1556 in poetry

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

France

 * Rémy Belleau:
 * Odes d'Anacréon, a translation into French
 * Petites Inventions
 * Pierre de Ronsard, Les Hymnes (see also Hymnes 1555)

Great Britain

 * Anonymous, The Knight of Courtesy and the Fair Lady of Faguell, publication year uncertain, composed in the late 14th century, based on 13th century French works
 * Roger Bieston, published anonymously, although the author's name is revealed in an acrostic, The Bayte and Snare of Fortune, probably translated from the French version of an Italian original work
 * John Heywood, The Spider and the Flie. A parable of the Spider and the Flie, made by John Heywood, verse allegory the author's most ambitious work but critics and historians have long dismissed it as awful.

Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * March 7 – Guillaume du Vair (died 1621), French writer and poet
 * April 27 – François Béroalde de Verville (died 1626), French novelist and poet
 * August 10 – Philipp Nicolai (died 1608), German poet and composer
 * November 25 – Jacques Du Perron (died 1618), French
 * date unknown – Trajano Boccalini (died 1613), Italian satirical poet
 * date unknown – Abdul Rahim Khan-I-Khana (died 1627), Indian poet in Mughal Emperor Akbar court

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * April 18 – Luigi Alamanni sometimes spelled "Luigi Alemanni" (born c. 1495), Italian poet and statesman
 * October 21 – Pietro Aretino (born 1492), Italian
 * November 14 – Giovanni della Casa (born 1503)
 * Also:
 * Fuzûlî (فضولی) (born c. 1483), Ottoman Empire
 * Sebestyén Tinódi Lantos (born 1510), Hungarian lyricist, epic poet, political historian, and minstrel
 * Nicholas Udall (born 1510 or in 1505), English playwright, poet, cleric, pederast and schoolmaster
 * Thomas Vaux, second Baron Vaux of Harrowden (born 1510), English
 * John Wedderburn (born 1505), Scottish religious reformer and poet