# 1954 in poetry

"none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]] Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).

## Events

* January 25 – Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood is broadcast posthumously on BBC Radio.
* February – W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman move to an apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
* Spring – Robert Creeley founds and edits the Black Mountain Review.
* Publication of American literary theorist William K. Wimsatt's collected essays Verbal Icon: Studies in the Meaning of Poetry, including the influential critical essays “The Intentional Fallacy” and “The Affective Fallacy” cowritten with Monroe Beardsley.
* Jack Kerouac reads Dwight Goddard's A Buddhist Bible, which will influence him greatly.

## Works published in English

Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:

### Canada

* Daryl Hine, Five Poems
* Irving Layton, In the Midst of My Fever. Palma de Mallorca, Spain: Divers Press.
* Irving Layton, The Long Pea-Shooter. Montreal: Laocoon Press.
* Jay Macpherson, O Earth Return
* P. K. Page, The Metal and the Flower, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, Canada
* Raymond Souster, A Dream That Is Dying. Toronto: Contact Press
* Raymond Souster, Walking Death. Toronto: Contact Press.
* F. R. Scott, Events and Signals. Toronto: Ryerson Press.
* A. J. M. Smith, A Sort of Ecstasy; Michigan State College Press / Ryerson Press.

### India, in English

* Sri Aurobindo:
** Collected Poems (Poetry in English), Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram
** Savitri ( Poetry in English ), Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram
* R. de L. Furtado, The Centre, Hamilton, Ontario: Cromlech Press; Indian author published in Canada
* Nizamat Jung, Poems (Poetry in English), edited and published by Zahir Ahmed in Hyderabad
* Prithwi Singh Nahar, The Wind of Silence (Poetry in English), songs, sonnets and other poems; Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram
* C. Raju, This Modern Age, foreword by Amarnath Jha
* K. S. R. Sastry, A Vision of India, Madras: Raja Power Press

### United Kingdom

* W. H. Auden, The Shield of Achilles, English poet living in the United States at this time
* Sir John Betjeman, A Few Late Chrysanthemums
* George Mackay Brown, The Storm, Scotland
* Thom Gunn, Fighting Terms, Fantasy Press
* John Heath-Stubbs, A Charm Against the Toothace
* Philip Larkin, The Less Deceived
* David Raikes (posthumous), The Poems of David Raikes

#### Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United Kingdom

* P. Cruttwell, The Shakespearean Moment, criticism, United Kingdom
* G. Hartmann, The Unmediated Vision, criticism, United Kingdom
* W. K. Wimsatt Jr., The Verbal Icon, criticism, United Kingdom
* Jon Silkin, The Peaceable Kingdom, including "Death of a Son (who died in a mental hospital aged one)"
* Dylan Thomas, Quite Early One Morning, New Directions Publishers

### United States

* Léonie Adams, Poems
* W. H. Auden, The Shield of Achilles, English poet living in the United States at this time
* Louise Bogan, Collected Poems, 1923–1953
* E. E. Cummings, Poems, 1923–1954
* Babette Deutsch, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral
* Anthony Hecht, A Summoning of Stones
* Daniel G. Hoffman, An Armada of Thirty Wales
* Robinson Jeffers, Hungerfield and Other Poems
* Weldon Kees, Poems 1947–1954
* Archibald MacLeish, Songs for Eve
* W. S. Merwin, The Dancing Bears, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press (reprinted as part of The First Four Books of Poems, 1975)
* Edna St. Vincent Millay, Mine the Harvest
* Marianne Moore, The Fables of La Fontaine
* Howard Moss, The Toy Fair
* Kenneth Patchen, The Famous Boating Party
* May Swenson, Another Animal
* Wallace Stevens, The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens, includes "The Rock," previously unpublished section including "The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain," "A Quiet Normal Life," "Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour," "The Rock," "The Planet on the Table," and "Not Ideas about the Thing but the Thing Itself"), Knopf
* E. B. White, The Second Tree from the Corner
* William Carlos Williams, The Desert Music and Other Poems

#### Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United States

* Hugh Kenner, Wyndham Lewis: A Critical Guidebook, criticism, United States
* W. C. Williams, Selected Essays, criticism, United States

### Other

* Martin Carter, Poems of Resistance, Guyana
* Wilson Harris, Eternity to Season, Guyana
* Frank Prince, Soldiers Bathing and Other Poems, South African
* Keith Sinclair, Strangers or Beasts: Poems, New Zealand

## Works published in other languages
### French language
#### Canada, in French

* Jean-Guy Pilon, Les cloîtres de l'été, Montréal: l'Hexagone

#### France

* Louis Aragon, Les Yeux et la memoire
* Jean Cocteau, Clair–obscur
* René Daumal, Poésie noire, poésie blanche, posthumously published (died 1944)
* Jean Follain, Appareil de la terre
* Jean Grosjean, Fils de l'homme
* Henri Michaux, Face au verrous

### India

In each section, listed in alphabetical order by first name:

#### Hindi

* Girija Kumar Mathur, Dhup ke dhan
* Namvar Singh, Chayavad, literary criticism that offers a radically new interpretation of the romantic movement in Hindi poetry; shows the social foundations of Hindi romanticism and its ties to the progressive movement that followed it
* Premchand, Sahitya Ka Uddesya, literary essays; published posthumously

#### Malayalam

* P. K. Paramesvaran Nair, Adhunika Sahitya Caritram, history of Malayalam literature (later translated into English and published by Sahitya Akademi in 1967 under the title History of Malayalam Literature)
* P. Kunjiraman Nair, Kaliyacchan, poems reflecting traditional ways of life in Kerala
* Sreedhara Menon, Kunnimenikal
* Sukumar Azhikode, Asante Sitakavyam, critical assessment of Kumaran Asan's Cintavishtayaya

#### Urdu

* Gian Chand Jain, Urdu ki nasri dastanen, literary criticism on classical Urdu fiction ("dastan"), written in that language
* Jigar Brelvi, Payam-i Savitri, a narrative poem on Savitri, a figure from Hindu mythology; Urdu
* Masood Husain Khan, Urdu zaban aur adab, critical study on the Urdu language and literature

#### Other languages of the Indian subcontinent

* Baldev Gajra, also known as "Gumnam", Gumnam Sada, nationalist poems; Sindhi
* Buddhadeb Basu, Sahitya Carca, essays on various literary topics; Bengali
* Jayant Pathak, Marmar, the author's first poetry collection; Gujarati
* M. Gopalakrishna Adiga, Cendemaddale, Kannada
* Mohan Singh, Awazan, lyrics with a "romantic progressive ideology", according to Indian academic Sisir Kumar Das; Punjabi
* Nand Lal Ambardar, Loel Ta Husun, including "Roopavat", Kashmiri
* Nirendranath Chakraborty (also transliterated into English as Nirendranath Chakravarti, ), Nilnirjan (also transliterated into English as Nirendranath Chakravarti), mostly love poems, although one or two have political elements, Kolkata: Signet Press; Bengali-language
* Raghunath Singh Samyal, Dogra Desa Te Dogari Boli, Dogri poetry praising Dograland, Dogra people and the Dogri language
* Tulasibahadur Chetri, nicknamed "Apatan", Samkalpa ("Resolve"), Nepali
* Madhunapantula Satyanarayanashastri, also spelled "Madhunapantula Satyanarayana Sastri", Andhra Puranamu, Telugu, (surname: Madhunapantula)
* Manoj Das, Padadvani, Oriya
* Satramdas, also known as "Sail", Rama Katha, 32 cantos in a Persian meter, written in the wake of the partition of India in 1947; Sindhi
* Visvanatha Satyanarayana, Nannayagari prasanna Katha Kalitartha Yukti, critical appraisal of Nannaya; Telugu

