1948 in poetry

	… 1938; 1939; 1940; 1941; 1942; 1943; 1944; ; 1945; 1946; 1947; 1948; 1949; 1950; 1951; ; 1952; 1953; 1954; 1955; 1956; 1957; 1958 …;
	In literature 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951
	Art; Archaeology; Architecture; Literature; Music; Philosophy; Science; +...

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).

Events edit

January 6 – Pablo Neruda speaks out in the Senate of Chile against political repression and is forced into hiding.
Summer – Composer Richard Strauss sets three short poems by Hermann Hesse to music; they become part of his valedictory Four Last Songs, his final works before his death in 1949.
September 17 – The remains of Irish poet W. B. Yeats (who died at Menton, France in 1939) are re-buried at Drumcliffe, County Sligo, "Under bare Ben Bulben's head", having been moved from the original burial place, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, on Irish Naval Service corvette LÉ Macha. His grave at Drumcliffe, with an epitaph from "Under Ben Bulben", one of his final poems ("Cast a cold Eye / On Life, on Death. / Horseman, pass by"), becomes a place of literary pilgrimage
Sometime this year, Jack Kerouac introduces the phrase Beat Generation to describe his friends and as a general term describing the underground, anti-conformist youth gathering in New York at this time to the novelist John Clellon Holmes
Di Goldene Keyt, an Israeli literary quarterly, is founded
The Bollingen Prize is established by Paul Mellon, funded by a $10,000 grant from the Bollingen Foundation to the Library of Congress.

Works published in English edit

Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:

Canada edit

Earle Birney, The Strait of Anian. Toronto: Ryerson Press.^[1]
Roy Daniels, Deeper into the Forest^[2]
Robert Finch, The Strength of the Hills^[2]
A. M. Klein, The Rocking Chair and Other Poems. Governor General's Award 1948.^[2]
Irving Layton, Now Is The Place: Stories and Poems. Montreal: First Statement Press.^[3]
Douglas Le Pan, The Wounded Prince^[2]
L. A. MacKay, The Ill-Tempered Lover^[2]
A. J. M. Smith, editor, The Book of Canadian Poetry, anthology (see also editions of 1943, 1957)^[2]
Arthur Stringer, New York Nocturnes. Toronto: Ryerson.

India, in English edit

Bimal Chandra Bose, Gandhi-Gita ( Poetry in English ), Calcutta: Thacker, Spink and Co.^[4]
Gurdial Mallik, Hound of the Heart ( Poetry in English ), Bombay: Naranda Publications^[4]
Dilip Kumar Roy, Eyes of Light ( Poetry in English ), Bombay: Nalanda Publications^[5]
Nanikram Vasanmal Thadani, He Walked Alone ( Poetry in English ), Delhi: Bharat Publishing House^[6]

United Kingdom edit

Richard Aldington, Complete Poems^[7]
Edward Andrade, He Likens Her to a Soldier
John Betjeman, Selected Poems
Lilian Bowes Lyon, Collected Poems
Lawrence Durrell, On Seeming to Presume^[7]
T. S. Eliot, Notes Towards the Definition of Culture^[7]
D. J. Enright, Season Ticket^[7]
Robert Farren, The Course of Irish Verse in English, Irish criticism
W. S. Graham, The Voyages of Alfred Wallis
Robert Graves, The White Goddess, a "historical grammar" of poetic myth and inspiration
Jacquetta Hawkes, Symbols and Speculations^[8]
John Heath-Stubbs, The Swarming of the Bees
Hamish Henderson, Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica
A. Norman Jeffares, W. B. Yeats: Man And Poet, United Kingdom, biography, revised in 1978^[9]
Louis MacNeice, Holes in the Sky^[7]
Norman Nicholson, Rock Face^[7]
Vernon Scannell, Graves and Resurrections^[7]
Sydney Goodsir Smith, Under the Eildon Tree: a poem in XXIV elegies
Vernon Watkins, The Lady with the Unicorn^[7]

