1934 in poetry

Events

• April 6 - Rudyard Kipling and W. B. Yeats are awarded the Gothenburg Prize for Poetry.
• September - T. S. Eliot visits the English Cotswolds manor house and garden which gives rise to his poem Burnt Norton.
• September 21 - The Barretts of Wimpole Street, a film directed by Sidney Franklin with Norma Shearer as Elizabeth Barrett and Fredric March as Robert Browning, is released in the United States; remade in 1957, less successfully
• Bengali poet Buddhadeb Bosu marries singer and writer Protiva Bose.
• The University Review is founded at the University of Kansas City. The publication is later called New Letters.
• West Indian Review founded.

  Works published in English

Canada">Canadian poetry">Canada

• Kenneth Leslie, Windward Rock: Poems. New York: Macmillan.
• Tom MacInnes, High Low Along.
• Frederick George Scott, Collected Poems. Vancouver: Clarke & Stuart Co. Ltd.
• Charles G.D. Roberts, The Iceberg and Other Poems..
• Theodore Goodridge Roberts, The Leather Bottle
• Seranus, Penelope and Other Poems.

  India">Indian poetry">India, in English">Indian poetry in English">in English

• Sri Aurobindo, Six Poems, Chandernagore: Rameshwar and Co.
• Harindranath Chattopadhyaya, Cross Road, Madras: Shama's Publishing House
• P. R. Kaikini, Flower Offerings ; Bombay: Bombay Book Depot
• E. E. Speight, editor, Indian Masters of English, London: Longmans, Green; anthology; published in the United Kingdom

  United Kingdom">English poetry">United Kingdom

• Edmund Blunden, Choice or Chance
• Maud Bodkin, Archetypal Patterns of Poetry: Psychological Studies of Imagination, criticism
• Lilian Bowes Lyon, The White Hare
• Roy Campbell, Broken Record, the first version of his autobiography; South African native published in the United Kingdom
• Helen Cruickshank, Up the Noran Water, Scottish poet
• Lawrence Durrell, Transition
• T. S. Eliot, The Rock
• William Golding, Poems
• Pauline Gower, Piffling Poems for Pilots
• I. M. and H. Hubbard, The War Resisters, and Other Poems
• T. L. W. Hubbard, Poems, 1925-1934
• John Lehmann, The Noise of History
• Hugh MacDiarmid, pen name of Christopher Murray Grieve, Stony Limits and Other Poems, Scottish poet
• Ruth Pitter, A Mad Lady's Garland, preface by Hilaire Belloc
• Nan Shepherd, In the Cairngorms
• William Soutar, The Solitary Way
• E. E. Speight, editor, Indian Masters of English, London: Longmans, Green; anthology; Indian poetry in English, published in the United Kingdom
• Stephen Spender, Vienna
• Dylan Thomas, 18 Poems, including "The Force that Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower"
• W. B. Yeats, The King of the Great Clock Tower, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom

  United States">American poetry">United States

• James Agee, Permit Me Voyage
• W. H. Auden, Poems
• Paul Engle, American Song
• John A. Lomax, compiler, with Alan Lomax, American Ballads and Folk Songs
• Edna St. Vincent Millay, Wine From These Grapes
• George Oppen, Discrete Series
• Ezra Pound:
• * Eleven new Cantos: XXXI-XLI
• *Homage to Sextus Propertius, London
• * "Make It New"
• Edward Arlington Robinson, Amaranth
• Jesse Stuart, Man with a Bull-Tongue Plow
• William Carlos Williams, Collected Poems 1921-1931
• Yvor Winters, Before Disaster

  Other in English

• R. A. K. Mason, No New Thing, New Zealand
• Shaw Neilson, Collected Poems of John Shaw Neilson, edited and with introduction by R. H. Croll, Melbourne, Lothian, Australia
• W. B. Yeats, The King of the Great Clock Tower, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom

  Works published in other languages

France">French poetry">France

• Louis Aragon, Hourra l'oural
• André Breton, L'Air de l'eau
• René Char, Le Marteau sans maître
• Paul Éluard, pen name of Paul-Eugène Grindel, La Rose publique
• Alphonse Métérié:
• * Petit maroc II
• * Cophetuesques
• Benjamin Péret, De derrière les fagots
• Jules Supervielle, Les Amis inconnus

  Indian">Indian poetry">Indian subcontinent

Hindi">Hindi poetry">Hindi

• Gopal Sharan, Umanga, on themes of patriotism and love of nature
• Mahadevi Varma, Nirja
• Rameshvar Shukla, Kiran Bela

  Kashmiri">Kashmiri poetry">Kashmiri

• Fazil Kashmiri, Saz-e-Chaman
• Mahjoor, "Nera Ha Sanyas Lagith", a poem published in a special number of Martand
• Man Ji Suri, Krishna Avtar, a masnavi on Krishna, but also including devotional lyrics in the vatsan form

  Telugu">Telugu poetry">Telugu

• Durbhaka Rajesekhara Satavadhani, Rana Pratapa Simha Caritra, called one of the "five modern epics", or Panca Kavya's in Telugu poetry; written in 5 cantos, with about 2,000 verses, in classical style, based on the Annals and Andiquities of Rajasthan by James Dodd
• Meka Ramachandra Appa Rao, translator, Amaruka, translation from English of Omar Khayyam's Rubbayit
• Tripurancni Ramaswami, Sutapuranam, poem criticizing Aryan mythologies; written in a classical style
• Pingali Lakshmikantam and Katuri Venkateshvara Rao, Saundaranandamu, epic in nine cantos, based on a Sanskrit poem by Asvagosha

