1964 in poetry

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Events

• Among the many books of poetry published this year, Robert Lowell's For the Union Dead is greeted with particular acclaim. The book was received with "general jubilation" from critics, according to Raymond Walters Jr., associate editor of the New York Times Book Review. "These verses [...] convinced many observers that its author was now the pre-eminent U.S. poet."^[1]
• The publication in the United Kingdom of The Complete Poems of D. H. Lawrence in two volumes is "a major publishing event of 1964".^[1]
• A surprise best-seller in the United Kingdom was John Lennon's In His Own Write, a compendium of nonsense poems, sketches and drawings by one of the Beatles.^[1]
• The "Shakespeare Quartercentenary", the 400th anniversary of the birth of William Shakespeare, is celebrated in lecture series, exhibitions, dramatic and musical programs and other events as well as special publications (Shakespeare issues and supplements), reprinting of standard works on the playwright and poet, and even commemorative postage stamps. The American Association of Advertising Agencies even suggests that Shakespeare quotations should be used in ads. Celebrations of various sorts occur in the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and elsewhere.^[1]
• The 75th birthday of Anna Akhmatova, who was severely persecuted during the Stalin era, was celebrated with special observances and the publication of new collections of her verse.^[1]
• Russian poet Joseph Brodsky is convicted of "parisitism" in a Soviet court, which sends him into exile near the Arctic Circle.

Works published in English

Canada

• George Bowering, Points on the Grid^[1]
• Leonard Cohen, Flowers for Hitler, including "The Only Tourist in Havana Turns his Thoughts Homeward"
• Phyllis Gotlieb, Within the Zodiac, her first work^[1]
• Irving Layton, The Laughing Rooster^[1]
• Gwendolyn MacEwen, The Rising Fire^[1]
• Raymond Souster, The Colour of the Times, 250 poems collected from a dozen of his previous volumes^[1]

Anthologies

• Poetry of Mid-Century 1940/1960, edited by Milton Wilson, included the work of 10 well-known Canadian poets:^[1]

• Poésie/Poetry 64, edited by John Robert Colombo and Jacques Godbout;an anthology of lesser-known poets, including:^[1]

Criticism, scholarship and biography in Canada

• Northrop Frye, Fables of Identity, 16 essays on "various works and authors in the central tradition of English mythopoeic poetry"^[1]
• Roy Daniells, Milton, Mannerism and Baroque^[1]

New Zealand

• Fleur Adcock, Eye of the Hurricane, Wellington: Reed (New Zealand poet who moved to England in 1963)^[2]
• Charles Brasch: Ambulando: Poems, Christchurch: Caxton Press^[3]
• Alistair Campbell, Wild Honey, London: Oxford University Press

United Kingdom

• Sir John Betjeman, Ring of Bells
• Thomas Blackburn, A Breathing Space^[1]
• Donald Davie, Events and Wisdoms,^[1] London: Routledge and Kegan Paul (Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1965)^[4]
• Keith Douglas, Selected Poems (posthumous), edited by Ted Hughes^[1]
• Lawrence Durrell, Selected Poems: 1953–1963, edited by Alan Ross
• Ian Hamilton Finlay, Telegrams from My Windmill, Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press^[4]
• Zulfikar Ghose, The Loss of India^[1] by a Pakistani
• Gwen Harwood, Poems^[1]
• Philip Hobsbaum, The Place's Fault^[1]
• Elizabeth Jennings, Recoveries^[1]
• Patrick Kavanagh, Collected Poems,^[1] London: MacGibbon and Kee^[4]
• Philip Larkin, The Whitsun Weddings,^[1] London: Faber and Faber^[4]
• D. H. Lawrence, The Complete Poems in two volumes (posthumous), edited by Vivian de Sola Pinto and F. Warren Roberts, with poems in chronological order and an introduction by Pinto.^[1]
• John Lennon, In His Own Write, containing nonsensical poems, sketches and drawings; a best seller by the member of the Beatles^[1]
• Douglas Livingstone, Sjambok^[1] by a Rhodesian poet
• Edward Lucie-Smith, Confessions and Histories^[1]
• Peter Porter, Poems Ancient and Modern,^[1] Lowestoft, Suffolk: Scorpion Press^[4]
• Peter Redgrove, At the White Monument^[1]
• Nathaniel Tarn, Old Savage/Young City
• R.S. Thomas:
  • The Bread of Truth^[1]
  • "Words and the Poet" (lecture)
• David Wevill, Birth of a Shark, a first collection by a native of Canada^[1]
• Judith Wright, Five Senses selected poems by this Australian poet^[1]

