Overview of the events of 1916 in poetry
We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead;
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?
I write it out in a verse—
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
—Closing lines of "
Easter, 1916 " by
W. B. Yeats
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance,
Irish or
France ).
Events
February 5 –
Cabaret Voltaire is opened by
German performance poet
Hugo Ball and his future wife
Emmy Hennings in the back room of Ephraim Jan's Holländische Meierei in
Zürich , Switzerland; although surviving only until the summer it is pivotal in the creation of the
Dada movement in art, poetry and literature.
Tristan Tzara ,
Marcel Janco ,
Richard Huelsenbeck ,
Sophie Taeuber-Arp and
Jean Arp are among those who gather here to discuss art and put on performances expressing their disgust with
World War I and the interests they believe have inspired it.
March
March 10 – Sir
Hubert Parry writes the choral setting of
William Blake 's poem "
And did those feet in ancient time " (c.1804-08) which becomes known as "Jerusalem" (first performed 28 March at the
Queen's Hall , London).
March 30 –
Don Marquis introduces the characters
Archy and Mehitabel in his "The Sun Dial" column in
The Evening Sun (New York City) ; archy is a poetry-writing
cockroach unable to operate the typewriter
shift key .
April 24–30 –
Easter Rising in
Ireland : Members of the
Irish Republican Brotherhood
proclaim an Irish Republic and the
Irish Volunteers and
Irish Citizen Army occupy the
General Post Office and other buildings in
Dublin before surrendering to the
British Army . Of the seven leaders of the Rising (subsequently executed),
Thomas MacDonagh ,
Patrick Pearse and
Joseph Plunkett are all poets and
James Connolly a balladeer. The event is the theme of
W. B. Yeats ' poem "
Easter, 1916 ", first published this September.
July 1
First day on the Somme : Poets
W. N. Hodgson ,
Will Streets ,
Gilbert Waterhouse , Henry Field, Alfred Ratcliffe, Alexander Robertson and Bernard White are among the 19,000 British soldiers killed on this day alone.
[3] The
Battle of the Somme continues until October 18, during which time American poet
Alan Seeger (serving with the French), English poet
Edward Tennant , and short-story writer H. H. Munro ("
Saki ") are killed,
Robert Graves is seriously wounded (believed killed),
David Jones receives physical and psychological injuries,
Ford Madox Hueffer suffers concussion and shellshock,
A. A. Milne and
J. R. R. Tolkien are invalided out,
Siegfried Sassoon wins the
Military Cross , and
Cameron Highlander
Dòmhnall Ruadh Chorùna composes the
Scottish Gaelic love song
An Eala Bhàn ("The White Swan") in the
oral literature tradition.
W. B. Yeats makes his fifth and final proposal of marriage to the newly widowed
Maud Gonne in France.
c. July–December – Poets
Terence MacSwiney and
Darrell Figgis are among
Irish republicans detained in
Reading Gaol (England) following the
Easter Rising .
[4]
July 14 – Hugo Ball recites the
Dada manifesto in Zürich.
August 17 –
English poet
F. W. Harvey becomes a
prisoner of war .
September 10 –
Wilfrid Gibson becomes the last of the
Dymock poets to leave the area of
Dymock in England.
[5]
October 6 –
Romanian poet and critic
Perpessicius loses his right arm while fighting in a skirmish at
Muratan .
[6]
When
Wallace Stevens ' job as a lawyer for a New York City insurance company is abolished as a result of mergers, he joins the home office of
Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company and moves to
Hartford, Connecticut , where he will remain the rest of his life.
[7]
Works published in English
Bliss Carman , April Airs: A Book of New England Lyrics , Boston: Small, Maynard and Co.; Canadian poet published in the
United States
[8]
Thomas O'Hagan , Songs of Heroic Days , Toronto: McClelland, Goodchild and Stewart
[8]
Marjorie Pickthall , The Lamp of Poor Souls and Other Poems .
[9]
Duncan Campbell Scott , Lundy's Lane and Other Poems , including "The Height of Land"
[10]
Frederick George Scott , In the Battle Silences: Poems Written at the Front (Toronto: Musson)
Robert W. Service , Rhymes of a Red Cross Man .
