# 1815 in poetry

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

## Events

* February 2 — Leigh Hunt released from prison after being jailed for criticizing the Prince Regent in The Examiner.
* May — North American Review founded in Boston, Massachusetts.
* September — Lord Byron writes to Samuel Taylor Coleridge of his admiration of Christabel, which he has heard recited by Walter Scott; Coleridge sends Byron a copy of the poem, and after reading it Byron realizes he has unconsciously borrowed from it in Siege of Corinth; he offers to omit the lines; yet on publication the lines remain and Byron offers an explanatory note.
* Percy Bysshe Shelley writes Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude which lacks a title when he passes it along to his friend, Thomas Love Peacock. Peacock suggests the name "Alastor" from Roman mythology.
* First complete publication of the Old English epic poem Beowulf, in a Latin translation by Icelandic-Danish scholar Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin.

## Works published
### United Kingdom

* Lord Byron, Hebrew Melodies, including "She Walks in Beauty", "The Destruction of Sennacherib" published in April with musical settings; though expensive at a cost of one guinea, over 10,000 copies sell; by summer, an edition of Byron's poems without the musical settings is published.
* Louisa Costello, The Maid of the Cyprus Isle, and Other Poems
* William Cowper (pronounced "Cooper"), Poems, by William Cowper, edited by John Johnson
* James Hogg, The Pilgrims of the Sun
* Leigh Hunt, The Descent of Liberty: A masque
* Ann Radcliffe, Poems
* Walter Scott:
** "The Lord of the Isles"
** The Field of Waterloo (the Battle of Waterloo took place on June 18)
* Lydia Sigourney, Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse, United States
* Robert Southey, The Minor Poems of Robert Southey, a reprinting of Poems 1796 and Metrical Tales 1805
* William Wordsworth:
** Poems, including a revised version of "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" and Lyrical Ballads (published separately in 1798, 1800, 1802, 1805); a third volume published in 1820
** The White Doe of Rylstone; or, The Fate of the Nortons

### United States

* Hugh Henry Brackenridge, Modern Chivalry: Containing the Adventures of a Captain, and Teague O'Regan, his Servant, United States
* William Cullen Bryant, "To a Waterfowl", a widely popular and much anthologized poem in which the narrator's doubt and uncertainty is relieved by seeing a bird flying alone across the sky, inspiring belief in the guidance of God; later published in The North American Review in March 1818; Matthew Arnold called it "the best short poem in the language"
* Philip Freneau, A Collection of Poems on American Affairs, two volumes of previously unpublished verses reflecting strong patriotism; released during the War of 1812
* Lydia Sigourney, Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse, the author's first published book

### Other

* Ang Duong, "Neang Kakey", Cambodian verse melodrama composed in Thailand
* Theodor Körner (died 1813), Poetischer Nachlass, Germany

## Births

Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
* March 29 – Hagiwara Hiromichi 萩原広道 (died 1863), Japanese late-Edo period scholar of literature, philology and nativist studies (Kokugaku); also author, translator and poet; known for his commentary and literary analysis of The Tale of Genji
* October 29 – Dan Emmett (died 1904), American songwriter
* December 30 – Betty Paoli, born Barbara "Babette" Elisabeth Glück (died 1894), Austrian poet
* Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai (died 1876), Tamil scholar and poet

## Deaths

Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
* January 21 – Matthias Claudius (born 1740), German poet
* April 10 – George Ellis (born 1753) English antiquarian and poet
* June – Elizabeth Hands (born 1746), English poet
* December 29 – Samuel Henley (born 1740), English clergyman, schoolteacher, college principal, antiquarian, writer and poet