Criticism, scholarship, and biography in the United Kingdom

• Poetry of the Thirties, a Penguin Books anthology; including the last published appearance during the lifetime of W. H. Auden of his, "September 1, 1939", a poem which he was famous for, but which he hated; the poem appeared in the edition with a note about this and four other early poems: "Mr. W. H. Auden considers these five poems to be trash which he is ashamed to have written."
• G. Hartmann, Wordsworth's Poetry, 1787-1814^[5]

United States

• A. R. Ammons, Expressions of Sea Level
• Ted Berrigan, The Sonnets Holt, Rinehart & Winston
• John Berryman, 77 Dream Songs, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux^[4]
• Joseph Payne Brennan, Nightmare Need
• John Ciardi, Person to Person^[1]
• James Dickey:
  • Helmets^[1]
  • Two Poems of the Air^[1]
• Ed Dorn:
  • Hands Up!, Totem Press^[6]
  • From Gloucester Out, Matrix Press^[6]
• Horace Gregory, Collected Poems^[1]
• Donald Hall, A Roof of Tiger Lilies, New York: Viking^[4]
• LeRoi Jones, The Dead Lecturer, New York: Grove Press^[4]
• Galway Kinnell, Flower Herding on Mount Monadnock, Boston: Houghton Mifflin^[4]
• Denise Levertov, O Taste and See,^[1] New York: New Directions^[4]
• Robert Lowell, For the Union Dead^[1] New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux^[4] (for more information, see "Events" section, above)
• William Meredith, The Wreck of the Thresher and Other Poems^[1]
• Vladimir Nabokov, translator, Eugene Onegin by Aleksandr Pushkin
• Elder Olson, Collected Poems^[1]
• Ezra Pound, editor, Confucius to Cummings: An Anthology of Poetry^[7]
• Theodore Roethke (both posthumous):
  • The Far Field,^[1] Garden City, New York: Doubleday^[4]
  • Sequence, Sometimes Metaphysical^[1]
• Kenneth Rexroth:
  • Natural Numbers^[1]
  • (translator), 100 Poems from the Japanese
• M. L. Rosenthal, Blue Boy on Skates^[1]
• E. N. Sargent, The African Boy^[1]
• Karl Shapiro, The Bourgeois Poet,^[1] New York: Random House
• Jack Spicer, Language
• Robert Sward, Kissing the Dancer and Other Poems^[1]
• Donald Wandrei, Poems for Midnight

Criticism, scholarship, and biography in the United States

• Phyllis Grosskurth, John Addington Symonds: A Biography (Canadian scholar publishing in the United States), winner of the 1964 Governor General's Awards in Canada
• Hugh Kenner, * Hugh Kenner, editor, Seventeenth Century Poetry: The Schools of Donne & Jonson, Canadian writing and published in the United States
• Vladimir Nabokov, Notes on Prosody, Russian native writing and published in the United States

Other in English

• G. Dutton, The Literature of Australia, Australia^[8]
• R. Ward, Penguin Book of Australian Ballads, anthology, Australia^[8]

Works in other languages

Danish

• Inger Christensen, Graess^[1]
• Klaus Rifbjerg, Portraet^[1]
• Knud Holst, Trans^[1]
• Jørgen Sonne, Krese^[1]

French

Canada

• Jacques Brault, Mémoire^[1]
• Paul Chamberland, L'Afficheur hurle^[1]
• Gilbert Choquette, L'Honneur de vivre^[1]
• Cécile Cloutier, Cuivre et soies^[1]
• Paul-Marie Lapointe, Pour les âmes^[1]
• Fernand Oullette, Le Soliel sous la mort^[1]

