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1920 in poetry
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1920 poetry literature
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,–
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
— Wilfred Owen, concluding lines of "Dulce et Decorum est", written 1917, published posthumously this year
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
Fire and Ice by Robert Frost
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
--first published in December in Harper's Magazine
Events
thumb|right|Photograph of William Butler Yeats taken this year
May – Irish poet W. B. Yeats concludes a lecture tour (begun in the fall of 1919) in the United States and crosses the Atlantic to settle in Oxford.Mac Liammoir Michael Eavan Boland W. B. Yeats https://archive.org/details/wbyeatshisworld00macl registration London Thames and Hudson Thames and Hudson Literary Lives 1971 Chronology 132 9780500130339
December – The Poems of English war poet Wilfred Owen (killed in action 1918) are published posthumously in London with an introduction by his friend Siegfried Sassoon; only five of Owen's verses had been published during his lifetime, thus his work is introduced to many readers for the first time, including the 1917 poems "Anthem for Doomed Youth" and "Dulce et Decorum est"; the latter 28-line poem's horrifying imagery makes it one of the best-known condemnations of war ever written.
Ezra Pound moves from London to Paris where he moves among a circle of artists, musicians and writers who are revolutionising modern art.
The Dial, a longstanding American literary magazine, is re-established by Scofield Thayer; the publication becomes an important outlet for Modernist poets and writers (until 1929), with contributors this year including Sherwood Anderson, Djuna Barnes, Kenneth Burke, Hart Crane, E. E. Cummings, Charles Demuth, Kahlil Gibran, Gaston Lachaise, Amy Lowell, Marianne Moore, Ezra Pound, Odilon Redon, Bertrand Russell, Carl Sandburg, Van Wyck Brooks, and W. B. Yeats.
First issue of the anthology of Scottish poetry, Northern Notes, edited by Christopher Murray Grieve.Margery Palmer McCulloch Making it new: interwar literature History Scotland 19 3 May–June 2019 28–33
Russian poet Nikolay Gumilyov co-founds the "All-Russia Union of Writers" in the Soviet Union, where he makes no secret of his anti-Communist views, crosses himself in public, and doesn't care to hide his contempt for half-literate Bolsheviks. His fate changes in 1921.
Works published in English
United Kingdom
Maurice Baring, Poems 1914–1919Cox, Michael The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature Oxford University Press 2004 978-0-19-860634-5 https://archive.org/details/conciseoxfordchr00coxm
Edmund Blunden, The Waggoner and Other Poems
Robert Bridges, October, and Other Poems
Cambridge Poets 1914–1920, anthology edited by Edward Davison
W. H. Davies, The Song of Life, and Other Poems
Walter de la Mare, Poems 1901 to 1918
T. S. Eliot:
Poems, including Gerontion (text) and Sweeney Among the Nightingales
The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism
Robert Graves, Country Sentiment
Aldous Huxley, Leda
India in Song: Eastern Themes in English Verse by British and Indian Poets, an anthology of Indian poetry in English published in the UK (London: Oxford)Joshi, Irene, compiler, "Poetry Anthologies" https://web.archive.org/web/20090830022509/http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/SouthAsia/guides/pre1947.html#PoetryAnth 2009-08-30 , "Poetry Anthologies" section, "University Libraries, University of Washington" website, "Last updated May 8, 1998", retrieved June 16, 2009. 2009-06-19.
