1963 in poetry.html



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

Events

• Bob Dylan releases his The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, album, with his most influential early songwriting.
• The Belfast Group, a discussion group of poets in Northern Ireland, is started by Philip Hobsbaum when he moves to Belfast this year. Before the meetings finally end in 1972, attendees at its meetings will include Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley, James Simmons, Paul Muldoon, Ciaran Carson, Stewart Parker, Bernard MacLaverty and the critics Edna Longley and Michael Allen.
• July-August — The Vancouver Poetry Conference is held in three weeks, involving about 60 people who attended discussions, workshops, lectures, and readings designed by Warren Tallman and Robert Creeley as a summer course at the University of British Columbia.¹ According to Creeley:

"It brought together for the first time, a decisive company of then disregarded poets such as Denise Levertov, Charles Olson, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Duncan, Margaret Avison, Philip Whalen... together with as yet unrecognised younger poets of that time, Michael Palmer, Clark Coolidge and many more."¹

• The Soviet government appeared to begin removing freedoms previously granted to writers and artists in a process that began in November 1962 and continued this year. Yet the government proved uncertain and the writers persistent. In March 1963 the gavel fell on the great debate," or so it appeared, wrote Harrison E. Salisbury, Moscow correspondent for The New York Times. Khrushchev announced that Soviet writers were the servants of the Communist Party and must reflect its orders. Among the authors he specifically targeted were the poets Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Andrei Voznesensky. Yevtushenko, on a tour of European cities earlier in the year, recited before large audiences, including a capacity audience at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, and then returned home. "Literary Stalinists took over almost all the key publishing positions," Salisbury wrote. Yet the artists and writers who were criticized either refused to recant or did so in innocuous language. Alexander Tvardovsky, editor of the magazine Novy Mir, published three brutally frank stories by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, for instance. By midsummer, the effects of the announced crackdown appeared nil, with authors publishing essentially as before.²

Works published in English

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

Canada

• Roy Daniells, The Chequered Shade, a collection of short poems, mostly sonnets
• R. G. Everson, Blind Man's Holiday, a first book of poems
• Irving Layton, Balls for a One-Armed Juggler

Anthologies

• Frank Scott, translator and editor, St.-Denys Garneau and Anne Hébert
• The Plough and the Pen: Writings From Hungary 1930-1956, translations of Hungarian populust poets and writers by eight Canadian poets, including Earle Birney, A. J. M. Smith and Raymond Souster

Ireland

• Austin Clarke, Flight to Africa, Dublin: Dolmen Press³
• Denis Devlin, Selected Poems, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston³, Irish poet published in the United States
• Richard Murphy, Sailing to an Island, London: Faber and Faber;⁴ New York: Chilmark Press, 1965³

New Zealand

• James K. Baxter, The Ballad of the Soap Powder Lock-Out, a light-hearted work written by a poet who was at this time a postal worker in New Zealand, in connection with a postal workers’ protest against delivering heavy samples of soap powder
• Alistair Campbell, Sanctuary of Spirits
• Keith Sinclair, A Time to Embrace

United Kingdom

• Edwin Bronk, With Love From Judas,² Losestoft, Suffolk: Scorpion Press
• W. H. Davies, The Complete Poems of W. H. Davies, introduction by Sir Osbert Sitwell²
• T. S. Eliot - Collected Poems 1909-1962²
• Philip Hobsbaum and Edward Lucie-Smith, editors, A Group Anthology of young poets, many influenced by Ted Hughes, including George MacBeth, Peter Porter, David Wevill, and Peter Redgrove²
• Laurence Lerner, The Directions of Memory²
• George MacBeth, The Broken Places,² Lowestoft, Suffolk: Scorpion Press³
• Norman MacCaig, A Round of Applause²
• Louis MacNeice, The Burning Perch (posthumous)²
• Richard Murphy, Sailing to an Island, London: Faber and Faber;⁵ New York: Chilmark Press, 1965³ Irish
• Wilfred Owen, The Collected Poems of Wilfred Owen, edited and introduced by C. Day Lewis²
• F. T. Prince, The Doors of Stone²
• Peter Redgrove, All the White Monument, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul³
• R.S. Thomas, The Bread of Truth²
• Anthony Thwaite, The Owl in the Tree,² London: Oxford University Press³
• Charles Tomlinson, A Peopled Landscape, London: Oxford University Press³

