1778 in poetry

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

United Kingdom

 * John Codrington Bampfylde, Sixteen Sonnets
 * William Combe, The Auction
 * George Ellis, writing under the pen name "Sir Gregory Gander", Poetical Tales
 * William Hayley, A Poetical Epistle to an Eminent Painter, published anonymously; addressed to George Romney
 * Vicesimus Knox, Cursory Thoughts on Satire and Satirists, a critical essay
 * John Scott, Moral Eclogues, published anonymously
 * Percival Stockdale, Inquiry into the Nature and Genuine Laws of Poetry; including a particular Defence of the Writings and Genius of Mr. Pope
 * John Wolcot, writing under the pen name "Peter Pindar", A Poetical, Supplicating, Modest and Affecting Epistle to those Literary Colossuses the Reviewers

United States

 * Joel Barlow, The Prospect of Peace
 * William Billings, Chester
 * Francis Hopkinson:
 * "The Battle of the Kegs", United States
 * "Date Obolum Bellisario"
 * "The Birds, the Beasts, and the Bat"

Works published in other languages

 * Ippolit Bogdanovich, Dushenka, a long poem and his best-known work, Russia
 * Johannes Ewald, Kong Christian stod ved höjen Mast ("King Christian Stood by the Lofty mast"), a popular song in his melodrama The Fishermen, which later became the Danish national anthem (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow later translated it into English)
 * Johann Gottfried Herder - Volkslieder nebst untermischten anderen Stücken
 * Évariste de Parny - Les Poésies érotiques

Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * February 6 – Ugo Foscolo (died 1827), Italian writer, revolutionary and poet
 * April 10 – William Hazlitt (died 1830), English writer, essayist and critic
 * August 22 – James Kirke Paulding (died 1860), American novelist, poet and United States Secretary of the Navy; a writer for Salamagundi magazine who took it over before it failed
 * September 9 – Clemens Brentano (died 1842), German poet and novelist
 * December 22 – Anna Maria Porter (died 1832), English poet and novelist
 * Robert Davidson (died 1855), Scottish peasant poet

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * May 30 – Voltaire (born 1694), French Enlightenment writer, poet, essayist and philosopher
 * August 11 – Augustus Toplady (born 1740), English Anglican clergyman, poet and hymn-writer
 * Rob Donn (born 1714), Scottish Gaelic poet