United States edit

W. H. Auden, "In Praise of Limestone", a poem published in Horizon in July (written in May), later published in a collection in 1951 (native English poet living in the United States)
John Berryman, The Dispossessed^[10]
Richard Ellmann, Yeats, The Man And The Mask, United States, biography^[9]
William Everson, The Residual Years, New Directions^[11]
Langston Hughes, One-Way Ticket, Alfred A. Knopf^[11]
Randall Jarrell, Losses^[10]
Robinson Jeffers, The Double Axe and Other Poems,^[10] largely critical of U.S. policy, the book came with an extremely unconventional note from Random House that the views expressed by Jeffers were not those of the publisher; several influential literary critics disapproved of the book, with particularly scathing pieces penned by Yvor Winters and Kenneth Rexroth, who had previously commented favorably on Jeffers' work
Archibald MacLeish, Actfive and Other Poems^[10]
William Meredith, Ships and Other Figures^[10]
Ezra Pound:
- The Pisan Cantos^[10]
- The Cantos of Ezra Pound^[10]
Theodore Roethke, The Lost Son and Other Poems^[10]
Muriel Rukeyser, The Green Wave^[10]
May Sarton, The Lion and the Rose^[10]
Wallace Stevens, A Primitive Like an Orb, Publisher: Gotham Book Mart^[12]
Winfield Townley Scott, Mr. Whittier^[10]
Mark Van Doren, New Poems^[10]
Peter Viereck, Terror and Decorum^[10]
William Carlos Williams:
- Paterson, Book II^[10]
- Clouds, Aigeltinger, Russia

Other in English edit

James K. Baxter, Blow, Wind of Fruitfulness, New Zealand
V. N. Bhusan, The Far Ascent, Bombay: Padma Pub.; India, Indian poetry in English^[13]
Charles Brasch: Disputed Ground: Poems 1939-45, Christchurch: Caxton Press, New Zealand^[14]
Robert Farren, The Course of Irish Verse in English, Irish criticism published in the United Kingdom
Derek Walcott, 25 Poems

Works published in other languages edit

Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:

France edit

Louis Aragon, Le Nouveau Creve-Coeur^[15]
André Breton, Poemes^[15]
Aimé Césaire, Soleil cou coupé;^[16] Paris: K
René Char, Fureur et mystere^[15]
Paul Éluard, Corps mémorable^[15]
Henri Michaux, La Vie dans les plis ("Life in the Folds")^[15]
Saint-John Perse, Anabase, revised edition (first edition 1924)^[17]
Jacques Prévert, Histoires^[18]
Francis Ponge, Proêmes^[15]
Raymond Queneau:
- L'Instant fatal^[15]
- Saint-Glinglin^[18]
Georges Schéhadé, Hosties noires^[18]

India edit

In each section, listed in alphabetical order by first name:

Bengali edit

Sukanta Bhattacharya, Chharpatra, posthumous
Jibanananda Das, Satti Tarar Timur^[19]
Mangalacharan Chattopadhyay, Telangana-O-Anyanya Kabita^[19]
Premendra Mitra, Pherari Phauj^[19]
Subhas Mukhopadhyay, Agnikon^[19]

Kannada edit

Gangadhara Chittala, Kalada Kare, lyrics on the theme of "time"^[19]
M. Gopalakrishna Adiga, Kattuvevu, his first collection of lyrics^[19]
S. G. Kulakarni, editor, Kannada kavya Bhandara, anthology of navodaya poets, including B. M. Shreekantayya, K. V. Puttappa, D. R. Bendre and D. V. Gundappa

Other languages on the Indian subcontinent edit

Amrita Pritan, Lamian Vatan, Punjabi language^[19]
Ananta Patnaik, Tarpana Kare Aji, poems on Gandhi, Oriya^[19]
Asi, pen name of Abdul Bari, Rubaiyati Asi, Urdu^[19]
Buddhidhari Singha, Amar Bapu, Maithili^[19]
Harivans Rai Bacchan, Sut Ki Mala, 111 eleven poems on Gandhi and his ideology, Hindi^[19]
Khumanthem Ibohal Singh, Nacome Lei ("Bouquet"), Manipuri
Maheswar Neog, Sri Sri Sankaradeva, Assamese^[19]
Mahjoor, Vava Subahuki, a political poem on the indignation of Kashmiris at delays in the United Nations Security Council concerning pleas to counter Pakistan's actions regarding that area; Kashmiri^[19]
N. V. Krishna Varier, Ninta Kavitakal, long poems in Malayalam^[19]
Nayaya vijaya Muni, Visva Vibhuti Svargaroha, a poem on Gandhi's death, Sanskrit^[19]
Sumitranandan Pant, Visva Vibhuti Svargaroha, Hindi-language poems written in homage to Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo^[19]
Upendranath Jha, Sannyasi, a Kanda Kavya in blank verse, Maithili^[19]

