Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
Events
The Annus mirabilis of poetastery
In the annals of poetasting, 1877 stands out as a historic year.
The most startling incident in my life was the time I discovered myself to be a poet, which was in the year 1877.
So wrote William Topaz McGonagall (1825 –1902) a Scottish weaver, "actor", and "poet" who would become comically renowned as one of the worst poets in the English language.
Also this year Poetaster Julia A. Moore, following up on the renown of her first book of verse, The Sweet Singer of Michigan Salutes the Public of 1876, decided to appear before her public. She gave a reading and singing performance, with orchestral accompaniment, at a Grand Rapids, Michigan, opera house.
Moore managed to interpret the jeering as criticism of the orchestra.
Edward Lear, Laughable Lyrics: Fourth Book of Nonsense Poems, Songs, Botany, Music, &c., including "The Dong with a Luminous Nose", "The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò", "The Pobble Who Has No Toes", "The Quangle Wangle's Hat" and "The Akond of Swat", published December 1876, although book states "1877"[2]
George Moore, Flowers of Passion, published this year, although book states "1878"[1]
Coventry Patmore, published anonymously, The Unknown Eros, and Other Odes, odes 1–31; a second, expanded edition was published under Patmore's name in 1878[1]
Derovre fra grænsen ("Over the Frontier there"), prose work, with interludes in verse, a series of impressions made on the poet by a visit to the scenes of the war with Germany[4]
May 28 – Oscar Milosz, also known as O(scar) V(ladislas) de L(ubicz-)Milosz (died 1939), Lithuanian diplomat, later a French citizen, also a fiction writer, playwright, poet and essayist; a cousin of Czeslaw Milosz, on whom he exerted a great influence[6]
June 6 – Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer ഉള്ളൂര് എസ്. പരമേശ്വരയ്യര് (died 1949), Indian, Malayalam-language poet, scholar and government official, author of a five-volume history of Malayalam literature[7]
November 9 – Sir Muhammad Iqbal (aka "Allama Iqbal" [Urdu], and "Iqbal-e-Lahori" [Persian]; died 1938) Indian Muslim poet, philosopher and politician, writing in Persian and Urdu, praised as Muffakir-e-Pakistan ("The Thinker of Pakistan"), Shair-i-Mashriq ("The Poet of the East"), and Hakeem-ul-Ummat ("The Sage of Ummah"); his birthday is annually commemorated in Pakistan as "Iqbal Day", a national holiday
^ abcdeLudwig, Richard M.; Nault, Clifford A. Jr (1986). "Preface". Annals of American Literature: 1602-1983. New York: Oxford University Press. p. vi. 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.
^ abPreminger, Alex and T. V. F. Brogan, et al., The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, 1993. New York: MJF Books/Fine Communications
^Auster, Paul, editor, The Random House Book of Twentieth-Century French Poetry: with Translations by American and British Poets, New York: Random House, 1982 ISBN0-394-52197-8
^Paniker, Ayyappa, "Modern Malayalam Literature" chapter in George, K. M., editor, Modern Indian Literature, an Anthology, pp 231–255, published by Sahitya Akademi, 1992, retrieved January 10, 2009
^Knippling, Alpana Sharma, "Chapter 3: Twentieth-Century Indian Literature in English", in Natarajan, Nalini, and Emanuel Sampath Nelson, editors, Handbook of Twentieth-century Literatures of India (Google books link), Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996, ISBN978-0-313-28778-7, retrieved December 10, 2008
