1640 in poetry

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

Events

 * Early? – Poems written by Wil. Shake-speare, Gent. is published (posthumously) by John Benson in London, the first collection of Shakespeare's non-dramatic poetry, although incomplete and mangled and with some male pronouns changed to female in the sonnets (here reissued for the first time since original publication).
 * English Cavalier poet Richard Lovelace, serving in the Bishops' Wars in Scotland, writes "To Lucasta, Going to the Warres" (published 1649)

Works published

 * Francis Beaumont, Poems, including a translation from the Latin poetry of Ovid's Metamorphoses, which might not be by Beaumont; several other poems in the book are definitely not by him, according to The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature
 * Thomas Carew, Poems, including "Coelum Brittanicum" 1634
 * Richard Flecknoe, The Affections of a Pious Soule, unto our Savior-Christ, prose and poetry
 * Ben Jonson:
 * Art of Poetry, translated from the Latin of Horace; also contains Execration Against Vulcan; The Masque of the Gypsies and Epigrams to Severall Noble Personages in this Kingdome; posthumous edition
 * The Workes of Benjamin Jonson, the second folio; Volume 1 reprints Workes 1616
 * Richard Mather and John Eliot, and Thomas Weld The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre, commonly known as the Bay Psalm Book, English Colonial American work
 * Francis Quarles, Enchyridion
 * Nathaniel Richards, The Tragedy of Messallina, the Roman Emperesse
 * John Tatham, The Fancies Theater

Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * December 14 (probable date) – Aphra Behn, born Eaffrey Johnson (died 1689), English woman playwright and poet
 * Nozawa Bonchō 野沢 凡兆 (died 1714), Japanese haikai poet

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * February/March – Richard Rowlands (born 1550), Anglo-Dutch antiquarian and writer
 * March 22 – Thomas Carew (born 1595), English poet
 * April 2
 * Paul Fleming (born 1609), German poet and physician
 * Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski (born 1595), Polish Jesuit and Latin-language poet
 * April 28 (bur.) – William Alabaster (born 1567), English poet and playwright
 * September 12 – William Alexander, 1st Earl of Stirling, (born 1567), Scottish statesman, courtier, poet and writer of rhymed tragedies
 * October 1 – Claudio Achillini (born 1574), Italian polymath and poet
 * Charles Aleyn, English poet
 * Daniel Naborowski (born 1573), Polish Baroque poet
 * Walter Quin (born c. 1575), Irish-born English court poet and author writing in English, Latin, French and Italian