1885 in poetry

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

Events

 * Henri Beauclair and Gabriel Vicaire, using the pseudonym Adoré Floupette, publish Les Déliquescences d'Adoré Floupette, a parodic collection of poems satirising French symbolism and the Decadent movement.

Canada

 * Frederick George Scott, Justin and Other Poems. Published at author's expense.

United Kingdom

 * Maude Ashurst Biggs, Master Thaddeus, first English translation of Adam Mickiewicz, Pan Tadeusz (1834)
 * Robert Bridges, Eros and Psyche
 * Charles Stuart Calverley (died 1884), Literary Remains
 * Jean Ingelow, Poems: Third Series (see also Poems 1863, Poems 1880)
 * William Morris, Chants for Socialists
 * Robert Louis Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verses
 * Algernon Charles Swinburne, Marino Faliero
 * Edwin Arnold, The Song Celestial
 * Alfred Lord Tennyson, Tiresias, and Other Poems, including "Balin and Balan", one of the Idylls of the King 1870; "The Last Tournament" 1871; Gareth and Lynette 1872, Idylls of the King 1889
 * Katharine Tynan, Louise de la Valliere, and Other Poems

United States

 * Charles Follen Adams, Mother's Doughnuts
 * Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Poems
 * Will Carleton, City Ballads
 * William Ellery Channing, Eliot
 * Ada Langworthy Collier, "Lilith, The Legend of the First Woman"
 * Paul Hamilton Hayne, The Broken Battalions
 * Oliver Wendell Holmes:
 * Ralph Waldo Emerson, nonfiction
 * Illustrated Poems
 * Eva Munson Smith, Woman in Sacred Song

Other in English

 * Toru Dutt, Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan Indian writing in English

Works published in other languages

 * Catulle Mendès, Soirs moroses, Contes épiques, Philoméla, etc; Poésies, in seven volumes; France

Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * January 6 – Humbert Wolfe (died 1940), English poet, writer and civil servant
 * January 20 – Ozaki Hōsai 尾崎 放哉 pen name of Ozaki Hideo (died 1926), Japanese, late Meiji period and Taishō period poet
 * January 25 – Hakushū Kitahara 北原 白秋, pen-name of Kitahara Ryūkichi 北原 隆吉 (died 1942), Japanese, Taishō and Shōwa period tanka poet
 * April 21 – Mitsuko Shiga 四賀光子, pen-name of Mitsu Ota (died 1956), Japanese, Taishō and Shōwa period tanka poet, a woman
 * April 26 – Dakotsu Iida 飯田 蛇笏, commonly referred to as "Dakotsu", pen names of Takeji Iida 飯田 武治 (died 1962), Japanese, haiku poet; trained under Takahama Kyoshi
 * April 29 – Andrew Young (died 1971), Scottish-born poet and clergyman
 * May 12 – Saneatsu Mushanokōji 武者小路 実篤 實篤, sometimes known as "Mushakōji Saneatsu"; other pen-names included "Musha" and "Futo-o" (died 1976), Japanese, late Taishō period and Shōwa period novelist, playwright, poet, artist and philosopher
 * May 13 – Hideo Nagata 長田秀雄 (died 1949), Japanese, Shōwa period poet, playwright and screenwriter
 * July 1 – Dorothea Mackellar (died 1968), Australian poet and fiction writer
 * July 20 – Herman Wildenvey, born Portaas (died 1959), Norwegian poet
 * August 18 – Nettie Palmer (died 1964), Australian poet, essayist and Australia's leading literary critic; wife of Vance Palmer
 * August 24 – Bokusui Wakayama, 若山 牧水 (died 1928), Japanese "Naturalist" tanka poet
 * August 28 – Vance Palmer, (died 1959), Australian novelist, dramatist, essayist and critic; husband of Nettie Palmer
 * September 3 – Ghulam AhmadMahjur (died 1952), Indian, Kashmiri-language poet
 * September 11 – D. H. Lawrence (died 1930), English fiction writer, poet, playwright, essayist and literary critic
 * October 30 – Ezra Pound (died 1972), American poet and editor
 * November 9 (October 28 O.S.) – Velimir Khlebnikov (died 1922), Russian Futurist poet and writer
 * December 19 – F. S. Flint (died 1960), English poet, translator and prominent member of the Imagist group
 * Also
 * Govindagraj, also known as "Ram Ganes" Gadkari (died 1919), Indian, Marathi-language poet, playwright and humorist
 * Ivan Zorman (died 1957), Slovene-born poet and composer

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * January 10 – Amable Tastu (born 1795), French women of letters and poet
 * May 22 – Victor Hugo (born 1802), French novelist and poet
 * April 8 – Susanna Moodie (born 1803), Canadian poet
 * April 30 – Jens Peter Jacobsen (born 1847), Danish novelist and poet
 * May 29 – Alfred Meissner (born 1821?), Austrian poet
 * July 5 – Charles Whitehead (born 1804), English poet, novelist and playwright
 * July 15 – Rosalía de Castro (born 1837), Spanish Galician poet and writer
 * August 11 – Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton (born 1809), English man of letters, poet and politician
 * August 12 – Helen Hunt Jackson (born 1830), American writer, novelist and poet
 * September 24 – George Frederick Cameron (born 1854 in poetry), Canadian poet and journalist