I, that on my familiar hill
Saw with uncomprehending eyes
A hundred of thy sunsets spill
Their fresh and sanguine sacrifice,
Ere the sun swings his noonday sword
Must say good-bye to all of this; –
By all delights that I shall miss,
Help me to die, O Lord.
--
last verse; produced two days before the poet's death at the
First day on the Somme
Laurence Binyon , The Anvil, and Other Poems
[11]
Edmund Blunden , Pastorals
[11]
Robert Bridges (ed.), The Spirit of Man: an anthology in English & French from the philosophers & poets, made by the Poet Laureate in 1915
Émile Cammaerts , New Belgian Poems: Les trois rois et autres poèmes , expatriate Francophone
Belgian poet translated into English
Mary Gabrielle Collins, Branches unto the Sea
Elizabeth Daryush , Verses
[11]
W. H. Davies :
Child Lovers, and Other Poems
[11]
Collected Poems
[11]
Eleanor Farjeon , Nursery Rhymes of London Town
[11]
Robert Graves , Over the Brazier
[11]
Thomas Hardy , Selected Poems
[11]
F. W. Harvey , A Gloucestershire Lad At Home and Abroad
Aldous Huxley , The Burning Wheel
[11]
D. H. Lawrence , Amores
[11]
Joseph Lee , Ballads of Battle ,
Scottish poet
Winifred Mary Letts , Hallow-e'en and Poems of the War (including "The Spires of Oxford")
Charlotte Mew ,
The Farmer's Bride
[11]
Jessie Pope , Simple Rhymes for Stirring Times
Cecil Roberts , Collected War Poems
Lady Margaret Sackville , The Pageant of War
Dorothy L. Sayers , Op. 1
Edith Sitwell and
Osbert Sitwell , Twentieth Century Harlequinade, and Other Poems
[11]
The first
Wheels poetry
anthology Wheels 1916 edited by
the Sitwells .
Cicily Fox Smith, Fighting Men
Charles Hamilton Sorley , Marlborough and Other Poems (posthumous)
Muriel Stuart , Christ at Carnival and Other Poems
Rabindranath Tagore , Fruit Gathering , lyrics translated by the author into English from the original
Bengali (
Indian poetry in English )
[12]
Edward Tennant , Worple Flit and other poems (posthumous)
Edward Thomas , Six Poems , his first published poetry (under the
pen name 'Edward Eastaway')
Aelfrida Tillyard , The Garden and the Fire
Katharine Tynan , The Holy War
Gilbert Waterhouse , Rail-Head and other poems (posthumous)
Evelyn Waugh , The World to Come: A Poem in Three Cantos (written at age 12; privately printed)
Anna Wickham , The Man With A Hammer
Alfred Williams , War Sonnets and Songs
W. B. Yeats ,
Irish poet published in the United Kingdom:
Some Imagist Poets second anthology
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
--
last verse (lines 16-20)
Pauline B. Barrington , "Education" published in
The Masses as "Toy Guns"
Conrad Aiken :
Turns and Movies
[13]
The Jig of Forslin
[13]
James Branch Cabell , From the Hidden Way
[13]
Florence Earle Coates (1850–1927),
Poems (collected edition in two volumes)
J. W. Cunliffe, editor, Poems of the Great War
H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Sea Garden
[13]
John Gould Fletcher , Goblins and Pagodas
[13]
Robert Frost ,
Mountain Interval ,
[13] including "
The Road Not Taken " and "
Out, Out— "
Edgar A. Guest , A Heap o' Livin'
[13]
Robinson Jeffers , Californians
[13]
Sarah Orne Jewett , Verses , published posthumously (died
1909 )
[13]
Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:
They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have
seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring
the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes it is
true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.
