# Governor General's Award for English-language poetry or drama

The Governor General's Award for English-language poetry or drama was a Canadian literary award that annually recognized one Canadian writer for a work of poetry or drama published in English. It was one of the Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit from 1937 to 1980 (publication years, which conventionally date the awards). After 1980 it was divided into the award for English-language poetry and award for English-language drama. The Governor General's Awards program is administered by the Canada Council for the Arts.
The program was created in 1937 and inaugurated that November for 1936 publications in two English-language categories, conventionally called the 1936 awards. The poetry or drama award was introduced one year later, as one of three 1937 Governor General's Awards.

## Winners
### 1930s

| Year | Author | Title |
| 1937 | E. J. Pratt | The Fable of the Goats |
| 1938 | Kenneth Leslie | By Stubborn Stars |
| 1939 | Arthur S. Bourinot | Under the Sun |

### 1940s

| Year | Author | Title |
| 1940 | E. J. Pratt | Brébeuf and His Brethren |
| 1941 | Anne Marriott | Calling Adventurers! |
| 1942 | Earle Birney | David and Other Poems |
| 1943 | A. J. M. Smith | News of the Phoenix |
| 1944 | Dorothy Livesay | Day and Night |
| 1945 | Earle Birney | Now is Time |
| 1946 | Robert Finch | Poems |
| 1947 | Dorothy Livesay | Poems for People |
| 1948 | A.M. Klein | The Rocking Chair and Other Poems |
| 1949 | James Reaney | The Red Heart |

### 1950s

| Year | Author | Title |
| 1950 | James Wreford Watson | Of Time and the Lover |
| 1951 | Charles Tory Bruce | The Mulgrave Road |
| 1952 | E. J. Pratt | Towards the Last Spike |
| 1953 | Douglas LePan | The Net and the Sword |
| 1954 | P. K. Page | The Metal and the Flower |
| 1955 | Wilfred Watson | Friday's Child |
| 1956 | Robert Ford | A Window on the North |
| 1957 | Jay Macpherson | The Boatman |
| 1958 | James Reaney | A Suit of Nettles |
| 1959 | Irving Layton | Red Carpet for the Sun |

### 1960s

| Year | Author | Title |
| 1960 | Margaret Avison | Winter Sun |
| 1961 | Robert Finch | Acis in Oxford |
| 1962 | James Reaney | Twelve Letters to a Small Town and The Killdeer and Other Plays |
| 1963 | No award presented | No award presented |
| 1964 | Raymond Souster | The Colour of the Times |
| 1965 | Al Purdy | The Cariboo Horses |
| 1966 | Margaret Atwood | The Circle Game |
| 1967 | Eli Mandel | An Idiot Joy |
| 1967 | Alden Nowlan | Bread, Wine and Salt |
| 1968 | Leonard Cohen | Selected Poems 1956–68 |
| 1969 | George Bowering | Rocky Mountain Foot and The Gangs of Kosmos |
| 1969 | Gwendolyn MacEwen | The Shadow-Maker |

### 1970s

| Year | Author | Title |
| 1970 | bpNichol | The True Eventual Story of Billy the Kid |
| 1970 | Michael Ondaatje | The Collected Works of Billy the Kid |
| 1971 | John Glassco | Selected Poems |
| 1972 | Dennis Lee | Civil Elegies and Other Poems |
| 1972 | John Newlove | Lies |
| 1973 | Miriam Mandel | Lions at Her Face |
| 1974 | Ralph Gustafson | Fire on Stone |
| 1975 | Milton Acorn | The Island Means Minago |
| 1976 | Joe Rosenblatt | Top Soil |
| 1977 | D. G. Jones | Under the Thunder the Flowers Light Up the Earth |
| 1978 | Patrick Lane | Poems New and Selected |
| 1979 | Michael Ondaatje | There's a Trick with a Knife I'm Learning to Do |
| 1979 | Erín Moure | Empire, York Street |
| 1979 | Susan Musgrave | A Man to Marry, a Man to Bury |

### 1980s

| Year | Author | Title |
| 1980 | Stephen Scobie | McAlmon's Chinese Opera |
| 1980 | Douglas Lochhead | High Marsh Road |
| See Governor General's Award for English-language poetry and Governor General's Award for English-language drama for 1981 and after. |||