John Masefield, Enslaved, and Other Poems
Hope Mirrlees, Paris: A Poem (Hogarth Press, 1st edition misdated 1919)
Harold Monro, Some Contemporary Poets (1920), criticism
Wilfred Owen, Poems, introduction by Siegfried Sassoon (posthumous)
Ruth Pitter, First Poems
Ezra Pound, American poet published in the United Kingdom:
Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, LondonAckroyd, Peter, Ezra Pound, Thames and Hudson Ltd., London, 1980, "Bibliography" chapter, p 121
Umbra, London
Nina Salaman, The Voices of the Rivers
Siegfried Sassoon, Picture Show
Edward Thomas, Collected Poems, foreword by Walter de la Mare
Iris Tree, Poems
Valour and Vision: Poems of the War, 1914-1918, anthology edited by Jacqueline T. Trotter
Charles Williams, Divorce
Humbert Wolfe:
London Sonnets
Shylock Reasons with Mr. Chesterton, and Other Poems
W. B. Yeats, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom, "The Second Coming" first published in The Dial magazine for November (published again in 1921 in Yeats' Michael Robartes and the Dancer)
United States
thumb|right|350px|E.E. Cummings' unusual style can be seen in his poem "Buffalo Bill's/ defunct" from the January 1920 issue use of DustLudwig, Richard M., and Clifford A. Nault, Jr., Annals of American Literature: 1602–1983, 1986, New York: Oxford University Press
Stephen Vincent Benét, Heavens and Earth
Witter Bynner, A Canticle of Pan
Hart Crane, "My Grandmother's Love Letters" in The Dial, his first real step towards recognition as a poet
W.E.B. Du Bois, Darkwater
Robert Frost, Miscellaneous Poems
William Ellery Leonard, The Lynching Bee
Edgar Lee Masters, Domesday Book
Edna St. Vincent Millay, A Few Figs From Thistles
Ezra Pound, American poet published in the United Kingdom:
Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, London
Umbra, London
Lizette Woodworth Reese, Spicewood
Charles Reznikoff, Poems published by the New York Poetry Book Shop; the book features poems from Reznikoff's Rhythms and Rhythms II
From Bettyby Lola Ridge
My doll Janie has no waist
and her body is like a tub with feet on it.
Sometimes I beat her
but I always kiss her afterwards.
When I have kissed all the paint off her body
I shall tie a ribbon about it
so she shan't look shabby.
But it must be blue--
it mustn't be pink--
pink shows the dirt on her face
that won't wash off.
Lola Ridge, Sun-Up, including "Betty"
Edward Arlington Robinson:
Lancelot
The Three Taverns
Carl Sandburg, Smoke and Steel
Sara Teasdale, Flame and Shadow, including" There Will Come Soft Rains"
Galway Wescott, The Bitterns
William Carlos Williams, Kora in Hell. Improvisations
Other in English
India in Song: Eastern Themes in English Verse by British and Indian Poets, London: Oxford; anthology; Indian poetry in English, published in the United Kingdom
Yone Noguchi, Japanese Hokkus, Japanese poet writing in English
Maneck B. Pithawalla, Sacred Sparks, Karachi: M. B. PithawallaVinayak Krishna Gokak, The Golden Treasury Of Indo-Anglian Poetry (1828-1965), p 316, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi (1970, first edition; 2006 reprint), 81-260-1196-3, retrieved August 6, 2010
Tom Redcam, San Gloria, verse play, Jamaica
W. B. Yeats, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom, The Second Coming first published in the November issue of The Dial magazine (see quotation, above; published again in Michael Robartes and the Dancer 1921)
Works published in other languages
France
Louis Aragon, Feu de joieAuster, Paul, editor, The Random House Book of Twentieth-Century French Poetry: with Translations by American and British Poets, New York: Random House, 1982 978-0-394-52197-8
Natalie Clifford Barney, American resident and published in France, Poems & Poemes: Autres Alliances (bilingual English and French)
Jean Cocteau, Poésies 1917–1920Bree, Germaine, Twentieth-Century French Literature, translated by Louise Guiney, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1983
Philippe Soupault, Rose des vents
Tristan Tzara, pen name of Sami Rosenstock, Cinéma calendrier coeur abstrait maisons
Charles Vildrac, Chants du désespéré
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:
Telugu poetry
Garimella Satyanarayana, Makoddi tella doratanamu, a Telugu-language song famously used by Indians marching for freedom; the very militant lyric was banned for a time by the colonial government, which arrested the poet
