# 1857 in poetry

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

## Events

* Commissioned with other Hungarian poets to write a poem of praise for a visit of Franz Joseph I of Austria to his country, János Arany instead produces the subversive ballad The Bards of Wales (A walesi bárdok), unpublished until 1863.

## Works published in English
### United Kingdom

* Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh, dated this year but first published at the end of 1856
* Edward Bulwer-Lytton, writing under the pen name "Owen Meredith", The Wanderer
* Elizabeth Gaskell, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, Smith, Elder & Co., biography
* Frederick Locker, London Lyrics (12 re-editions to 1893)
* Denis MacCarthy, Underglimpses, and Other Poems
* Theodore Martin, translated from Adam Oehlenschlager, Aladdin; or, The Wonderful Lamp

### United States

* William Allen Butler, Nothing to Wear, published posthumously (first published anonymously in Harper's Weekly); the poem sold well, despite the financial panic; when a woman declared she was the author, the resulting controversy helped sales (see Mortimer Thomson's poem describing the controversy, below)
* Paul Hamilton Hayne, Sonnets and Other Poems
* Francis Scott Key, Poems
* James Lawson, Poems
* Alexander Beaufort Meek, Songs and Poems of the South
* Mortimer Thomson, writing under the pen name "Q. K. Philander Doesticks, P. B." (Without the pen name's abbreviations: "Queer Kritter Philander Doesticks, Perfect Brick"), Nothing to Say: A Slight Slap at Mobocratic Snobbery, Which Has "Nothing to Do" with "Nothing to Wear" on the controversy over the authorship of William Allen Butler's poem Nothing to Wear; Thomson was offered a dollar a line for a poem on the subject, submitted an 800-line poem and was paid in full; illustrated by John McLenan; the book sold well
* Richard Henry Stoddard, Songs of Summer
* John Greenleaf Whittier:
** The Sycamores
** The Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier

### Other in English

* Charles Heavysege, Saul: A Drama in Three Parts, first edition (second edition, 1869); Canada
* James Lionel Michael, Songs without Music, lyrics, Australia

## Works published in other languages

* Théodore de Banville, Odes funambulesques, France
* Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal ("Flowers of Evil"), France
* Giosuè Carducci, Rime, Italy
* Rosalia de Castro, La Flor, Galician Spanish poet, writing in Spanish
* Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, Kalevipoeg, Estonia, revised version begins first publication
* Jan Neruda, Hřbitovní kvítí ("Cemetery Flowers"), Czech

## Births

Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
* February 27 – Agnes Mary Frances Duclaux, née Robinson (died 1944), English-born poet and biographer
* March 17 – Benjamin Franklin King, Jr. (died 1894), American poet
* April 11 – John Davidson (suicide 1909), Scottish poet and playwright
* April 17 – Jane Barlow (died 1917), Irish poet and novelist
* June 13 – Hubert Church (died 1932), Australian poet
* September 22 – James Hebblethwaite (died 1921), Australian poet and clergyman
* Undated – Kaikobad (কায়কোবাদ) (also spelt "Kaykobad" and also known as Mohakobi Kaikobad ("Kaikobad the great poet"), pen name of Kazem Al Quereshi (died 1951), Bengali poet

## Deaths

Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
* February 9 – Dionysios Solomos Διονύσιος Σολωμός (born 1798), Greek poet best known for the Hymn to Liberty, the first two stanzas of which became the Greek national anthem
* March 11 – Manuel José Quintana (born 1772), Spanish
* April 11 – John Davidson (died 1909), Scottish poet and playwright
* May 2 – Alfred de Musset (born 1810), French poet and novelist
* June 25 – Isabella Kelly (born 1759), Scottish-born novelist and poet
* October 14 – Alexander Laing (born 1787), Scottish poet
* November 26 – Joseph von Eichendorff (born 1788), German poet and novelist
* December 13 – Richard Furness, "The Poet of Eyam" (born 1791), English
* Undated – Anna Ehrenström (born 1786), Swedish poet