--
Lines 1-7
Alfred Kreymborg , Mushrooms
[13]
Amy Lowell , Men, Women and Ghosts
[13]
Edgar Lee Masters :
Songs and Satires
[13]
The Great Valley
[13]
Emanuel Morgan and
Anne Knish , both
pen names , Spectra: A Book of Poetic Experiments
[13]
James Oppenheim , War and Laughter
[13]
Josephine Preston Peabody , Harvest Moon
[13]
Ezra Pound , Lustra
Edward Arlington Robinson , The Man Against the Sky
[13]
Carl Sandburg ,
Chicago Poems , Holt, Rinehart and Winston;
[14] including "
Chicago "
Alan Seeger , Poems
[13]
Other in English
C. J. Dennis , The Moods of Ginger Mick ,
Australia
W. Walter Gill ,
Juan-y-Pherick’s Journey and Other Poems ,
Isle of Man
N. C. Rai , An Indian Tale , a tale of rural life; Calcutta;
India ,
Indian poetry in English
[15]
Rabindranath Tagore , Fruit Gathering lyrics translated by the author into English from the original
Bengali ;
India ,
Indian poetry in English
[12]
W. B. Yeats ,
Irish poet published in the
United Kingdom :
Joseph Furphy and
Kate Baker – The Poems of Joseph Furphy , Australia
Works published in other languages
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:
B. Tirumal , Angala jarmani-yuddha vivaranam ,
Sanskrit -language epic poem on World War I (
India )
[12]
Kavikondala Venkata Rao , Vividha Kusumavali ,
Telugu -language (
India ), a collection of
khandikas
[12]
Lalchand Amardinomal Jagatiani , Sunharo Sacal ,
Sindhi -language essays of criticism and biography on the life and work of
Sachal Sarmast , a Sindhi poet (
India )
[12]
Lekhnath Ponday , Rtuvicar ,
Nepali -language
[12]
Rabindranath Thakur , Balaka ,
Bengali -language (
India )
[12]
Rayaprolu Subba Rao , editor, Andhravali , a
Telugu -language anthology (
India )
[12]
Other
Olav Aukrust , Himmelvarden ,
Norwegian poet writing in
Nynorsk
Hugo Ball , "Karawane",
German poet in Switzerland writing in nonsense words
José María Eguren , La canción de las figuras ,
Peru
[18]
Albert Ehrenstein , Der Mensch schreit and Nicht da nicht dort ,
Germany
Yvan Goll , Requiem pour les morts de l’Europe ,
German poet in Switzerland writing in French
Nikolay Gumilyov , The Quiver ,
Russia
Vicente Huidobro , Adán ,
Chile
Joseph Lenoir-Rolland , Poèmes épars , lyrics; French language;
Canada
[19]
Antonio Machado , Campos de Castilla (revised edition),
Spain
Vladimir Mayakovsky , The Backbone Flute (Fleyta pozvonochnik ) and War and the World (Voina i mir ),
Russian
1914–1916: Eine Anthologie ,
Germany
Martinus Nijhoff , De wandelaar ,
Netherlands
Sergei Yesenin , Radunitsa (Радуница, "Ritual for the Dead"), his first book of poetry,
Russian
Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
January 10
January 12 –
Mary Wilson (died
2018 ),
English prime ministerial spose and poet
February 1 –
Venibhai Purohit (died
1980 ),
Indian ,
Gujarati -language
[12]
February 4 –
Gavin Ewart (died
1995 ),
English
February 10 –
Thomas Blackburn (died
1977 ),
English
March 7 –
Balmukund Dave (died
1993 ),
Indian ,
Gujarati -language poet
[12]
March 11 –
Jack Clemo (died
1994 ),
English poet of Cornwall
May 9 –
Helen Haenke (died
1978 ),
Australian poet and playwright
[21]
June 14 –
John Ciardi (died
1986 ),
American poet, translator and etymologist
June 15 –
Hari Daryani , "Dilgir" (died
2004 ),
Indian ,
Sindhi -language poet
[12]
July 6 –
Harold Norse (died
2009 ),
American poet and memoirist; writes seminal memoir of the Beat poets in Paris
August 1
August 29 –
Rhydwen Williams (died
1997 ),
Welsh poet, novelist and minister of religion
September 8 –
Philip O'Connor (died
1998 ),
English writer and
surrealist poet
