1857 in poetry

Events

• Commissioned with other Hungarian poets to write a poem of praise for a visit of Franz Joseph I of Austria to his country, János Arany instead produces the subversive ballad The Bards of Wales, unpublished until 1863.

  Works published in English

United Kingdom">English poetry">United Kingdom

• Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh, dated this year but first published at the end of 1856
• Edward Bulwer-Lytton, writing under the pen name "Owen Meredith", The Wanderer
• Elizabeth Gaskell, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, Smith, Elder & Co., biography
• Frederick Locker, London Lyrics
• Denis MacCarthy, Underglimpses, and Other Poems
• Theodore Martin, translated from Adam Oehlenschlager, Aladdin; or, The Wonderful Lamp

  United States">American poetry">United States

• William Allen Butler, Nothing to Wear, published posthumously ; the poem sold well, despite the financial panic; when a woman declared she was the author, the resulting controversy helped sales
• Paul Hamilton Hayne, Sonnets and Other Poems
• Francis Scott Key, Poems
• James Lawson, Poems
• Alexander Beaufort Meek, Songs and Poems of the South
• Mortimer Thomson, writing under the pen name "Q. K. Philander Doesticks, P. B.", Nothing to Say: A Slight Slap at Mobocratic Snobbery, Which Has "Nothing to Do" with "Nothing to Wear" on the controversy over the authorship of William Allen Butler's poem Nothing to Wear; Thomson was offered a dollar a line for a poem on the subject, submitted an 800-line poem and was paid in full; illustrated by John McLenan; the book sold well
• Richard Henry Stoddard, Songs of Summer
• John Greenleaf Whittier:
• * The Sycamores
• * The Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier

  Other in English

• Charles Heavysege, Saul: A Drama in Three Parts, first edition ; Canada
• James Lionel Michael, Songs without Music, lyrics, Australia

  Works published in other languages

• Théodore de Banville, Odes funambulesques, France
• Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal, France
• Giosuè Carducci, Rime, Italy
• Rosalia de Castro, La Flor, Galician Spanish poet, writing in Spanish
• Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, Kalevipoeg, Estonia, revised version begins first publication
• Jan Neruda, Hřbitovní kvítí, Czech

  Births

• March 17 - Benjamin Franklin King, Jr., American poet
• April 11 - John Davidson, Scottish poet and playwright
• April 17 - Jane Barlow, Irish poet and novelist
• June 13 - Hubert Newman Wigmore Church, Australian
• September 22 - James Hebblethwaite, Australian
• Undated - Kaikobad , pen name of Kazem Al Quereshi, Bengali poet

  Deaths

• February 9 - Dionysios Solomos Διονύσιος Σολωμός, Greek poet best known for the Hymn to Liberty, the first two stanzas of which became the Greek national anthem
• March 11 - Manuel José Quintana, Spanish
• April 11 - John Davidson, Scottish poet and playwright
• May 2 - Alfred de Musset, French poet and novelist
• June 25 - Isabella Kelly, Scottish-born novelist and poet
• October 14 - Alexander Laing, Scottish poet
• November 26 - Joseph von Eichendorff, German poet and novelist
• December 13 - Richard Furness, "The Poet of Eyam", English
• Undated - Anna Ehrenström, Swedish poet