1814 in poetry

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

Events

 * January - Lord Byron writes his semi-autobiographical tale in verse The Corsair while snowed up at Newstead Abbey in England with his half-sister, Augusta Leigh. It is published on February 1 by John Murray
 * April 15 - Augusta Leigh bears a daughter, Elizabeth Medora Leigh, perhaps by Byron.
 * July 28–September 13 - English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley abandons his pregnant wife and runs away with the 16-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, accompanied by her stepsister Jane Clairmont (also 16), to war-ravaged France, quickly moving on to Switzerland.
 * September 12–15 - Battle of Baltimore (War of 1812): American lawyer Francis Scott Key, witnessing the bombardment of Baltimore, Maryland, from a British ship, writes "Defence of Fort McHenry". His brother-in-law arranges to have the poem published in a broadside with a recommended tune on September 17 and on September 20, both the Baltimore Patriot and The American print it; the song quickly becomes popular, with seventeen newspapers from Georgia to New Hampshire reproducing it. In 1931 as "The Star-Spangled Banner" it is officially adopted at the national anthem of the United States:


 * O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand,
 * Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation,
 * Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land,
 * Praise the Power that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
 * Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
 * And this be our motto — "In God is our Trust;"


 * And the star-spangled Banner in triumph shall wave,
 * O'er the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

—last stanza of Francis Scott Key's "The Battle of Fort McHenry"

United Kingdom

 * Thomas Brown, The Paradise of Coquettes
 * Lord Byron:
 * The Corsair, sells 10,000 copies on the first day (February 1), and over 25,000 copies in the first month, going through seven editions
 * "Lara, a Tale" written May 14–June 14 and published anonymously in the summer, it sells 6,000 copies by early August; published together with "Jacqueline, a Tale" by Samuel Rogers
 * "Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte", published anonymously written April 9 when Napoleon abdicates, published April 16
 * Henry Cary, translation of Dante's Divine Comedy, complete in blank verse
 * George Daniel, The Modern Dunciad, published anonymously
 * Pierce Egan (the elder), The Mistress of Royalty; or, The Loves of Florizel and Perdita, published anonymously; about the relationship between the Prince of Wales ("Florizel") and Mrs. Mary Robinson ("Perdita")
 * James Hogg, writing as "J. H. Craig, of Douglas", The Hunting of Badlewe
 * Leigh Hunt, The Feast of the Poets, revised and enlarged in 1815, first published in The Reflector, 1810
 * Isabella Lickbarrow, Poetical Effusions
 * Thomas Love Peacock:
 * Sir Hornbrook; or, Childe Launcelot's Expedition
 * Sir Proteus: A satirical ballad, dedicated to Lord Byron; written under the name "P. M. O'Donovan"
 * J. H. Reynolds, The Eden of the Imagination
 * Robert Southey:
 * Odes to the Prince Regent, the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia, the author's first work as Poet Laureate; republished in 1821 as Carmen Triumphale, for the Commencement of the Year 1814
 * Roderick, the Last of the Goths
 * William Wordsworth, The Excursion: Being a portion of The Recluse, a poem

United States

 * Francis Scott Key, "The Battle of Fort McHenry" (see Events above)
 * William Littell, Festoons of Fancy, Consisting of Compositions Amatory, Sentimental and Humorous in Verse and Prose, mostly poems on women and on love but notable for satires on government officials, a recently passed law on divorce and on the process of elections
 * Salmagundi; or, the Whim–whams and Opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, Esq. and Others ... A New and Improved Edition, with Tables of Contents and a Copious Index, including poems by James Kirke Paulding, New York: Published by David Longworth, United States
 * Esther Talbot, "Peace", words dated April 4, unpublished until music setting in Music in Stoughton: A Brief History (1989)

Other

 * Bernhard Severin Ingemann, De sorte Riddere ("The Black Knights"), Denmark
 * Adam Oehlenschlager, Helge, a narrative cycle, Denmark

Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * January 7 – Robert Nicoll, Scottish (died 1837)
 * January 10 – Aubrey Thomas de Vere, Irish (died 1902)
 * March 9 (February 25 O.S.) – Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian poet and artist (died 1861)
 * May 21 – Louis Janmot, French painter and poet (died 1892)
 * June 28 – Frederick William Faber, English poet, hymnodist, theologian and Catholic convert (died 1863)
 * August 26 – Johann Pucher (Janez Puhar), Slovene Catholic priest, inventor, scientist, photographer, artist and poet in Slovene and German (died 1864)
 * September 3 – James Joseph Sylvester, English mathematician and translator (died 1897)
 * December 18 – Sarah T. Bolton, née Sarah Tittle Barrett, American (died 1893)

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * January 4 – Johann Georg Jacobi (born 1740), German
 * October 4 – Samuel Jackson Pratt (born 1749), English poet and writer
 * October 14 – Mercy Otis Warren (born 1727), American playwright, poet and historian
 * November 22 – Edward Rushton (born 1756), English poet, bookseller and abolitionist