### Other languages

* Simin Behbahani, Ja-ye Pa ("Footprint"), Persia
* José Santos Chocano, Obras completas, pról. de Luis Alberto Sánchez Madrid, Aguilar, Peruvian poetry published in Spain
* Haim Gouri, Shirei Hotam ("Poems of the Seal"), Israeli writing in Hebrew
* Sorley MacLean, Hallaig, Scottish Gaelic (in Gairm 8)
* Pier Paolo Pasolini, La meglio gioventù, Friulian language published in Italy
* Maria Luisa Spaziani, Le acque del sabato, Italy
* Wisława Szymborska, Pytania zadawane sobie ("Questioning Yourself"), Poland
* Tin Ujević, Žedan kamen na studencu ("Thirsty stone at the wellspring"), Croatian

## Awards and honors

* National Book Award for Poetry: Conrad Aiken, Collected Poems
* Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Theodore Roethke: The Waking
* King's Gold Medal for Poetry: Ralph Hodgson
* Bollingen Prize: W. H. Auden
* Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Louise Townsend Nicholl and Oliver St. John Gogarty
* Canada: Governor General's Award, poetry or drama: The Metal and the Flower, P. K. Page

## Births

Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
* February 9 – Ian Duhig, English poet
* February 13 – Vijay Seshadri, Indian poet, essayist and literary critic who emigrates to the United States c. 1959
* February 21 – Francisco X. Alarcón (died 2016), Mexican-American poet
* February 27 – Thylias Moss, African-American poet, writer and playwright
* March 4 – Irina Ratushinskaya, Russian samizdat poet
* March 26 – Dorothy Porter (died 2008), Australian
* April 17 – Erín Moure, Canadian
* May 5 – Hamid Ismailov, Uzbek writer
* May 25 – Alexei Parshchikov (died 2009), Russian poet, critic and translator who emigrates to the United States in 1991
* July 5 – Kevin Hart, Australian
* July 19 – Jane Eaton Hamilton, Canadian short story writer, poet and photographer
* July 31 – Kim Addonizio, American poet and novelist
* August 6 – Lorna Dee Cervantes, American poet
* August 8 – Yu Jian, China
* August 15 – Mary Jo Salter, American
* October 15 – Peter Bakowski, Australian
* November 10 – Joy Goswami, Indian Bengali poet (a man)
* December 5 – Lynda Hull, American
* December 20 – Sandra Cisneros, American poet and author
* December 27 – David Baker, American
* Also:
** Catherine Anderson (poet), American
** Robert Boates, Canadian
** Brother Resistance, Trinidadian (died 2021)
** Janet Charman, New Zealand
** Imtiaz Dharker, Pakistan-born British
** Cornelius Eady, African American
** David Hallett, Australian
** Sotiris Kakisis, Greek
** Jan Heller Levi, American
** Ahmed Matar, Iraqi poet
** Ibrahim Nasrallah, Jordanian-Palestinian poet and novelist
** Luis J. Rodriguez, American poet, novelist, journalist, critic and columnist
** Stephen Sartarelli, poet and translator
** Deb Westbury (died 2018), Australian

## Deaths

Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
* January 1 – Leonard Bacon, 66 (born 1887), American poet
* February 6 – Maxwell Bodenheim, 62 (born 1892), American poet and novelist known as the "King of Greenwich Village Bohemians", murdered
* March 28 – Francis Brett Young, 73 (born 1884), English novelist and poet
* August 3 – Fumiko Nakajo 中城ふみ子, pen name of Noe Fumiko 野江富美子, 32 (born 1922), Japanese tanka poet who dies young after a turbulent life and struggle with breast cancer, as recorded in her poetry (surname: Nakajo)
* August 18 – Samukawa Sokotsu 寒川鼠骨 (born 1875), Japanese, Meiji period haiku poet; Masaoka Shiki's pupil.
* October 22
** Jibanananda Das (born 1899), Bengali poet
** Oswald de Andrade (born 1890), Brazilian poet and polemicist