1954 in poetry

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.
• 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.
• Jack Kerouac reads Dwight Goddard's A Buddhist Bible, which will influence him greatly.

  Works published in English

Canada">Canadian poetry">Canada

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

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

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

  United Kingdom">English poetry">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, The Poems of David Raikes

  Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United Kingdom

• P. Cruttwell, The Shakespearean Moment, criticism, United Kingdom
• G. Hartmann, The Unmediated Vision, criticism, United Kingdom
• W. K. Wimsatt Jr., The Verbal Icon, criticism, United Kingdom
• Jon Silkin, The Peaceable Kingdom, including "Death of a Son "
• Dylan Thomas, Quite Early One Morning, New Directions Publishers

  United States">American poetry">United States

• Léonie Adams, Poems
• W. H. Auden, The Shield of Achilles, English poet living in the United States at this time
• Louise Bogan, Collected Poems, 1923-1953
• E. E. Cummings, Poems, 1923-1954
• Babette Deutsch, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral
• Anthony Hecht, A Summoning of Stones
• Daniel G. Hoffman, An Armada of Thirty Wales
• Robinson Jeffers, Hungerfield and Other Poems
• Weldon Kees, Poems 1947-1954
• Archibald MacLeish, Songs for Eve
• W. S. Merwin, The Dancing Bears, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press
• Edna St. Vincent Millay, Mine the Harvest
• Marianne Moore, The Fables of La Fontaine
• Howard Moss, The Toy Fair
• Kenneth Patchen, The Famous Boating Party
• May Swenson, Another Animal
• 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
• E. B. White, The Second Tree from the Corner
• 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

  Other

• Martin Carter, Poems of Resistance, Guyana
• Wilson Harris, Eternity to Season, Guyana
• 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">Canadian poetry">Canada, in French

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

  France">French poetry">France

• Louis Aragon, Les Yeux et la memoire
• Jean Cocteau, Clair-obscur
• René Daumal, Poésie noire, poésie blanche, posthumously published
• Jean Follain, Appareil de la terre
• Jean Grosjean, Fils de l'homme
• Henri Michaux, Face au verrous

  India">Indian poetry">India

Hindi">Hindi poetry">Hindi

• Girija Kumar Mathur, Dhup ke dhan
• 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
• Premchand, Sahitya Ka Uddesya, literary essays; published posthumously

  Malayalam">Malayalam poetry">Malayalam

• P. K. Paramesvaran Nair, Adhunika Sahitya Caritram, history of Malayalam literature
• P. Kunjiraman Nair, Kaliyacchan, poems reflecting traditional ways of life in Kerala
• Sreedhara Menon, Kunnimenikal
• Sukumar Azhikode, Asante Sitakavyam, critical assessment of Kumaran Asan's Cintavishtayaya

  Urdu">Urdu poetry">Urdu

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

  Other languages of the Indian subcontinent

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

  Other languages

• Simin Behbahani, Ja-ye Pa, Persia
• José Santos Chocano, Obras completas,. de Luis Alberto Sánchez Madrid, Aguilar, Peruvian poetry published in Spain
• Haim Gouri, Shirei Hotam, Israeli writing in Hebrew
• Sorley MacLean, Hallaig, Scottish Gaelic
• Pier Paolo Pasolini, La meglio gioventù, Italy
• Maria Luisa Spaziani, Le acque del sabato, Italy
• Wisława Szymborska, Pytania zadawane sobie, Poland
• Tin Ujević, Žedan kamen na studencu, 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

  Births

• 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, Mexican-American poet
• February 27 - Thylias Moss, African-American poet, writer and playwright
• March 4 - Irina Ratushinskaya, Russian samizdat poet
• March 26 - Dorothy Porter, Australian
• April 17 - Erin Mouré, Canadian
• May 5 - Hamid Ismailov, Uzbek writer
• May 25 - Alexei Parshchikov, 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
• August 15 - Mary Jo Salter, American
• October 15 - Peter Bakowski, Australian
• November 10 - Joy Goswami, Indian Bengali poet
• December 5 - Lynda Hull, American
• December 20 - Sandra Cisneros, American poet and author
• December 27 - David Baker, American
• Also:
• * Catherine Anderson, 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
• * Ibrahim Nasrallah, Jordanian-Palestinian poet and novelist
• * Luis J. Rodriguez, American poet, novelist, journalist, critic and columnist
• * Stephen Sartarelli, poet and translator
• * Deb Westbury, Australian

  Deaths

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