September 13 –
John Malcolm Brinnin (died
1998 ),
American poet and literary critic
September 24 –
W. J. Gruffydd (Elerydd) (died
2011 ),
Welsh
September 25 –
Paul Roche (died
2007 ),
English poet, translator and academic associated with the
Bloomsbury Group
[22]
October 10 –
Samar Sen , সমর সেন (died
1987 ),
Bengali poet and journalist
October 16 –
David Gascoyne (died
2001 ),
English author and poet
November 23 –
P. K. Page (died
2010 ),
Canadian
December 14 –
Harold Stewart (died
1995 ),
Australian
December 21 –
Maurice Chappaz (died
2009 ),
Swiss ,
French -language poet, travel writer, translator and author
Also:
Ghulam Nabi Aziz (died
1965 ),
Indian ,
Kashmiri -language poet, nephew of
Abdul Ahad Azad
[12]
Jnanindra Barma (died
1990 ),
Indian ,
Oriya -language poet
[12]
Ghulam Nabi Dilsoz (died
1941 ),
Indian ,
Kashmiri -language poet
[12]
Margaret Irvin ,
Australian
[23]
Sheikh Davud Kavi ,
Indian ,
Telugu -language poet, scholar and translator
[12]
Sankeevani Marathi ,
Indian ,
Marathi -language
[12]
Dina Nath Kaul Nadim (died
1987 ),
Indian ,
Kashmiri -language poet
[12]
Felix Paul Noronha ,
Indian ,
Marathi -language poet in the
Konkani dialect
[12]
Lal Chand Prarthi (died
1982 ),
Indian ,
Dogri -language Pahadi poet and editor
[12]
Tom Rawling (died
1996 ),
English poet and angler
Pinakin Thakore ,
Indian ,
Gujarati -language poet
[12]
Pritam Singh Safir (died
1999 ),
Indian ,
Punjabi -language poet
[12]
Raghunath Vishnu Pandit (died
1990 ),
Indian ,
Konkani language poet also writing in
Marathi , modernist poet, novelist, short-story writer and essayist
[12]
Takis Varvitsiotis (died
2011 ),
Greek poet
Deaths
Note "Killed in World War I" subsection, below. Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
February 7 –
William Little (born
1839 ),
English -born
Australian
February 12 –
John Townsend Trowbridge (born
1827 ),
American poet and author
March 11 –
Duncan MacGregor Crerar (born
1836 ),
Scottish
April 26 –
Mário de Sá-Carneiro (born
1890 ),
Portuguese -born poet and novelist, suicide
July 1? –
Arabella Eugenia Smith (born
1844 ),
American
August 27 –
Petar Kočić (born
1877 ), Bosnian
Serb
October 7 –
James Whitcomb Riley (born
1849 ),
American
October 21 –
Olindo Guerrini (born
1845 ),
Italian
October 25 –
John Todhunter (born
1839 ),
Irish poet and playwright
November 27 –
Emile Verhaeren (born
1855 ),
Belgian
French language Symbolist poet
December 9 –
Natsume Sōseki 夏目 漱石 (commonly referred to as "Sōseki"),
pen name of Natsume Kinnosuke 夏目金之助 (born
1867 ),
Japanese
Meiji Era novelist, haiku poet, composer of Chinese-style poetry, writer of fairy tales and a scholar of English literature; from 1984–2004, his portrait will feature on the 1000 yen note
Also:
Killed in World War I
January 24 – H. Rex Freston (born
1891 ),
English poet
January 27 –
C. Morton Horne (born
1885 ),
Irish -born musical comedy performer, writer and war poet
May 31 –
Gorch Fock (born
1880 ),
German poet and novelist
July 1 –
First day on the Somme :
July 4 –
Alan Seeger (born
1888 ),
American poet who joined the
French Foreign Legion in 1914 and died in battle, cheering on his fellow soldiers after being hit; uncle of American folk singer
Pete Seeger
September 9 –
Tom Kettle (born
1880 ),
Irish writer and politician
September 22 –
Edward Tennant (born
1897 ),
English war poet
November 14 – H. H. Munro ("
Saki "; born
1870 ),
English poet, short story writer, novelist and playwright
December 3 – Geoffrey Bache Smith (born
1894 ),
English poet
Awards and honors
See also
Notes
^
a
b Auster, Paul, ed. (1982).