France

• Louis Aragon, near simultaneous publication of four works:^[1]
  • Series of discussions with F. Crémieux on the philosophical and literary ideas of the poet^[1]
  • Il ne m'est Paris que d'Elsa, a collection of poems^[1]
  • a "lengthy and ambitious historical poem"^[1]
  • Le Voyage en Hollande^[1]
• A. Marissel, La Nouvelle parabole, winner of the first Louise Labé Prize^[1]

Anthologies

• J. L. Bédouin, editor, La Poésie surréaliste^[1]
• G. E. Clancier, editor, Panorama critique de Chénier á Baudelaire^[1]

German

• Erich Fried, Warngedichte^[1]
• Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Blindenschrift^[1]
• Walter Höllerer, Der andere Gast^[1]
• Günter Eich, Zu den Akten^[1]

Hebrew

• Yaakov Cahan, the collected works^[1]
• Esther Rab, Shirai-^[1]
• Leah Goldberg, Im ha-Laila Hazeh ("On This Night")^[1]
• Daliah Rivikovich, Horef Kasheh ("Hard Winter")^[1]
• Dan Pagis, Shehut Mauhereth ("Belated Lingering")^[1]
• David Avidan, Masheu Bishvil Mishehu ("Something for Someone")^[1]
• Amir Gilboa, Kehulim Vaadumin ("The Blues and the Reds")^[1]
• Eldad Andan, Lo Bishmahot kalot ("Not with Joys Lightly")^[1]
• B. Mordecai, Nefilim ba-Aretz ("Giants on Earth")^[1]
• Aaron Zeitlin, Min ha-Adam Vomaila ("From Man and Higher"), comprising two dramatic poems by this American publishing in Israel^[1]
• Chaim Brandwein, be-Tzel ha-Argaman ("In the Shadow of the Purple"), a first book of poems by this American publishing in Israel^[1]
• Abraham Regelson, Hakukot Otiotaich ("Engraved Are Thy Letters"), by an American poet living in Israel^[1]

Italian

• Bartolo Cattafi, L'osso, l'anima ^[1]
• Corrado Costa, Pseudobaudelaire avant-garde poetry^[1]
• Eugenio Miccini, Sonetto minore avant-garde poetry^[1]
• Elio Pagliarani, La lezione di fisica avant-garde poetry^[1]
• Pier Paulo Pasolini, Poesia in forma di rosa^[1]
• Lamberto Pignotti, La nozione dell'uomo avant-garde poetry^[1]
• Antonio Porta, Aprire avant-garde poetry^[1]
• Edoardo Sanguineti, Triperuno avant-garde poetry^[1]
• Cesare Vivaldi, Dettagli avant-garde poetry^[1]
• Gruppo '63 (published this spring), an anthology of poems, critical essays, and passages from plays and novels by writers who had rebelled in recent years against standard conventions in literature.^[1]

Norwegian

• Ernst Orvil, Kontakt^[1]
• Astrid Hjertenaes Andersen, Frokost 'i det grønne^[1]
• Harald Sverdrup, Sang til solen^[1]

Russian

• Andrei Voznesensky, "a number of poems, including several devoted to Lenin", according to Harrison E. Salisbury^[1]
• Bella Akhmadulina, "published an extensive sheaf of nonpolitical, impressionistic verse", according to Harrison E. Salisbury^[1]

Portuguese language

Brazil

• Lupe Cotrim Garaude, O poeta e o mundo, her fourth collection^[1]

Spanish language

Latin America

• Jorge Carrera Andrade, Floresta de los Guacamayos (Ecuador), published in Nicaragua while he was ambassador to the United States^[1]
• Roque Vallejos, Los arcángeles ebrios (Paraguay)^[1]
• Sarah Bollo (Uruguay):
  • Diana transfigurada^[1]
  • Tierra y Cielo^[1]

Anthologies

• Instituto Torcuato Di Tella, Poesía argentina (sic), including selections from 10 Argentinian poets, most born in the 1920s or later^[1]
• Oscar Echeverri Mejía and Alfonso Bonilla-Naar, editors, 21 años de poesía colombiana (sic), with poems from the more prominent Colombian poets in the two decades from 1942 to 1963^[1]

