1881 in poetry

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

Events

 * Frederick James Furnivall founds the Browning Society

Canada

 * Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon, Poetical Works, posthumously published, Canada
 * Pamela Vining Yule. Poems of the Heart and Home.

United Kingdom

 * Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, The Love Sonnets of Proteus (see also Sonnets and Songs 1875, Love Lyrics 1892)
 * Katherine Harris Bradley and Edith Emma Cooper, writing as "Arran and Islan Leigh", Bellerophon, and Other Poems
 * Amy Levy, Xantippe, and Other Verse
 * George Moore, Pagan Poems
 * Constance Naden, Songs and Sonnets of Springtime
 * Christina Rossetti, A Pageant, and other Poems
 * Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ballads and Sonnets, with "The House of Life" complete, and Poems
 * Oscar Wilde, Poems, three editions published this year, first edition in June

United States

 * Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Friar Jerome's Beautiful Book
 * Ina Coolbrith, A Perfect Day
 * James T. Fields, Ballads and Other Verses, Boston: Houghton Mifflin & Company, Riverside Press imprint, United States
 * Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings, including poetry
 * Fitz-James O'Brien, Poems and Stories
 * Epes Sargent, Harper's Cyclopaedia of British and American Poets (scholarship), posthumously published, United States
 * John Greenleaf Whittier, The King's Missive

Works published in other languages

 * François Coppée, Conies en tiers, France
 * Victor Hugo, Les Quatres vents de l'esprit, France
 * Jorge Isaacs, Saulo, 1st canto (no more published), Colombia
 * Helena Nyblom, Digte ("Poems"), Denmark

Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * January 9 – Lascelles Abercrombie (died 1938), English poet and literary critic called the Georgian Laureate and one of the "Dymock poets"
 * February 13 – Eleanor Farjeon (died 1965), English author and poet
 * February 15 – Piaras Béaslaí (died 1965), Irish writer and poet
 * February 17 – Puran Singh (died 1931), Indian, writing Indian poetry in English
 * March 6 – John Cournos, born Ivan Grigorievich Korshun (died 1966), Russian-American Imagist poet, but better known for his novels, short stories, essays, criticism and translations of Russian literature (pen name: John Courtney)
 * April 4 – Gertrud von Puttkamer, born Gertrud Günther (died 1944), German homoerotic poet (pen name: Marie-Madeleine)
 * April 6 – Furnley Maurice (died 1942), Australian
 * April 16 – Alice Corbin Henderson (died 1949), American poet
 * May 18 – Alan Edward Mulgan (died 1962), New Zealand
 * June 10 – Jaime Sabartés (died 1968), Catalan Spanish poet and longtime secretary to Pablo Picasso
 * August 1 – Aizu Yaichi 会津 八一 (died 1956), Japanese poet, calligrapher and historian (surname: Aizu)
 * August 10 – Witter Bynner (died 1968), American poet, writer and scholar
 * August 20 – Edgar Albert Guest (died 1959), prolific American poet
 * September 16 – Clive Bell (died 1964), English critic associated with the Bloomsbury group
 * October 30 – Elizabeth Madox Roberts (died 1941), American novelist and poet
 * November 15:
 * Franklin Pierce Adams (died 1960), American columnist (pen name: F.P.A.), writer and wit, part of the Algonquin Round Table of the 1920s and 1930s whose newspaper column introduced the public to many poets and writers
 * Masamune Atsuo 正宗敦夫 (died 1958), Japanese poet and academic (surname: Masamune)
 * November 16 – Ernest O'Ferrall (died 1925), Australian poet and short-story writer (pen name: Kodak)
 * December 8 – Padraic Colum (died 1972), Irish poet, novelist, dramatist, biographer, collector of folklore and a leading figure of the Celtic Revival
 * December 24 – Lady Margaret Sackville (died 1963), English poet and children's author
 * Also:
 * Swami Ananda Acharya (died 1945), Indian poet who wrote Indian poetry in English
 * Deepakba Desai (died 1955), Indian, Gujarati-language woman poet who wrote khandakavyas
 * Ardoshir Faramji Kharbardar (died 1953), Indian, Gujarati-language, Parsi poet
 * Sotiris Skipis (died 1951), Greek

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * January 30 – Arthur O'Shaughnessy (born 1844), 36, British poet
 * August 2 – Marcus Clarke (born 1846), 35, Australian novelist and poet
 * September 7 – Sidney Lanier (born 1842), 39, American musician and poet
 * October 12 – Josiah Gilbert Holland (born 1819), 62, American novelist and poet
 * November 1 – Jacques Perk (born 1859), 22, Dutch poet
 * November 4 – Estella Hijmans-Hertzveld (born 1837), 44, Dutch poet
 * Also – Mangkunegara IV (born 1809), Javanese ruler of Mangkunegaran and poet