1640 in poetry

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

List of years in poetry (table)
… 1630 1631 1632 1633 1634 1635 1636 1637 1638 1639 1640 1641 1642 1643 1644 1645 1646 1647 1648 1649 1650 …
In literature 1637 1638 1639 1640 1641 1642 1643
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Events

• Early? – Poems written by Wil. Shake-speare, Gent. is published (posthumously) by John Benson in London, the first collection of Shakespeare's non-dramatic poetry, although incomplete and mangled and with some male pronouns changed to female in the sonnets (here reissued for the first time since original publication).
• English Cavalier poet Richard Lovelace, serving in the Bishops' Wars in Scotland, writes "To Lucasta, Going to the Warres" (published 1649)

Works published

• Francis Beaumont, Poems, including a translation from the Latin poetry of Ovid's Metamorphoses, which might not be by Beaumont; several other poems in the book are definitely not by him, according to The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature
• Thomas Carew, Poems, including "Coelum Brittanicum" 1634
• Richard Flecknoe, The Affections of a Pious Soule, unto our Savior-Christ, prose and poetry
• Ben Jonson:
  • Art of Poetry, translated from the Latin of Horace; also contains Execration Against Vulcan; The Masque of the Gypsies and Epigrams to Severall Noble Personages in this Kingdome; posthumous edition
  • The Workes of Benjamin Jonson, the second folio; Volume 1 reprints Workes 1616
• Richard Mather and John Eliot, and Thomas Weld The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre, commonly known as the Bay Psalm Book, English Colonial American work
• Francis Quarles, Enchyridion
• Nathaniel Richards, The Tragedy of Messallina, the Roman Emperesse
• John Tatham, The Fancies Theater

Births

Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:

• December 14 (probable date) – Aphra Behn, born Eaffrey Johnson (died 1689), English woman playwright and poet
• Nozawa Bonchō 野沢 凡兆 (died 1714), Japanese haikai poet

Deaths

Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:

• February/March – Richard Rowlands (born 1550), Anglo-Dutch antiquarian and writer
• March 22 – Thomas Carew (born 1595), English poet
• April 2
  • Paul Fleming (born 1609), German poet and physician
  • Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski (born 1595), Polish Jesuit and Latin-language poet
• April 28 (bur.) – William Alabaster (born 1567), English poet and playwright
• September 12 – William Alexander, 1st Earl of Stirling, (born 1567), Scottish statesman, courtier, poet and writer of rhymed tragedies
• October 1 – Claudio Achillini (born 1574), Italian polymath and poet
• Charles Aleyn, English poet
• Daniel Naborowski (born 1573), Polish Baroque poet
• Walter Quin (born c. 1575), Irish-born English court poet and author writing in English, Latin, French and Italian

See also

• Poetry
• 17th century in poetry
• 17th century in literature