1854 in poetry

'Forward, the Light Brigade!' Was there a man dismay'd? Not tho' the soldiers knew
 * Some one had blunder'd:

Their's not to make reply, Their's not to reason why, Their's but to do and die: Into the valley of Death
 * Rode the six hundred.

— From "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred Lord Tennyson, first published this year

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

United Kingdom

 * William Allingham, Day and Night Songs
 * W. E. Aytoun, writing under the pen name "T. Percy Jones", Firmilian; or, The Student of Badajoz, subtitle: "A Spasmodic tragedy"
 * Thomas De Quincey, Selections Grave and Gay, including biographical essays (originally published in Tait's Edinburgh Magazine in 1834, 1835, 1839 and 1840) on some of the Lake Poets (see also Recollections of the Lakes and the Lake Poets 1860, in which all of the Recollections essays were published)
 * Eliza Craven Green, "Ellan Vannin" (later set to music)
 * John Keats, The Poetical Works of John Keats, edited by Richard Monckton Milnes; posthumously published
 * Coventry Patmore, "The Angel in the House", Part I, also known as The Betrothal (see also The Espousals 1856, Faithful for Ever 1860, The Victories of Love 1863)
 * Alfred Lord Tennyson, "The Charge of the Light Brigade" published in The Examiner on December 9

United States

 * Benjamin Paul Blood, The Bride of the Iconoclast
 * William Cullen Bryant, Poems
 * Phoebe Cary, Poems and Parodies
 * William J. Grayson, The Hireling and the Slave
 * William Howe Cuyler Hosmer, Poetical Works
 * Julia Ward Howe, Passion Flowers
 * Frances Harper, Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects

France

 * Louise Colet:
 * Ce qu'on rêve en aimant
 * L'Acropole d'Athènes
 * Gérard de Nerval, The Chimeras (Les Chimères), poems appended to the author's book of short stories, Les Filles du feu
 * Tiouttchev, Poésies

Other

 * Heinrich Heine, Gedichte. 1853 und 1854 ("Poems. 1853 and 1854"), German poet and author living in France

Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * January 9 – Govind Vasudev Kanitkar (died 1918), Indian, Marathi-language poet and translator
 * April 13 – William Henry Drummond (died 1907), Canadian
 * September 24 – George Frederick Cameron (died 1885), Canadian
 * October 16 – Oscar Wilde (died 1900), Irish-born playwright and poet
 * October 20
 * Alphonse Allais (died 1905), French humorist
 * Arthur Rimbaud (died 1891), French
 * November 19 – Danske Dandridge, born Caroline Bedinger (died 1914), Denmark-born American

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * January 12 — Eliza Townsend (born 1788), American
 * March 29 – Charlotte Caroline Richardson (born 1796), English
 * April 3 – John Wilson (born 1785), Scots
 * April 16 – Julia Nyberg (born 1784), Swedish poet and songwriter
 * April 24 – Gabriele Rossetti (born 1783), English
 * April 30 – James Montgomery (born 1771), Scots
 * November – Mohammad Ibrahim Zauq (born 1790), Urdu
 * December 9 – Almeida Garrett (born 1799), Portuguese