1588 in poetry

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

Events

 * May–December – Lope de Vega serves in the Spanish Armada, where he begins writing his epic poem La Hermosura de Angélica.
 * Christopher Marlowe writes The Passionate Shepherd to His Love either this year or in 1589 (first published 1599).

Great Britain

 * William Byrd, editor, Psalmes, Sonets, & Songs of Sadnes and Pietie, Made into Musicke of Five Parts, anthology of verse set to music
 * Thomas Churchyard, The Worthines of Wales, prose and poetry
 * Angel Day, Daphnis and Chloe, prose and poetry, translated from the French of Jacques Amyot

Other

 * Jean de Sponde, Essai de poemès chrétiens, published with a collection of prose meditations on four Psalms; France

Births

 * June 11 – George Wither (died 1667), English poet and satirist
 * Guillaume Bautru (died 1665), French satirical poet and a founder member of the Académie française
 * Richard Brathwait (died 1673), English poet
 * Leonard Digges (died 1635), English translator and poet
 * Josua Stegmann (died 1632), German poet

Deaths

 * June 18 – Robert Crowley (born 1517), English stationer, poet, polemicist and Protestant clergyman
 * November 1 – Jean Daurat also spelled "Jean Dorat"; Latin name: "Auratus" (born 1508), French poet and scholar, member of the Pléiade
 * Louis Bellaud (born 1543), French Occitan language writer and poet