1661 in poetry

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

Great Britain

 * Anonymous, An Antidote Against Melancholy, one of the most important and earliest collections of "drolleries"
 * Alexander Brome, Songs and Other Poems
 * John Bunyan, Profitable Meditations Fitted to Mans Different Condition, the author's first prison work and first published verse
 * John Dryden, To His Sacred Majesty, a Panegyrick on his Coronation, Charles II of England was crowned April 23 this year
 * John Evelyn, A Panegyric to Charles the Second
 * Edmund Waller, A Poem on St James's Park
 * George Wither, The Prisoners Plea

Other

 * Anders Arrebo, Hexaemeron, poem describing the six days of Creation, written c. 1622, published posthumously

Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * April – Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, born Anne Kingsmill (died 1720), English poet
 * April 16 – Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax (died 1715), English poet and statesman
 * Johanna Eleonora De la Gardie (died 1708), German-born Swedish poet and noble
 * Takarai Kikaku 宝井其角, also known as "Enomoto Kikaku" (died 1707), Japanese haiku poet and disciple of Matsuo Bashō
 * Approximate date
 * William Cleland (died 1689), Scottish poet and soldier
 * Samuel Garth (died 1719), English physician and poet
 * John Tutchin (died 1707), English radical Whig controversialist, gadfly journalist and poet

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * February 12 – August Buchner (born 1591), German poet and critic
 * October 2 – Barten Holyday (born 1593), English clergyman, author and poet
 * December 29 – Antoine Girard de Saint-Amant (born 1594), French poet
 * Approximate date
 * Antonio Enríquez Gómez (born c. 1601), Spanish dramatist, poet and novelist
 * María de Zayas (born 1590), Spanish poet and playwright