Rami Reddi also known as "Duvvuri":
Jaladangana, celebrates farming season and the beauty of nature in the rural countryside, Indian, Telugu-languageDas, Sisir Kumar, "A Chronology of Literary Events / 1911–1956", in Das, Sisir Kumar and various, History of Indian Literature: 1911-1956: struggle for freedom: triumph and tragedy, Volume 2, 1995, published by Sahitya Akademi, 978-81-7201-798-9, retrieved via Google Books on December 23, 2008
Venakumari, Telugu-language pastoral poems depicting the struggles of peasants
Other Indian languages
Ananda Chandra Agarwala, Jilikani, Assamese-language poem reflecting ancient Assamese ballads
Bhaskar Ramchandra Tambe, Tambe Yanci Kavita, Marathi-language poems; edited by V. G. Mayadev
Chanda Jha, Mahes Vani Sanghra, Maithili-language devotional songs addressed to Lord Siva
Dharanidhar Sharma Koirala, Naibedya, Nepali-language poetry, didactic poems popular in Darjeeling
Lala Kirpa Sagar, Laksmi Devi, Punjabi-language, long, narrative epic poem modeled on Sir Walter Scott's The Lady of the Lake; depicts Maharaja Ranjit Singh's battles with Jaimal Singh, a hill chieftain
Pt. Ram Naresh Tripathi, Pathik, very popular Hindi-language Khanda Kavya which went into 30 editions; patriotic and expressing love of the rural countryside; strongly influenced by Gandhi's thought
Surendra Jha 'Suman', also known as "Suman", Candi Carya, adaptation of Durgasaptasati in verse, Maithili-language
Vaijanath Kashinath Rajwade, Kesavasutanci Kavita, Marathi-language article offering the first thematic classification and detailed analysis of Keshavsut's poems, criticism published in the monthly Manoranjan in July, September, October and November
Spanish language
Enrique Bustamante y Ballivián, Poemas autóctonos, PeruFitts, 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 595
León Felipe, Veersos y oraciones del caminante ("Verses and Prayers of the Walker"), first volume (second volume, 1930), SpainDebicki, Andrew P., Spanish Poetry of the Twentieth Century: Modernity and Beyond, University Press of Kentucky, 1995, 978-0-8131-0835-3, retrieved via Google Books, November 21, 2009
Alfonsina Storni, Langour, Argentina
Miguel de Unamuno, El Christo de Velázquez ("Christ by Velázquez"), Spain
Other languages
Piaras Béaslaí, "Bealtaine 1916" agus Dánta Eile, Ireland
António Botto, Canções do Sul ("Songs of the South"), Portugal
Ernst Enno, Valge öö, Estonia
Kahlil Gibran, Al-'Awāsif ("The Tempests") and Spirits Rebellious (English translation),Kurian, George Thomas, Timetables of World Literature, New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2003 Lebanese-born Arabic poet in the United States
Vladislav Khodasevich, The Way of Corn, Russia
Tom Kristensen, Pirate Dreams, Denmark
Jan Lechon, The Scarlet Poem, Poland
Boleslaw Lesmian, The Meadow, Poland
Eugenio Montale, Ossi di seppia ("Cuttlefish bones"), Italy
Les Poètes contre la guerre, France
Anton Schnack, Tier rang gewaltig mit Tier ("Beast strove mightily with beast"), Germany
Edith Sodergran, The Shadow of the Future, Sweden
Georg Trakl, Der Herbst des Einsamen ("The Autumn of The Lonely"), Austrian native published in Germany
Pavlo Tychyna, Instead of Sonnets or Octaves, Ukraine
Tin Ujević, Lelek sebra ("Cry of a slave"), Croatian
Henrik Visnapuu, Talihari, Hõbedased kuljused and Käoorvik, Estonia
Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
January 24 – Keith Douglas (killed in action 1944), English poet
February 21 – Ishigaki Rin 石垣りん (died 2004), Japanese poet; she was an employee of the Industrial Bank of Japan, sometimes called "the bank teller poet"
February 23 – David Wright (died 1994), South African-born English poet
February 29 – Howard Nemerov (died 1991), American poet, United States Poet Laureate from 1963 to 1964 and from 1988 to 1990
March 5 – Madhunapantula Satyanarayana Sastry (died 1992), Indian, Telugu-language poet (surname: Satyanarayanashastri)
March 11 – D. J. Enright (died 2002), English academic, poet, novelist and critic
March 24 – Balachandra Rajan (died 2009), Indian critic, novelist and writer of Indian poetry in English
April 27 – Edwin Morgan (died 2010), Scottish poet and translator