Criticism, scholarship, and biography in Latin America

• Raúl Silva Castro, Pablo Neruda, an analysis of his poetry^[1]
• Jorge Carrera Andrade, Interpretación de Rubén Darío (Nicaragua)^[1]
• Luis Alberto Cabrales, Rubén Darío, breve biografía (Nicaragua)^[1]
• Rubén Darío periodista, a collection of his journalism compiled by the Nicaragua Ministry of Public Education^[1]

Spain

• Jorge Guillén, Tréboles^[1]
• José García Nieto, La hora undécima^[1]
• Gerardo Diego, La suerte o la muerte^[1]
• Fernando Quiñones, En vida, winner of the Leopoldo Panero Prize by the Instituto de Cultura Hispánica^[1]

Criticism, scholarship and biography in Spain

• Gabriel Celaya, Exploración de la poesía^[1]
• José Francisco Cirré, La poesía de José Moreno Villa^[1]
• Books published for the centenary year of Miguel de Unamuno (died 1936), an essayist, novelist, poet, playwright and philosopher:^[1]
  • Manuel García Blanco, América y Unamuno^[1]
  • Julio César Chaves, Unamuno y América^[1]
  • Julio García Morejón, Unamuno y Portugal^[1]
  • Sebastián de la Nuez, Unamuno en Canarias^[1]
  • Ricardo Gullón, Autobiografías de Unamuno^[1]

Yiddish

• Mordkhay gebirtig, a new edition of the poet's works^[1]
• Itskhok Katzenelson, a new edition of the poet's works^[1]
• Abraham Sutzkever, a two-volume edition of the poet's works^[1]
• Joseph Rubinstein, Khurbn Polyn ("Polish Jewry: a Lament")^[1]
• Binem Heler, a book of poems^[1]
• Yankev Zonshayn, a book of poems^[1]
• P. Tsibulski, a book of poems^[1]
• I. Papiernikov, a book of poems^[1]
• I. Manik, a book of poems^[1]
• I. Goykhberg, a book of poems^[1]
• Rosa Gutman, a book of poems^[1]
• Aleph Katz, a book of poems^[1]

Other

• Lars Forstell, Röster (Sweden)^[1]
• Eeva Liisa Manner, Niin vaihtuivat vuoden ajat (Finland)^[1]
• Arvo Turtiainen, Runoja 1934-1964 (Finland)^[1]

Awards and honors

Canada

• 1964 Governor General's Awards:
  • No poetry award for English this year
  • Poetry award (French): Gratien Lapointe, Ode au Saint-Laurent

United Kingdom

• Eric Gregory Award: Robert Nye, Ken Smith, Jean Symons, Ted Walker
• Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: R. S. Thomas

United States

• Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (later the post would be called "Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress"): Reed Whittemore appointed this year.
• National Book Award for Poetry: John Crowe Ransom, Selected Poems
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Louis Simpson: At The End Of The Open Road
• Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Elizabeth Bishop
• Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded by President Lyndon Johnson to 30 people, including Carl Sandburg

Other

• Danish Academy's literature prize: Erik Knudsen, a poet and playwright^[1]
• Critics' Prize for Poetry (Spain): María Elvira Lacaci^[1]
• Leopoldo Panero Prize, given by the Instituto de Cultura Hispánica (Spain): Fernando Quiñones, for En vida^[1]

Births

• May 7 — Kathy Shaidle, a Canadian author, columnist and poet
• date not known:
  • Rafael Campo, gay, Cuban-American poet, doctor, and author
  • Catherine Graham

Deaths

• January 22 — Zora Cross — Australian poet
• April 26 — E.J. Pratt, 81, a Canadian poet
• December 9 — Dame Edith Sitwell, 77, of a heart attack, British poet and critic
• September 18 — Clive Bell, 83, English critic
• October 10 — Oscar Williams, 64, American poet and anthologist
• Date not known:
  • Raphael Campo, American poet^[9]

See also

Poetry portal

• Poetry
• List of poetry awards
• List of years in poetry

Notes