1638 in poetry

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

Events

 * May - English poet John Milton sets out for a tour of the European continent. He spends the summer in Florence.

Great Britain

 * Henry Adamson, Muses Threnodie: of Mirthful Mournings on the death of Mr Gall, Edinburgh, noted for giving a general description of Perth in the 17th century; published with the encouragement of Adamson's friend, William Drummond
 * Charles Aleyn, The History of Henry the Seventh
 * Richard Brathwaite, writing under the pen name "Corymboeus", Barnabees Journall, under the Names of Mirtilus & Faustulus Shadowed, Latin and English verse on facing pages
 * Robert Chamberlain, Nocturnall Lucubrations; or, Meditations Divine and Morall
 * William Davenant, Madagascar; with Other Poems
 * Justa Edouardo King Naufrago, by various authors; a collection of elegies dedicated to the memory of Edward King, a college friend of John Milton's at Cambridge who had been drowned in August 1637 when his ship sank in the Irish Sea off the coast of Wales; including Milton's "Lycidas"
 * Thomas Nabbes, The Springs of Glorie, verse drama
 * Francis Quarles, Hieroglyphikes of the Life of Man
 * Thomas Randolph, Poems with the Muses Looking-lasse: and Amyntas

Other

 * Friedrich von Logau, Erstes Hundert Teutscher Reimen-Sprüche, epigrams, Germany

Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * January 1 – Antoinette du Ligier de la Garde Deshoulières (died 1694), French poet
 * January 24 – Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset (died 1706), English poet and courtier
 * February 15 – Zeb-un-Nissa (Makhfi) (died 1702), Persian poet and Mughal princess

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * February 24 – Charles Fitzgeoffrey (born 1576), English poet and clergyman
 * February 25 – Sir Robert Aytoun (born 1570), Scottish poet
 * June 25 – Juan Pérez de Montalbán (born 1602), Spanish priest, dramatist, poet and novelist
 * August 27 – John Hoskins (born 1566), English poet, classicist, judge and politician
 * December 8 – Ivan Gundulić (born 1589), Croatian Baroque poet
 * c. December? – John Day (born 1574), English playwright and poet
 * Daulat Qazi (born 1600), Bengali poet