1841 in poetry explained

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

Events

January - Elizabeth Barrett Browning is given her golden cocker spaniel "Flush" by writer Mary Russell Mitford.^[1]
July 20 - English "peasant poet" absconds from an asylum for the insane at High Beach in Essex and walks 90 miles (140 km) to his home at Northborough in the east midlands. In late December he is admitted to Northampton General Lunatic Asylum where he will spend the remaining 23 years of his life.
Victor Hugo is elected to the Académie Française, on his fifth attempt.^[2]

Sarah Fuller Adams, Vivia Perpetua: A dramatic poem^[3]
Robert Browning, Pippa Passes, verse drama
W. J. Fox, Hymns and Anthems, 150 numbered hymns without music, 13 by Sarah Fuller Adams, including "Nearer, my God, to thee";^[3] anthology
Thomas Moore, The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore, in 10 volumes, published starting in 1840 and ending this year;^[3] Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
Samuel Laman Blanchard Life and Literary Remains of L. E. L. (Letitia Elizabeth Landon) including Castruccio Castracani (a 5-act tragedy in verse), The Female Picture Gallery (prose) and the poetry collection Subjects for Pictures

Ralph Waldo Emerson:
- "Compensation"^[4]
- "The Sphinx", first published in The Dial this year, it was later included in Emerson's Poems 1847^[5]
William Davis Gallagher, editor, Selections from the Poetical Literature of the West, one of the earliest American regional poetry anthologies; includes poems by 38 writers in the West, including Gallagher's own very popular poem, "Miami Woods"^[5]
Charles Follen, Works, poetry and prose, published this year and in 1842^[4]
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Ballads and other Poems, including "The Wreck of the Hesperus", "The Village Blacksmith", "Elcelsior" and "The Skeleton in Armor"^[5]
James Russell Lowell, A Year's Life
Cornelius Mathews, Wakondah; The Master of Life, a narrative poem about prehistoric Native Americans^[5]
Frances Sargent Osgood, The Poetry of Flowers and the Flowers of Poetry^[4]
Adrien Rouquette, Les savanes^[4]
Lydia Howard Sigourney:
- Pocahontas, and Other Poems, New York: Harper & Brothers^[6]
- Poems, Religious and Elegiac^[4]
Seba Smith, Powhatan^[4]

Thomas Moore, The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore, in 10 volumes, published starting in 1840 and ending this year;^[3] Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
Standish O'Grady, The Emigrant, a long narrative poem, Irish-born Canadian^[7]

Mikhail Lermontov, The Demon: An Eastern Tale, Russia
Frederik Paludan-Müller:
- Adam Homo, three-volume novel in verse, published starting this year to 1848, Denmark^[8]
- Venus
Betty Paoli, Gedichte ("Poems"), Austria
Alexander Pushkin, The Bronze Horseman, Russia
Henrik Wergeland, Svalen ("The Swallow"), Norway
José Zorrilla, Cantos del trovador, Spain

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

March 10 - Ina Donna Coolbrith (died 1928), American
March 21 - Mathilde Blind ("Claude Lake"), born Mathilde Cohen (died 1896 in poetry), German-born English
March 31 - Iosif Vulcan (died 1907), Romanian magazine editor, poet, playwright, novelist and cultural figure
April 6 - Ivan Surikov (died 1898), Russian
April 29 - Edward Rowland Sill (died 1887), American
May 22 - Catulle Mendès (died 1909), French
August 18 - Robert Williams Buchanan (died 1901), Scottish
December 30 - Charles E. Carryl (died 1920), American

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

February 19 - Ulrika Widström (born 1764), Swedish poet and translator
March 2 - George Dyer (born 1755), English classicist and writer
May 20 - Joseph Blanco White (born 1775), Spanish-born English theologian and poet
June 1 - Robert Allan (born 1774), Scottish weaver poet, in New York
July 27 - Mikhail Lermontov (born 1814), Russian poet, dramatist, fiction writer and painter, in duel
August 24 - Bjarni Thorarensen (born 1786), Icelandic poet and official
September 16 - Thomas John Dibdin (born 1771), English playwright and songwriter

Book: Sullivan, Mary Rose . Raymond, Meredith B. . The letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, 1836–1854. 2011-10-22. 1983. Armstrong Browning Library of Baylor University. Waco. 978-0-911459-00-5. Virginia Woolf later fictionalises the life of the dog, making him the protagonist of her 1933 novel .
Book: Jones, Neal T.. A Book of Days for the Literary Year. registration. New York; London. Thames and Hudson. 1984. 0-500-01332-2.
Book: Cox, Michael. The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature. Oxford University Press. 2004. 0-19-860634-6. registration.
Ludwig, Richard M., and Clifford A. Nault, Jr., Annals of American Literature: 1602 - 1983, 1986, New York: Oxford University Press
Burt, Daniel S., The Chronology of American Literature: : America's literary achievements from the colonial era to modern times, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004,, retrieved via Google Books
Sigourney, Lydia Howard, [''Pocahontas, and Other Poems'', title page], New YOrk: Harper & Brothers, retrieved via Making of America Books website, retrieved March 4, 2009
Sorfleet, John R., "O'Grady, Standish", article in The Canadian Encyclopedia, retrieved February 8, 2009
Preminger, Alex and T. V. F. Brogan, et al., The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, 1993. New York: MJF Books/Fine Communications