  Other Indian languages

• D. R. Bendre, also known as Ambikatanaya Datta, Murtu Mattu Kamakasturi, long, philosophical poem in 11 parts and 15 love songs; influenced by A.E.'s The Candle of Vision; Kannada
• Govinda Krishna Chettur, The Shadow of God, 37 sonnets in Kashmiri and a short prefatory poem in English; modeled on Alfred Lord Tennyson's In Memoriam
• Khavirakpan, Smaran mangal Kavya, humorous poems in Meitei
• Kirpa Sagar, Dido Jamval, epic on the actions of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in the Jammu area; Punjabi
• Masti Venkatesa Iyengar, Malara, a book that introduced the sonnet form into Kannada poetry; the 82 sonnets approach different subjects, including day-to-day life and the change of seasons, from a very religious point of view and in an uncomplicated, conversational style
• N. Balamani Amma, Amma, on a mother's love and a child's innocence; Malayalam
• Narayan Murlidhar Gupte, writing under the pen name "Bee", Phulanci Onjal, showing the influence of Kesavsut; Marathi
• Pramathanath Bisi, Pracin Asami Haite, sonnets written from 1924 to 1927 from the most prolific published sonnet-writer in Bengali; a companion volume, Bracin Parasik Haite, was published in the late 1960s
• Umashankur Joshi, Gangotri, Gujarati-language
• Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Savarakaranci Sphuta Kavita, including "Sagaras", and patriotic poems such as "Maze Mrtypatra" and "Maranonmukh Sayyevar" ; by a Marathi revolutionary

  Other languages

• José Santos Chocano, Primicias de Oro de Indias, Peru
• Constantin S. Nicolăescu-Plopșor – Ghileà romanè
• Martinus Nijhoff, Awater, Netherlands
• Alejandro Peralta, El Kollao, Peru
• Heiti Talvik, Palavik, Estonia
• Ernst Volkman, ed., Deutsche Dichtung im Weltkrieg, Germany

  Awards and honors

• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Robert Hillyer: Collected Verse
• Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Laurence Whistler

  Births

• January 6 - John Wieners, American lyric poet
• February 10 - Fleur Adcock, expatriate New Zealand poet and editor who lives much of her life in England
• February 18 - Audre Lorde, American writer, poet and activist
• February 27 - N. Scott Momaday, Native American poet and writer
• March 31 - Kamala Das, Indian poet and writer in English and Malayalam, her native language
• March 20 - David Malouf, Australian poet and writer
• April 11 - Mark Strand, American poet
• April 12 - Anselm Hollo, Finnish-American poet and translator also resident for eight years in the United Kingdom, where his poems are included in British poetry anthologies.
• May 10 - Jayne Cortez, African-American poet
• July 1 - James Liddy, Irish American poet
• July 13 - Wole Soyinka, Nigerian writer, poet and playwright who in 1986 is the first African to win the Nobel Prize in Literature
• July 17 - Rainer Kirsch, German writer and poet
• July 18 - Walt McDonald, American poet and academic
• July 20 - Henry Dumas, African-American writer and poet
• August 5 - Wendell Berry, American novelist, essayist, poet, professor, cultural critic and farmer
• August 6 - Diane Di Prima, American poet associated with the Beats
• September 2 - Jack Agüeros, American community activist, poet, writer and translator
• September 7 - Sunil Gangopadhyay, Indian Bengali-language poet
• September 9 - Sonia Sanchez, African-American poet, playwright and children's book author associated with the Black Arts Movement
• September 21 - Leonard Cohen, Canadian-born poet, singer-songwriter and novelist
• September 23 - M. Travis Lane, American-Canadian poet
• October 7 - Amiri Baraka, born LeRoi Jones, African-American poet, playwright, essayist and music critic whose first wife is poet Hettie Jones
• October 24 - Adrian Mitchell, English poet, playwright, children's author, journalist and political activist
• November 7 - Beverly Dahlen, American poet
• November 15 - Ted Berrigan, American poet and political activist
• November 19 - Joanne Kyger, American poet
• November 25 - Shakti Chattopadhyay, Bengali poet
• November 28 - Ted Walker English poet, short story writer, travel writer, television and radio dramatist and broadcaster
• December 17 - Binoy Majumdar, Bengali poet
• Also:
• * Muhammad al-Maghut, Syrian Ismaili poet
• * Stephen Berg, American
• * Hettie Jones, born Hettie Cohen, American poet, writer and former wife of Amiri Baraka
• * Sugatha Kumari, Indian, Malayalam-language poet
• * Heather Spears, Canadian-born poet, novelist and artist

  Deaths

• January 8 - Andrei Bely, Russian novelist, poet and critic
• March 7 - Ernst Enno, Estonian
• March 25 - Arthur Alfred Lynch, Australian-born, Irish and British civil engineer, physician, journalist, author, soldier, anti-imperialist and polymath who served as a member of the House of Commons after being convicted of treason, sentenced to death, having his sentence reduced and then being released ; towards the end of World War I raised his own Irish battalion
• June 14 - John Gray, English
• July 4 - Hayim Nahman Bialik, Hebrew
• August 19 - Jean Blewett, Canadian
• September 26 - Inoue Kenkabō 井上剣花坊 pen name of Inoue Koichi, late Meiji, Taishō and early Shōwa period Japanese journalist and writer of senryū
• December 3 - Catherine Pozzi, French poet and woman of letters
• John Ferrar Holms, British critic