books
4. "Irving Layton: Publications," Canadian Poetry Online, Web, May 7, 2011.
5. Irving Layton: Publications," Canadian Poetry Online, Web, May 7, 2011.
6. Web page titled "Canadian Poets / P. K. Page, Published Works", at the University of Toronto Library website, retrieved January 3, 2009
7. "Notes on Life and Works Archived 2011-08-17 at the Wayback Machine," Selected Poetry of Raymond Souster, Representative Poetry Online, UToronto.ca, Web, May 7, 2011.
8. "F.R. Scott: Publications," Canadian Poetry Online, UToronto.ca, Web, May 7, 2011.
9. R. Saraswathi, "The Theme of Love in Sri Aurobindo's Savitri", p 64, in Indian English Poetry: Critical Perspectives, edited by Jaydipsinh Dodiya, 2000, Delhi: Prabhat Kumar Sharma for Sarup & Sons, ISBN 81-7625-111-9, retrieved via Google Books on July 17, 2010
10. R. Saraswathi, "The Theme of Love in Sri Aurobindo's Savitri", p 63, in Indian English Poetry: Critical Perspectives, edited by Jaydipsinh Dodiya, 2000, Delhi: Prabhat Kumar Sharma for Sarup & Sons, ISBN 81-7625-111-9, retrieved via Google Books on July 17, 2010
11. Lal, P., Modern Indian Poetry in English: An Anthology & a Credo, p 439, Calcutta: Writers Workshop, second edition, 1971 (however, on page 597 an "editor's note" states contents "on the following pages are a supplement to the first edition" and is dated "1972")
12. Vinayak Krishna Gokak, The Golden Treasury Of Indo-Anglian Poetry (1828-1965), p 313, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi (1970, first edition; 2006 reprint), ISBN 81-260-1196-3, retrieved August 6, 2010
13. Vinayak Krishna Gokak, The Golden Treasury Of Indo-Anglian Poetry (1828-1965), p 322, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi (1970, first edition; 2006 reprint), ISBN 81-260-1196-3, retrieved August 6, 2010
14. Vinayak Krishna Gokak, The Golden Treasury Of Indo-Anglian Poetry (1828-1965), p 314, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi (1970, first edition; 2006 reprint), ISBN 81-260-1196-3, retrieved August 6, 2010
15. Preminger, Alex, and Brogan, T.V.F., editors, The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Princeton University Press, 1993, "English Poetry" article, "History and Criticism" section, p 353
16. Ludwig, Richard M., and Clifford A. Nault, Jr., Annals of American Literature: 1602–1983, 1986, New York: Oxford University Press ("If the title page is one year later than the copyright date, we used the latter since publishers frequently postdate books published near the end of the calendar year." — from the Preface, p vi)
17. Web page titled "W. S. Merwin (1927- )" at the Poetry Foundation Web site, retrieved June 8, 2010
18. Web page titled "Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955)" at the Poetry Foundation website, retrieved April 9, 2009. Archived 2009-05-04.
19. Preminger, Alex, and Brogan, T.V.F., editors, The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Princeton University Press, 1993, "American Poetry" article, "History and Criticism" section, p 66
20. "Selected Timeline of Anglophone Caribbean Poetry" in Williams, Emily Allen, Anglophone Caribbean Poetry, 1970–2001: An Annotated Bibliography, page xvii and following pages, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002, ISBN 978-0-313-31747-7, retrieved via Google Books, February 7, 2009
21. Web page titled "Jean-Guy Pilon" Archived 2011-07-06 at the Wayback Machine at L’Académie des lettres du Québec website (in French), retrieved October 20, 2010
22. Auster, Paul, editor, The Random House Book of Twentieth-Century French Poetry: with Translations by American and British Poets, New York: Random House, 1982 ISBN 0-394-52197-8
23. Brée, Germaine, Twentieth-Century French Literature, translated by Louise Guiney, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1983
24. Das, Sisir Kumar and various, History of Indian Literature: 1911-1956: struggle for freedom: triumph and tragedy, Volume 2, 1995, published by Sahitya Akademi, ISBN 978-81-7201-798-9, retrieved via Google Books on December 23, 2008
25. Web page title "Nirendranath Chakravarti" Archived 2012-02-14 at the Wayback Machine, at the Poetry International website, retrieved July 15, 2010
26. Web page titled "José Santos Chocano" Archived August 23, 2012, at the Wayback Machine at the Jaume University website, retrieved August 29, 2011
27. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-10-06.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Web page titled "Haim Gouri" at the Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature Web site, accessed October 6, 2007
28. "Poetry in Periodicals and Anthologies". Sorley MacLean. Retrieved 2011-04-01.
29. "Cumulative List of Winners of the Governor General's Literary Awards", Canada Council. Web, Feb. 10, 2011. http://www.canadacouncil.ca/NR/rdonlyres/E22B9A3C-5906-41B8-B39C-F91F58B3FD70/0/cumulativewinners2010rev.pdf
30. Patten, Simon, "Yu Jian", article at Poetry International retrieved November 22, 2008
31. Pretty, Ron (9 April 2018). "Deb Westbury, poet of the senses and Struggle Street". Retrieved 27 May 2018.