1908 in poetry

Events

• March - Ezra Pound leaves America for Europe. In April, he moves to Venice, where in July he self-publishes his first collection of poems, A Lume Spento. In August he settles in London, where he will remain until 1920 and in December publish A Quinzaine for this Yule.
• Summer - The Marlowe Society stages a production at the New Theatre, Cambridge, of Milton's masque Comus directed by Rupert Brooke.
• Renée Vivien attempts suicide by overdose of laudanum at the Savoy Hotel in London.

  The Poets' Club

• Founding in London of the Poets' Club, a group comprised mainly amateurs which met monthly for most of the year.
• Late in the year - T. E. Hulme reads to the Poets' Club his paper, A Lecture on Modern Poetry, a concise statement of his influential advocacy of free verse.

  Works published in English

Canada">Canadian poetry">Canada

• William Wilfred Campbell, Poetical Tragedies including "Mordred", "Daulac", "Morning" and "Hildebrand
• William Henry Drummond, The Great Fight: Poems and Sketches.'' New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

  United Kingdom">English poetry">United Kingdom

• Lascelles Abercrombie, Interludes and Poems
• Hilaire Belloc, Cautionary Tales for Children
• William Henry Davies, Nature Poems and Others
• Edmund Gosse, The Autumn Garden
• Thomas Hardy, The Dynasts: Part 3
• Minnie Louise Haskins, The Desert, including the poem The Gate of the Year
• Edith Nesbit, Ballads and Lyrics of Socialism
• Stephen Phillips, New Poems
• Ezra Pound, A Quinzaine for this Yule, American poet published in the United Kingdom
• Katharine Tynan, Experiences, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
• William Butler Yeats, The Collected Works in Verse and Prose, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom

  United States">American poetry">United States

• William Stanley Braithwaite, The House of Falling Leaves with Other Poems
• Ezra Pound, American poet published in the United Kingdom and Italy:
• * A Lume Spento, Pound's first poetry collection published at his own expense in Venice
• * A Quinzaine for this Yule, London

  Other in English

• John Le Gay Brereton, Sea and Sky, Australia
• Katharine Tynan, Experiences, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
• Albert D. Watson, The Wing of the Wild-Bird
• William Butler Yeats, The Collected Works in Verse and Prose, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom

  Works published in other languages

French language

France">French poetry">France

• Francis Jammes:
• * Poèmes mesurés
• * Rayons de miel, Paris: Bibliothèque de l'Occident
• Valery Larbaud, Les Poésies de A. O. Barnabooth

  Canada">Canadian poetry">Canada, in French

• Louis-Joseph Doucet, La Chanson du Passant, French language, Canada
• Albert Ferland, Le Canada Chante, French language, Canada

  Other

• C. Subrahamania Bharati, Cutecakitankal, Indian, Tamil-language
• José Santos Chocano, Fiat Lux, Peru
• Louis-Joseph Doucet, Chanson du passant; French language;, Canada
• Albert Ferland, Le Canada chanté, in four volumes, published from this year to 1910, French language, Canada
• Kahlil Gibran, Al-Arwah al-Mutamarrida, Lebanese-born Arabic poet in the United States
• Maria Konopnicka, Rota, Polish

  Awards and honors

• Newdigate Prize - Julian Huxley, "Holyrood"
• Gaisford Prize for Greek Verse Composition - Ronald Knox

  Births

• February 4 - Julian Bell, English poet, and a member of a family whose notable members include his parents, Clive and Vanessa Bell; his aunt, Virginia Woolf; his younger brother, writer Quentin Bell; and writer and painter Angelica Garnett, his half-sister
• March 8 - Ebrahim Al-Arrayedh , Indian-born Bahraini poet
• April 2 - Ronald McCuaig, Australian poet and writer
• April 15 - Denis Devlin, Irish modernist poet and career diplomat
• April 24 - George Oppen, American poet, winner of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize in poetry
• May 25 - Theodore Roethke, American poet
• June 14 - Kathleen Jessie Raine, English poet, critic and scholar
• August 19 - Josephine Jacobsen, American poet, short story writer and critic
• September 1 - Eve Langley, Australian novelist and poet
• September 9 - Cesare Pavese, Italian poet, novelist, literary critic and translator
• October 9 - Harry Hooton, Australian poet and anarchist
• October 12 - Paul Engle, American poet, writer, editor and novelist
• November 28 - Mary Oppen, American activist, artist, photographer and writer
• November 30
• * Buddhadeb Bosu, Bengali poet
• * Eric Irvin, Australian

  Deaths

• January 15 - James Ryder Randall, American journalist and poet
• January 16 - Edmund Clarence Stedman, American poet, critic, essayist, banker and scientist
• May 27 - Alexander Posey, Native American poet, humorist, journalist and politician
• June 23 - Kunikida Doppo 國木田 獨歩, Japanese Meiji period romantic poet and one of the novelists who pioneered naturalism in Japan
• September 21 - Ernest Fenollosa, American orientalist
• October 21 - Charles Eliot Norton, American scholar and man of letters