The Random House Book of Twentieth-Century French Poetry: with Translations by American and British Poets . New York: Random House.
ISBN
0-394-52197-8 .
^
Enid the writer . Enid Blyton Society. Retrieved 2014-01-23 .
^
"Poets Killed on the First Day of the Somme" . Poetry of the First World War . Archived from
the original on 2011-05-22. Retrieved 2013-05-21 .
^
Kennedy, Maev (2016-04-21).
"Jailer complained about noisy Easter Rising prisoners, letter reveals" .
The Guardian . London. Retrieved 2024-03-10 .
^ Cooper, Jeff.
"Timeline of the Dymock Poets 1911–1916" . Friends of the Dymock Poets. Retrieved 2023-04-26 .
^ Ene, Ileana (2001). "Tabel cronologic". In
Perpessicius (ed.). Studii eminesciene . Bucharest: Museum of Romanian Literature. p. 14.
ISBN
973-8031-34-6 .
^ Richardson, Joan (1986). Wallace Stevens: The Early Years, 1879-1923 . New York: Beech Tree Books. p. 445.
^
a
b Garvin, John William, ed. (1916).
Canadian Poets . McClelland, Goodchild & Stewart. Retrieved 2009-06-05 .
^ "
Marjorie Pickthall 1883-1922: Works ," Canadian Women Poets, BrockU.ca, Web, Apr. 6, 2011
^ Keith, W. J.,
"Poetry in English: 1867-1918" , article in The Canadian Encyclopedia , retrieved February 8, 2009
^
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r Cox, Michael, ed. (2004).
The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature . Oxford University Press.
ISBN
0-19-860634-6 .
^
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u
v
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x Das, Sisir Kumar and various,
History of Indian Literature: 1911-1956: struggle for freedom: triumph and tragedy, Volume 2 , 1995, published by
Sahitya Akademi ,
ISBN
978-81-7201-798-9 , retrieved via Google Books on December 23, 2008
^
a
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r Ludwig, Richard M., and Clifford A. Nault Jr., Annals of American Literature: 1602–1983 , 1986, New York: Oxford University Press ("If the title page is one year later than the copyright date, we used the latter since publishers frequently postdate books published near the end of the calendar year." — from the Preface, p vi)
^
Richard Ellmann and
Robert O'Clair , editors, The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry , W. W. Norton & Company, 1973,
ISBN
0-393-09357-3
^ Vinayak Krishna Gokak,
The Golden Treasury Of Indo-Anglian Poetry (1828-1965) , p 314 , New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi (1970, first edition; 2006 reprint),
ISBN
81-260-1196-3 , retrieved August 6, 2010
^ Bree, Germaine, Twentieth-Century French Literature , translated by Louise Guiney, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1983
^ Web page titled
"POET Francis Jammes (1868 - 1938)" , at The Poetry Foundation website, retrieved August 30, 2009. 2009-09-03.
^ Fitts, Dudley, editor, Anthology of Contemporary Latin-American Poetry/Antología de la Poesía Americana Contemporánea Norfolk, Conn., New Directions, (also London: The Falcoln Press, but this book was "Printed in U.S.A.), 1947, p 603
^ Story, Noah, The Oxford Companion to Canadian History and Literature , "Poetry in French" article, pp 651-654, Oxford University Press, 1967
^
"Lord Tweedsmuir" , obituary, Daily Telegraph , London, July 9, 2008, retrieved December 9, 2008
^
"Haenke, Helen Joyce (1916-1978)" .
Australian Dictionary of Biography . Retrieved 2007-05-21 .
^ Fox, Margalit,
"Paul Roche, Poet in Bloomsbury Group, Is Dead at 91" , obituary, The New York Times , November 25, 2007, retrieved December 22, 2008
^
"Irvin, Margaret" . AustLit Database. Retrieved 2007-05-21 .