United States

• Conrad Aiken, The Morning Song of Lord Zero²
• Gwendolyn Brooks, Selected Poems²
• Evan S. Connell (then known as "Evan S. Connell Jr."), Notes From a Bottle Found on the Beach at Carmel²
• E.E. Cummings, 73 Poems (posthumous)²
• Babette Deutsch, Collected Poems, 1919-1962
• Denis Devlin, Selected Poems, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston³, Irish poet published in the United States
• Allen Ginsberg, Reality Sandwiches, San Francisco: City Lights Books³6
• Paul Goodman, The Lordly Hudson²
• Michael Hamburger, Weather and Season, London: Routledge and Keagan Paul; New York: Atheneum³
• Robinson Jeffers, The Beginning and the End (posthumous)²
• H. P. Lovecraft - Collected Poems
• Howard Nemerov, The Next Room of the Dream²
• Lou B. ("Bink") Noll, The Center of the Circle, a first volume of poetry²
• Mary Oliver, No Voyage, and Other Poems (first edition; later released in an expanded edition in 1965)
• Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar, an autobiographical novel published under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas"
• Henry Rago, [3] A Sky of Light Summer, New York: Macmillan³
• Adrienne Rich, Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law, her third volume of poetry, gains the poet national prominence for her lyric voice, mostly in free verse, and for her treatment of feminist-related themes.
• Anne Sexton, All My Pretty Ones²
• Louis Simpson, At the End of the Open Road, Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press³
• William Stafford, Traveling Through the Dark²
• Jesse Stuart, Hold April²
• May Swenson, To Mix With Time²
• John Updike, Telephone Poles, and Other Poems²
• Mark Van Doren, Collected and New Poems, 1924-1963²
• William Carlos Williams, Paterson, all five books of this long poem first published together
• James Wright, The Branch Will Not Break, Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press³

Criticism and scholarship

• Louis Zukofsky, Bottom: On Shakespeare a work of literary philosophy
• Robert Bly's "A Wrong Turning in American Poetry" published in Choice

Other in English

• Chris Wallace-Crabbe (Australia):
  • In Light and Darkness, Sydney: Angus & Robertson
  • Editor, Six Voices: Contemporary Australian Poets, Sydney: Angus & Robertson; American Edition, Westport, Connecticut: 1979 (anthology)

Works published in other languages

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

Finnish

• Lassi Nummi, Kuutsimittaa²
• Aila Meriluoto, Asumattomiin²
• Solveig von Schoultz, Sänk ditt ljus²

French language

Canada

• Ronald Desprês, Les Cloisons en vertige²
• Alfred Desrochers, Le Retour de Titus²
• Alain Grandbois, Poèmes²
• Gatien Lapointe, Ode au Saint-Laurent²
• Wilfred Lemoine, Sauf-conduits²
• Pierre Perrault, Toutes isles²
• Jean-Guy Pilon, Pour saluer une ville²

France

• P. Bealu, Amour me cele, celle que j'aime²
• Maurice Fombeure, Quel est ce coeur?²
• Paul Gilson, Enigmarelle²
• Eugène Guillevic, Sphère²
• An anthology of Hungarian poetry translated by poets Jean Rousselot, Jean Follain, and Eugène Guillevic²

German

• Christa Reinig, Gedichte (East Germany)
• Erich Fried, Reich der Steine a volume of cycles of poetry
• Rupert Hirschenauer and Albrecht Weber, editors, Wege zum Gedicht, 2 volumes (second volume, on the ballad, published this year, previous volume published in 1956), scholarship⁶