Other languages edit

García Baena, Mientras cantan los pájaros ("While Birds Sing"), Spain^[20]
Aimé Césaire, Soleil cou coupé, Martinique author published in France
Peter Huchel, Gedichte (Poems), East Germany
Bohumil Hrabal, Ztracená ulička ("A Lost Alley"), Czechoslovakia
Henryk Jasiczek, Rozmowy z ciszą ("Conversations with Silence"), Poland
Olga Kirsch, Mure van die Hart, Afrikaans, South Africa
Paul la Cour, Fragmenter af en Dagbog ("Fragments of a Diary"), Denmark^[21]
Alexander Mezhirov, Kommunisty, vpered!, "Communists, Ahead!" poem reprinted in his second collection, New Encounters, and in many volumes, anthologies and samplers; Russia, Soviet Union^[22]
Eugenio Montale, La fiera letteraria poetry criticism; Italy
Nizar Qabbani, Childhood of a Breast, Syrian poet writing in Arabic
Ole Wivel, I Fiskens Tegn ("In the Sign of the Fish"), Denmark^[23]

Awards and honors edit

Nobel Prize in Literature: T. S. Eliot
Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (later the post would be called "Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress"): Léonie Adams appointed this year.
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: W. H. Auden, The Age of Anxiety
Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Percy MacKaye
Canada: Governor General's Award, poetry or drama: The Rocking Chair and Other Poems, A. M. Klein^[24]
North Carolina Poet Laureate: Arthur Talmage Abernethy (the first one to hold the office)

Births edit

Years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:

January 22 – Timothy Steele, American poet and academic
January 31 – Albert Goldbarth, American poet
February 16 – Jeff Guess, Australian poet
March 5 – Leslie Marmon Silko, Laguna Pueblo descent American writer, a figure in the "Native American Renaissance"
March 28 – Iman Budhi Santosa, Indonesian writer
April 6 – Anna Couani, Australian poet and teacher
May 13 – R. S. Gwynn, American poet and anthologist associated with New Formalism
May 16 – Manglesh Dabral (died 2020), Indian Hindi poet and journalist
May 24 – Lorna Crozier, Canadian poet
May 29 – David Waltner-Toews, Canadian poet, writer and veterinary epidemiologist
June 11 – David Lehman, American poet and series editor for The Best American Poetry book series
June 29 – John Ash, English-born poet and writer
July 7 – Stephen Ratcliffe, American poet and publisher
August 1 – Frank Stanford (died 1978), American poet
August 20 – Heather McHugh, American poet
September 9 – Sherod Santos, American poet and academic
October 3 – Barrett Watten, American poet
October 6 – Zakes Mda (Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda), South African novelist, poet and playwright
October 7 – Diane Ackerman, American author, poet and naturalist
October 9 – Ciaran Carson, Northern Irish poet and novelist
October 18 – Ntozake Shange (pronounced En-toe-ZAHK-kay SHONG-gay) née Paulette Williams (died 2018), African-American playwright, performance artist, writer and poet
November 14 – Kristina Lugn (died 2020), Swedish poet and dramatist
November 29 – George Szirtes, Hungarian-born English poet and translator
Also:
- Ali Al Shargawi (علي الشرقاوي), Bahraini poet
- Aung Cheint (died 2021), Burmese poet
- Qassim Haddad, Bahraini free verse political poet
- Umar Bin Hassan, American poet
- Brian Henderson, Canadian poet and writer
- Bob Holman, American poet
- Lawrence Joseph, American poet, writer, essayist, critic, lawyer and law professor
- Yitzhak Laor (יצחק לאור), Israeli poet, author and journalist
- Denise Riley, English poet

Deaths edit