June 13 – Ruth Guimarães (died 2014), Afro-Brazilian classicist, fiction writer and poet
June 15 – Amy Clampitt (died 1994), American poet and author
June 18 – Rosemary Dobson (died 2012), Australian poet
July 18 – Zheng Min (died 2022), Chinese poet
August 16 – Charles Bukowski (died 1994), American poet, novelist and short-story writer
August 18 – Harbhajan Singh (died 2002), Indian, Punjabi poet in the Sahajvadi tradition, also a critic, cultural commentator and translator
September 6 – Barbara Guest née Barbara Ann Pinson (died 2006), American poet and critic
September 18 – Doris Mühringer (died 2009), Austrian poet, short-story writer and children's writer
October 24 – Robert Greacen (died 2008), Irish poet
November 3 – Oodgeroo Noonuccal (died 1993), Australian poet, actress, writer, teacher, artist and campaigner for Aboriginal causes
November 23 – Paul Celan (suicide 1970), German-language poet born to a German-speaking Jewish family in a place at this time part of Romania (part of modern-day Ukraine)
November 28 – Alexander Scott (died 1989), Scottish poet and literary scholar
Also:
V. A. Anandakkuttan (died 1969), Indian, Malayalam-language poet and author of humorous essays and farces
Bernardino Evaristo Mendes, also known as B. E. Mendes, Indian, Konkani-language poet known for philosophical and theosophical writing
Birendra Chattopadhyay (died 1985), Bengali-language poet and Marxist
Jayant Pathak, Indian, Gujarati-language poet and critic
K. B. Nikumb, Indian, Marathi-language poet
Manmohan Misra, Indian poet and essayist in Orissa
Natvarlal Kuberdas Pandya (pen name, "Usanas"), Indian, Gujarati-language poet and critic
Okiyuma Gwaynn, Indian poet writing Indian poetry in English and then in Nepali; born in Hong Kong to a Japanese father and Tibetan mother, he settles in Darjeeling in 1946
Ram Lal Papiha, Indian, Dogri-language poet
Rentala Gopalakrishna, Indian, Telugu-language poet and playwright
Santokh Singh Dheer, Indian, Punjabi poet and fiction writer in the largely romantic and progressive-in-outlook Amrita-Mohan Singh tradition of Punjabi
Tulasibahadur Chetri, nicknamed "Apatan", Indian, Nepali-language poet and playwright
Deaths
thumb|Grave of William Dean Howells, buried in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
February 7 – Dollie Radford, 61, English poet and writer
February 8 – Richard Dehmel, 56, German poet
February 19 – Ernest Hartley Coleridge (born 1846), English scholar and poet, grandson of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
May 11 – William Dean Howells, 83, American literary critic, author and poet
June 5 – Julia A. Moore, the "Sweet Singer of Michigan", 72, American poetaster, famed for her notoriously bad poetry
July 3 – Charles E. Carryl, 78, American children's poet
September 16 – Dan Andersson, 32, Swedish poet, accidentally poisoned
October 25 – Terence MacSwiney, 41, Irish playwright, poet and politician, hunger strike
November 2 – Louise Imogen Guiney, 59, American-born poet
November 18 – Matthías Jochumsson, 85, Icelandic lyric poet, playwright, translator and pastor
December 5 – T. W. Rolleston, 63, Irish-born writer, poet and translator
December 21 – Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, 56, Somali poet, religious and nationalist leader who for 20 years led armed resistance to the British, Italian, and Ethiopian forces in Somalia and used his patriotic poetry to rally his supporters
December 24 – Matilda Maranda Crawford, 76, American-Canadian poet, writer, correspondent
Also:
Devendranath Sen (born 1855), Indian, Bengali-language poet
Divakarla Tirupti Shastri (born 1872), Indian, Telugu-language poet; one of the two poets known in Telugu literature as "Triupati Vankata Kavulu"
Eknath Pandurang Randalkar (born 1887), Indian, Marathi-language poet and translator from Sanskrit, English, Bengali and Gujarati poetry
Jammuneshwar Khataniyar (born 1899), Indian, Assamese-language poet; a woman
Mian Hidayatulla (birth year not known), Indian, Punjabi-language poet
Nagesh Vishwanath Pai, also spelled "Nagesh Vishvanath Pai" (born 1860), Indian, Marathi-language poet and fiction writer
Vishvanatha Dev Varma (born 1850), Indian, Sanskrit-language poet
Notes
See also
Poetry
Poetry
List of years in poetry
Category:20th-century poetry
Poetry, 1920 In