1738 in poetry

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



Events

 * During a visit to Morpeth this year, poet Mark Akenside gets the idea for his long didactic poem, The Pleasures of the Imagination, published in 1744.

United Kingdom

 * Mark Akenside, A British Philippic, published anonymously
 * John Banks, Miscellaneous Works in Verse and Prose
 * Mather Byles, On the Death of the Queen, English, Colonial America
 * Elizabeth Carter, Poems Upon Particular Occasions, published anonymously
 * Robert Dodsley, The Art of Preaching, published anonymously
 * John Gay, Fables: Volume the Second (see also Fables 1727)
 * Samuel Johnson, London, A Poem, on the Third Satire of Juvenal
 * Alexander Pope:
 * The First Epistle of the First Book of Horace Imitated
 * The Sixth Epistle of the First Book of Horace Imitated
 * One Thousand Seven Hundred and Thirty Eight
 * One Thousand Seven Hundred and Thirty Eight: Dialogue II
 * The Universal Prayer
 * (see also Pope and Swift, below)
 * Frances Seymour, Countess of Hertford (later Duchess of Somerset), writing as "The Right Hon. the Countess of ****", The Story of Inkle and Yarrico, includes "An Epistle From Yarrico to Inkle, after he had left her in slavery", an imitation of Alexander Pope's "Eloisa to Abelard", a part of his Works 1717)
 * Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift, An Imitation of the Sixth Satire of the Second Book of Horace, Pope's contribution was anonymous; Part 1, by Swift, had previously appeared in Miscellanies, "The Last Volume" (that is, Volume 3) 1727
 * Jonathan Swift (see also Pope and Swift above), "The Beasts' Confession"
 * and Alexander Pope, An Imitation of the Sixth Satire of the Second Book of Horace
 * James Thomson, The Works of Mr. Thomson
 * John Wesley, A Collection of Psalms and Hymns (first published in Charlestown 1737, see also A Collection of Psalms and Hymns 1741)

Other

 * Johann Jakob Bodmer, Critical Disquisition on the Wonderful in Poetry, a defense of John Milton; German-language, Switzerland

Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * February 9 (bapt.) – Mary Whateley (married name: Darwall) (died 1825), English poet and playwright
 * May 9 – John Wolcot (died 1819), English satirist and poet
 * May 27 – Moritz August von Thümmel (died 1817), German humorist and satirical author
 * June 5 (bapt.) – Erika Liebman (died 1803), Swedish poet and academic
 * June 16 – Johann Christoph Krauseneck (died 1799), German composer and poet
 * November 8 – Barbara Catharina Mjödh (died 1776), Swedish poet
 * December 4 – Karl Friedrich Kretschmann (died 1809), German poet, playwright and storyteller
 * Approximate date – Edward Thompson (died 1786), English Royal Navy officer and poet

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * April – Penelope Aubin (born c. 1679), English novelist and translator
 * August 2 – Ueshima Onitsura (born 1661), Japanese haiku poet
 * December 19 – Philip Frowde (born c. 1679), English poet and playwright