1922 in poetry
— Opening lines from The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot, first published this year
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Events
- February 2
- * Who Goes with Fergus? by W. B. Yeats is the song that haunts James Joyce's autobiographical character Stephen Dedalus in the novel Ulysses, first published complete in book form today. Stephen sings it to his mother as she lies dying, and her ghost returns to taunt him with it. The poem is Joyce's favorite lyric, and he has composed his own musical setting.
- * In a "savage creative storm" of less than three weeks beginning today at the Château de Muzot in Switzerland, Rainer Maria Rilke writes his Sonnets to Orpheus and completes his Duino Elegies.
- April - The Fugitive is established in Nashville, Tennessee, by John Crowe Ransom and other members of the Vanderbilt University English faculty who become known collectively as the Fugitives.
- June - Over a single night at his home in Shaftsbury, Vermont, Robert Frost completes the long poem "New Hampshire" and at sunrise writes "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening".
- September 22 - Indian Bengali poet Kazi Nazrul Islam publishes the poem "Anandamoyeer Agamane", in support of the Indian independence movement, in the Puja issue of his new biweekly magazine Dhumketu, for which he is arrested by the police of the Bengal Presidency and imprisoned on a charge of sedition for much of the following year, undertaking a hunger strike and composing many poems while in prison. His poem "Bidrohi" is first collected this year in his first anthology, Agnibeena.
- October 15 - T. S. Eliot establishes The Criterion magazine, containing the first publication of his poem The Waste Land. This first appears in the United States later this month in The Dial and is first published complete with notes in book form by Boni and Liveright in New York in December.
- November - Robert Bridges publishes his essay on free verse: 'Humdrum and Harum-Scarum'.
- December 6 - W. B. Yeats becomes a nominated member of the Seanad Éireann in the Irish Free State.
- Pulitzer Prize for Poetry established.
Works published in English
Canada">Canadian poetry">Canada
- William Wilfred Campbell, The Poetical Works of Wilfred Campbell, W.J. Sykes ed.. posthumously published
- William Douw Lighthall, Old Measures .
- Marjorie Pickthall, The Woodcarver’s Wife, and Later Poems]. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart.
Indian">Indian poetry">Indian subcontinent in English">Indian poetry in English">in English
- Swami Ananda Acharya:
- * The Comrade: Poems on Philosophical Themes, Alvdal, Norway: Gaurisankar Brahmakul, 105 pages
- * Usarika, Dawn-Rhythms, Alvdal, Norway: Gaurisankar Brahmakul
- Christina A. Albers, Ancient Tales of Hindustan
- Sri Aurobindo, Baji Prabhou, Pondicherry: Arya Office
- N. M. Chatterjee, Parvati
- Harindranath Chattopadhyaya:
- * The Magic Tree, Madras: Shama's Publishing House
- * Perfume of Earth, Madras: printed at Huxley Press
- Joseph Furtado, Lays of Goa and Lyrics of Goan, a souvenir of the exposition of St. Francis Xavier; Bombay: Furtado and Sons
- Puran Singh, At His Feet, Gwalior,
United Kingdom">English poetry">United Kingdom
- Marion Angus, The Lilt and Other Verses, Scottish poet writing in the Scots language
- Edmund Blunden, The Shepherd, and Other Poems of Peace and War
- Enid Blyton, Child Whispers
- Hilda Conkling, Shoes of the Wind
- A. E. Coppard, Hips and Haws
- John Drinkwater, Preludes 1921–1922
- T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land
- Wilfrid Gibson, Krindlesdyke
- Thomas Hardy, Late Lyrics and Earlier, with Many Other Verses
- A. E. Housman, Last Poems
- James Pittendrigh Macgillivray, Bog Myrtle and Peat Reek, Scottish poet writing chiefly in dialect
- Hughes Mearns, "Antigonish"
- Susan Miles, Annotations
- E. Nesbit, Many Voices
- Alfred Noyes, The Watchers of the Sky, Volume i of the "Torch-Bearers Trilogy", followed by The Book of the Earth, The Last Voyage, published as The Torch-Bearers
- Marjorie Pickthall, The Wood Carver's Wife, including "Marching Men"
- Poems of Today, British poetry anthology, second series
- Isaac Rosenberg, Poems
- Edith Sitwell, Façade, the concert version, with music by William Walton, performed January 1922
- Sacheverell Sitwell, The Hundred and One Harlequins, and Other Poems
- J. C. Squire, Poems: Second Series
- Muriel Stuart, Poems
- W. B. Yeats, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom:
- * Later Poems, Macmillan's Collected Edition of Yeats's Works, volume i
- * Plays in Prose and Verse, Macmillan's Collected Edition of Yeats's Works, volume ii
United States">American poetry">United States
- Conrad Aiken, Priapus and the Pool
- John Peale Bishop, with Edmund Wilson, The Undertaker's Garland
- John Dos Passos, A Pushcart at the Curb
- James Weldon Johnson, Book of American Negro Poetry
- Claude McKay, Harlem Shadows
