1787 in poetry

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

Events

 * April 17 – The Edinburgh edition of Scottish poet Robert Burns' Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect is published by William Creech including a portrait of Burns by Alexander Nasmyth. Burns has great social success in the city's literary circles; 16-year-old Walter Scott meets him at the house of Adam Ferguson. On December 4 he meets Agnes Maclehose at a party given by Miss Erskine Nimmo.

United Kingdom

 * Robert Burns:
 * Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (see also the editions of 1786, 1793)
 * see also Richard Glover's The Scots Musical Museum, below
 * Anne Francis, Charlotte to Werter
 * Richard Glover, The Atheniad
 * James Johnson, editor, The Scots Musical Museum, an anthology with 177 of the 600 songs written by Robert Burns, who had collected many of the others; published in six volumes from this year to 1803; Volumes 2–5 edited by Burns
 * George Keate, The Distressed Poet
 * Sophia Lee, A Hermit's Tale, published anonymously
 * Robert Merry, Paulina; or, The Russian Daughter
 * John Ogilvie, The Fame of the Druids, published anonymously
 * Henry James Pye, Poems on Various Subjects, including "Aerophorion", possibly the first poem about an aviator (James Sadler (balloonist))
 * Edward Rushton, West-Indian Eclogues, published anonymously
 * John Thelwall, Poems on Various Subjects
 * John Wolcot, writing under the pen name "Peter Pindar", Ode Upon Ode; or, A Peep at St. James
 * Ann Yearsley, Poems, on Various Subjects

United States

 * Joel Barlow, The Vision of Columbus, nine books; describes America as prosperous and improving, seeks to promote "the love of national liberty" in Americans (revised as The Columbiad 1807)
 * James Beattie, Poems on Several Occasions
 * Peter Markoe, Miscellaneous Poems

Other

 * Jean-François Marmontel, Éléments de littérature, including rewritten parts of Poétique française (1763), French criticism
 * Évariste-Désiré Parny, Chansons madécasses, prose poems (later set to music by Ravel; France

Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * May 14 – Alexander Laing (died 1857), Scottish poet
 * November 15 – Richard Henry Dana Sr. (died 1879), American poet, critic and lawyer
 * November 21 – Bryan Procter ("Barry Cornwall") (died 1874), English poet
 * December 16 – Mary Russell Mitford (died 1855), English novelist, poet and dramatist
 * Margaret Miller Davidson, Sr. (died 1844), American novelist, mother of poets Lucretia Maria Davidson, Margaret Miller Davidson and Levi P. Davidson
 * Susanna Hawkins (died 1868), Scottish poet

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * February 13 – Ruđer Bošković (born 1711), Ragusan polymath and poet
 * September 1 – Agatha Lovisa de la Myle (born 1724), Baltic-German and Latvian poet
 * September – Moses Browne (born 1704), English poet and clergyman
 * November 3 – Robert Lowth (born 1710), English Anglican Bishop, poet, professor of poetry at the University of Oxford, grammarian who wrote one of the most influential textbooks on English grammar
 * December 18 – Soame Jenyns (born 1704), English writer and poet