Hebrew

• Nathan Alterman, a four-volume edition of his writing²
• Yehuda Amichai, a book of poetry²
• Y. Bat-Miriam, a book of poetry²
• J. Lichtenbaum, a book of poetry²
• J. Rabinow, a book of poetry²
• J. Ratosh, a book of poetry²
• D. Rokeah, a book of poetry²
• S. Shalom, a book of poetry²
• A. Tur-Malkah, a book of poetry²

Spanish language

Latin America

• Carlos Albert, editor, 13 poetas Argentinos de hoy, an anthology from the publisher Editorial Goyanarte (Argentina)²
• Alfonso Alcalde, Variaciones sobre el tema del amor y de la muerte (Chile)²
• Jorge Carrera Andrade, Angel planetario (Ecuador)²
• Esther de Cáceres, Los Cantos del destierro²
• Roland Cárdenas, En el invierno de la provincia²
• Lupo Hernández Rueda, Muerte y memoria (Dominican Republic)²
• Francisco Monterde, Sakura, including poetry inspired by epigrams and haiku (Mexico)²

Yiddish

• E. Ayzikovich, a new book of poems²
• Sore Birnboym, a new book of poems²
• A. Glants-Leyeles, Amerike un ikh ("America and I") (United States)²
• Yirmiyohu Hesheles, Lider ("Poems")²
• L. Kusman, a new book of poems²
• I. M. Levin, a new book of poems²
• M. K. Likhtshteyn, a new book of poems²
• Nosn Mark, a new book of poems²
• Leyb Olitsky, a new book of poems²
• Efroyim Oyerbakh, Der step vakht ("The Steppe Is Awake"), with Hassidic mysticism as an inspiration (United States) ²
• Nakhmen Raf, a new book of poems²
• Eliyohu Reyzman, a new book of poems²
• M. Shafir, a new book of poems²
• Moyshe Shklar, a new book of poems²
• Yaykev Fridman, Nefilim, drama in the form of a symbolic poem
• Hersh Leyb Yung, a new book of poems²

Other

• Manuel Bandeira, Estrêla da tarde, a selection from previous works (Brazil)²
• Ascensio Ferreira, Catimbó e outros poemas, a collection of three previous books (Brazil)²

Awards and honors

• Nobel Prize in Literature: Giorgos Seferis

United Kingdom

• Eric Gregory Award: Ian Hamilton, Stewart Conn, Peter Griffith, David Wevill
• Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: William Plomer

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"): Howard Nemerov appointed this year.
• American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Poetry, William Carlos Williams
• National Book Award for Poetry: William Stafford, Traveling Through the Dark
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: William Carlos Williams: Pictures from Breughel
• Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Ezra Pound and Allen Tate

Births

• Date not known:
  • Simon Armitage, English poet⁷
  • Lynn Crosbie, Canadian poet and novelist
  • He Xiaozhu, Chinese-Hmong poet, novelist and short story writer⁸
  • John Kinsella, Australian poet ⁹
  • Don Paterson, Scottish poet¹⁰
  • Claudia Rankine, American poet born in Jamaica and raised there and in New York City.
  • Richard Sanger
  • Lutz Seiller, German¹¹

Deaths

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

• January 29 – Robert Frost, 88, American poet
• February 11 – Sylvia Plath by suicide
• March 4 – William Carlos Williams, 79
• April 25¹² – Christopher Vernon Hassall
• August 1 – Theodore Roethke, 55, American poet and winner of the 1954 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
• September 3 – Louis MacNeice, 55, British poet, playwright and producer,² of pneumonia
• October 11 — Jean Cocteau, 74, French poet, playwright, novelist, painter, designer, producer and critic²
• December 24 – Tristan Tzara, 67, French poet (native of Romania) and a founder of Dadaism²
• date not known – Evelyn Scott (born 1893), American poet, novelist and playwright

See also

Poetry portal

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

References