- Hughes Mearns, Antigonish, often called "The Little Man Who Wasn't There"; inspired by reports of a ghost of a man roaming the stairs of a haunted house in Antigonish, Nova Scotia; first published on March 22 by Franklin Pierce Adams in his New York World column; later a popular song
- Louise Pound, American Ballads and Songs
- Elizabeth Madox Roberts, Under the Tree
- Carl Sandburg, Slabs of the Sunburnt West
- George Santayana, Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies
- Gertrude Stein, Geography and Plays
- John Hall Wheelock, The Black Panther
- William Carlos Williams, Spring and All, including "The Red Wheelbarrow"
- Yvor Winters, The Magpie's Shadow
Other
- W. B. Yeats, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom:
- * Later Poems, Macmillan's Collected Edition of Yeats's Works, volume i
- * Plays in Prose and Verse, Macmillan's Collected Edition of Yeats's Works, volume ii
Works published in other languages
France">French poetry">France
- Paul Claudel, Poèmes de guerre
- Francis Jammes, Livres des quatrains, published each year from this year to 1925
- Oscar Vladislas de Lubicz-Milosz, also known as O. V. de L. Milosz, La Confession de Lemuel
- Alphonse Métérié, Le Livre des soeurs
- Pierre Reverdy, Cravates de chanvre
- Philippe Soupault, Westwego
- Paul Valéry, Charmes
Germany">German poetry">Germany
- Rainer Maria Rilke completes both the Duino Elegies and the Sonnets to Orpheus; Germany
- Kurt Schwitters:
- * Anna Blume, Dichtungen, including "An Anna Blume" ; a second, revised edition with nine instead of the original 20 poems, and with the addition of translations of Anna Blume into English, French and Russian; published by Verlag Paul Steegemann, Hanover, Germany
- * Memoiren Anna Blumes in Bleie, a chronicle and parody of reactions to the original Anna Blume, Dichtungen of 1919
Spanish language
- Xavier Abril, Hollywood, Peru
- Manuel Maples Arce, Andamios interiores, Mexico
- Gerardo Diego, Manual de espumas, Spain
- Gabriela Mistral, Desolación, including "Decalogo del artista", New York : Instituto de las Españas; Chilean poet published in the United States
- César Vallejo, Trilce, Peru
- Pablo de Rokha: Los gemidos
Other languages
- Anna Akhmatova, Anno Domini MCMXXI, Soviet Union
- Mário de Andrade, Paulicéia Desvairada, Brazil
- Tom Kristensen, Paafuglefjeren, Denmark
- Mohammad Yamin, Tanah Air, Indonesia, modern Malay language
Awards and honors
- Edwin Arlington Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his Collected Poems
- Hawthornden Prize for poetry: Edmund Blunden
Births
- January 22 – Vernon Scannell, born John Vernon Bain, English poet, author and professional boxer
- February 25 – Leland Bardwell, Indian-born Irish poet and novelist
- March 12 – Jack Kerouac, American novelist, writer, poet, artist, and part of the Beat Generation school of poetry
- April 16 – Kingsley Amis, English novelist and poet
- May 21 – Dorothy Hewett, Australian feminist poet, novelist, librettist and playwright
- June 9 – John Gillespie Magee, Jr., Anglo–American aviator and poet
- June 30
- * Amulya Barua, Indian, Assamese-language
- * Miron Białoszewski, Polish poet and playwright
- July 6 – Carilda Oliver Labra, Cuban
- July 17 – Donald Davie, English poet and critic, member of the Movement
- July 26 – Chairil Anwar, Indonesian poet of the "1945 Generation"
- August 9 – Philip Larkin, English poet, novelist, jazz critic and librarian
- August 26 – Elizabeth Brewster, Canadian poet and academic
- September 12 – Jackson Mac Low, American poet, performance artist, composer and playwright
- November 13 – Makarand Dave, Indian, Gujarati-language poet, writer and editor
- November 24 – Aris Alexandrou, Greek novelist, poet and translator
- November 25 – Fumiko Nakajo 中城ふみ子, pen name of Noe Fumiko 野江富美子, Japanese tanka poet with a turbulent life
- December 3 – Eli Mandel, Canadian poet and literary academic
- Also –
- * Peter Bladen, Australian
- * Ahmad Hardi, Kurdish
Deaths
- January 21 – John Kendrick Bangs, 59, American author, satirist, poet and the creator of Bangsian fantasy, a school of fantasy writing that sets the plot wholly or partially in the afterlife
- February 2 – Zahida Khatun Sherwani, writing as Zay Khay Sheen, Indian Urdu language woman poet
- February 3 – John Butler Yeats, Irish painter and poet, father of W. B. Yeats
- April 19 - Marjorie Pickthall, English-born Canadian writer.
- May 13 – Sir Walter Raleigh, Scottish scholar, poet and author
- June 28 – Velimir Khlebnikov, 36, Russian Futurist poet and writer
- July 8 – Mori Ōgai 森 鷗外 / 森 鴎外, Japanese physician, translator, novelist and poet
- August 2 – M. A. Bayfield, 70, English classical scholar and writer on poetry
- September 2 – Henry Lawson, 55, Australian writer and poet
- September 10 – Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, 82, British poet and writer
- November 27 – Alice Meynell, 75, née Thompson, English writer, editor, critic and suffragist, remembered mainly as a poet
- December 4 – Josephine Peabody, American poet and playwright