1934 in poetry

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

Events

• April 6 – Rudyard Kipling and W. B. Yeats are awarded the Gothenburg Prize for Poetry.
• September – T. S. Eliot (with his first love, Emily Hale) visits the English Cotswolds manor house and garden which gives rise to his poem Burnt Norton.
• September 21 –
  Elizabeth Barrett and Fredric March as Robert Browning
  , is released in the United States; remade in 1957, less successfully
• Buddhadeb Bosu marries singer and writer Protiva Bose
  (née Ranu Shome).
• The University Review is founded at the University of Kansas City. The publication is later called
  New Letters
  .
• West Indian Review founded.^[1]

• Edmund Blunden, Choice or Chance^[10]
• 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
• Scottish
  poet
• Lawrence Durrell, Transition^[10]
• T. S. Eliot, The Rock
• Poems^[10]
• 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^[10]
• Scottish
  poet
• Ruth Pitter, A Mad Lady's Garland, preface by Hilaire Belloc^[10]
• Nan Shepherd, In the Cairngorms
• William Soutar, The Solitary Way^[10]
• E. E. Speight, editor, Indian Masters of English, London: Longmans, Green; anthology; Indian poetry in English, published in the United Kingdom^[9]
• Stephen Spender, Vienna^[10]
• 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,^[10] Irish poet published in the United Kingdom

United States

• James Agee, Permit Me Voyage^[11]
• W. H. Auden, Poems^[11]
• Paul Engle, American Song^[11]
• John A. Lomax, compiler, with Alan Lomax, American Ballads and Folk Songs^[11]
• Edna St. Vincent Millay, Wine From These Grapes^[11]
• George Oppen, Discrete Series
• Ezra Pound:
  • Eleven new Cantos: XXXI–XLI^[11]
  • Homage to Sextus Propertius, London^[12]
  • "Make It New"^[11]
• Edward Arlington Robinson, Amaranth^[11]
• Jesse Stuart, Man with a Bull-Tongue Plow^[11]
• William Carlos Williams, Collected Poems 1921–1931^[11]
• Yvor Winters, Before Disaster^[11]

Other in English

• R. A. K. Mason, No New Thing, New Zealand^[13]
• Australia
• W. B. Yeats, The King of the Great Clock Tower, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom

Works published in other languages

France

• Louis Aragon, Hourra l'oural^[14]
• André Breton, L'Air de l'eau^[14]
• René Char, Le Marteau sans maître^[15]
• Paul Éluard, pen name of Paul-Eugène Grindel, La Rose publique^[14]
• Alphonse Métérié:
  • Petit maroc II^[15]
  • Cophetuesques^[15]
• Benjamin Péret, De derrière les fagots^[14]
• Jules Supervielle, Les Amis inconnus^[14]

Indian subcontinent

Including all of the British colonies that later became India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Listed alphabetically by first name, regardless of surname:

Hindi

• Gopal Sharan, Umanga, on themes of patriotism and love of nature^[16]
• Mahadevi Varma, Nirja^[16]
• Rameshvar Shukla, Kiran Bela^[16]

Kashmiri

• Fazil Kashmiri, Saz-e-Chaman^[16]
• Mahjoor, "Nera Ha Sanyas Lagith", a poem published in a special number of Martand^[16]
• Man Ji Suri, Krishna Avtar, a masnavi on Krishna, but also including devotional lyrics in the vatsan form^[16]

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^[16]
• 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^[16]
• Sanskrit poem by Asvagosha^[16]

• 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^[16]
• Alfred Lord Tennyson's In Memoriam^[16]
• Khavirakpan, Smaran mangal Kavya, humorous poems in Meitei^[16]
• Punjabi^[16]
• 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^[16]
• N. Balamani Amma, Amma, on a mother's love and a child's innocence; Malayalam^[16]
• Narayan Murlidhar Gupte, writing under the pen name "Bee", Phulanci Onjal ("Handful of Flowers"), showing the influence of Kesavsut; Marathi^[16]
• 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^[16]
• Gujarati-language^[16]
• Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Savarakaranci Sphuta Kavita, including "Sagaras" ("To the Sea"), and patriotic poems such as "Maze Mrtypatra" ("My Will") and "Maranonmukh Sayyevar" ("Upon the death-bed"); by a Marathi revolutionary^[16]

Other languages

• Vladimir Cavarnali, Poesii (Poems)
• Peru^[17]
• Constantin S. Nicolăescu-Plopșor, Ghileà romanè (anthology)
• Netherlands
• Peru^[18]
• Fernando Pessoa, Mensagem (Message), Portugal
• Heiti Talvik, Palavik (Fever), 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

• January 1 – Muthaffar al-Nawab (died 2022) Iraqi poet and political critic^[19]
• January 6 – John Wieners (died 2002), American lyric poet
• January 22 – Sugathakumari (died 2020), Indian Malayalam female poet and activist
• February 10 – Fleur Adcock, expatriate New Zealand poet and editor who lives much of her life in England
• February 18 – Audre Lorde (died 1992), African-American writer, poet and activist
• February 27 – N. Scott Momaday (died 2024), Native American poet and writer
• March 31 – Kamala Surayya (died 2009), Indian poet and writer in English and Malayalam, her native language, Indian English
• March 20 – David Malouf, Australian poet and writer
• April 11 – Mark Strand (died 2014), American poet
• April 12 – Anselm Hollo (died 2013), 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 (died 2012), African-American poet
• June 15 – Hettie Jones, born Hettie Cohen, American poet, writer and first wife of Amiri Baraka
• July 1 –
  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 –
  German
  writer and poet
• July 18 – Walt McDonald, American poet and academic
• July 20 – Henry Dumas (died 1968), African-American writer and poet
• August 5 – Wendell Berry, American novelist, essayist, poet, professor, cultural critic and farmer
• August 6 –
  Beats
• September 2 – Jack Agüeros (died 2014), American community activist, poet, writer and translator
• September 7 – Sunil Gangopadhyay (died 2012), 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 (died 2016), Canadian-born poet, singer-songwriter and novelist
• September 23 – M. Travis Lane, American-Canadian poet
• October 7 – Amiri Baraka, born LeRoi Jones (died 2014), African-American poet, playwright, essayist and music critic whose first wife is poet Hettie Jones
• November 7 – Beverly Dahlen, American poet
• November 15 – Ted Berrigan (died 1983), American poet and political activist
• November 19 – Joanne Kyger (died 2017), American poet
• November 25 – Shakti Chattopadhyay (died 1995), Bengali poet
• November 28 – Ted Walker (died 2004), English poet, short story writer, travel writer, television and radio dramatist and broadcaster
• December 17 – Binoy Majumdar (died 2006), Bengali poet
• December 29 –
  Iranian
  poet and film director
• Also:
  • Syrian
    Ismaili poet
  • Stephen Berg, American
  • Sugatha Kumari, Indian, Malayalam-language poet^[20]
  • Heather Spears, Canadian-born poet, novelist and artist

Deaths

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

• January 8 –
  Russian
  novelist, poet and critic
• March 7 – Ernst Enno (born 1875), Estonian
• March 25 –
  Irish battalion
• June 14 – John Gray (born 1866), English
• July 4 – Hayim Nahman Bialik (born 1873), Hebrew
• August 19 – Jean Blewett (born 1862), Canadian
• September 26 –
  Shōwa period Japanese journalist and writer of senryū
  (short, humorous verse) (surname: Inoue)
• December 3 – Catherine Pozzi (born 1882), French poet and woman of letters
• John Ferrar Holms (born 1897), British critic

See also

• Poetry
• List of poetry awards
• List of years in poetry

Notes