# 1888 in poetry

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

## Events

* June 3 – American writer Ernest Thayer's baseball poem "Casey at the Bat" is first published (under the pen name "Phin") as the last of his humorous contributions to The San Francisco Examiner.

## Works published
### Canada

* William Wilfred Campbell, Snowflakes and sunbeams. St. Stephen, NB: St. Croix Courier Press. Published at author's expense.
* Archibald Lampman, Among the Millet. His first book of poems, including "Heat". Published at author's expense.
* Frederick George Scott, The Soul's Quest, and Other Poems.

### United Kingdom

* William Allingham, Flower Pieces, and Other Poems, illustrated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
* Sir Edwin Arnold, translator from the Persian by Sa'di, With Sa'di in the Garden; or, The Book of Love
* Matthew Arnold, Essays in Criticism, Second Series (see also Essays in Criticism 1865, 1910)
* W. E. Henley, A Book of Verses
* Andrew Lang, Grass of Parnassus
* George Meredith, A Reading of Earth
* William Wordsworth, The Recluse, printed from the original manuscript; Wordsworth's plan was to write a long autobiographical poem of three parts and a prelude (see also The Excursion 1814 and The Prelude 1850) posthumously published

### United States

* Danske Dandridge, Joy and Other Poems
* Oliver Wendell Holmes, Before the Curfew and Other Poems
* James Russell Lowell:
** The English Poets; Lessing, Rousseau, nonfiction
** Heartsease and Rue
* Herman Melville, John Marr and Other Sailors
* Thomas Nelson Page and A. C. Gordon, Befo' de War
* James Whitcomb Riley:
** Pipes o' Pan at Zekesbury
** Old-Fashioned Roses
* Ernest Thayer, "Casey at the Bat"
* Walt Whitman, November Boughs

### Other

* Rubén Darío, Azul
* James Russell Lowell, Heartsease and Rue
* Władysław Mickiewicz, Adam Mickiewicz, sa vie et son œuvre ("Adam Mickiewicz: His Life and Works"), biography written by and collected works edited by the author's son, translated from the original Polish into French, Paris
* I. L. Peretz, "Monish", Polish poet writing in Yiddish
* Andrejs Pumpurs, Lāčplēsis ("The Bear-Slayer"), Latvia

## Births

Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
* January 5 – Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni (died 1970), Italian-born American poet
* February 8 – Giuseppe Ungaretti (died 1970), Egyptian-born Italian modernist poet and writer
* February 13 – Desmond FitzGerald (born 1947), English-born Irish revolutionary, poet, publicist and politician
* March 26 – F. W. Harvey (died 1957), English rural poet and soldier
* March 30 – Julian Grenfell (died of wounds 1915), English soldier and poet
* April 6 – Dan Andersson (died 1920), Swedish poet
* April 30 – John Crowe Ransom (died 1974), American poet, essayist, social and political theorist and academic
* June 8 – Senge Motomaro 千家元麿 (died 1948), Japanese, Taishō and Shōwa period poet (surname: Senge)
* June 13 – Fernando Pessoa (died 1935), Portuguese heteronymic poet, writer, critic, translator, publisher and philosopher
* June 22 – Alan Seeger (killed in action 1916), American poet
* August 1 – Aline Kilmer, born Aline Murray (died 1941), American poet, children's book author and essayist; wife of Joyce Kilmer
* September 26 – T. S. Eliot (died 1965), American-born English poet, playwright, editor, critic and writer
* October 1 – Ryuko Kawaji 川路柳虹, pen-name of Kawaki Makoto (died 1959), Japanese, Shōwa period poet and literary critic (surname: Kawaji)
* October 14 – Katherine Mansfield (died 1923), New Zealand modernist poet and short story writer
* October 16 – Eugene O'Neill (died 1953), American playwright
* October 19 – Venkatarama Ramalingam Pillai (died 1972), Indian Tamil-language poet and freedom fighter
* date not known – Nilkanth Sharma Dal (died 1970), Indian, Kashmiri-language poet

## Deaths

Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
* February 28 (last seen alive) - Black Bart (born 1829), American gentleman stagecoach robber and versifier
* April 15 - Matthew Arnold (born 1822), English poet and critic
* May 12 - Edward Lear (born 1812), English comic poet
* July 30 - María Josefa Mujía (born 1812), blind Bolivian poet
* August 9 - Charles Cros (born 1842), French poet and inventor