1890 in poetry

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

Events

 * Rhymers' Club founded in London by W. B. Yeats and Ernest Rhys as a group of like-minded poets who meet regularly and publish anthologies in 1892 and 1894; attendees include Ernest Dowson, Lionel Johnson, Richard Le Gallienne, John Davidson, Edwin Ellis, Victor Plarr, Selwyn Image, A. C. Hillier, John Todhunter, Arthur Symons, Ernest Radford and Thomas William Rolleston; Oscar Wilde attends some meetings held in private homes
 * Dove Cottage, Grasmere in the English Lake District acquired by the Wordsworth Trust.

United Kingdom

 * Richard Garnett, Iphigenia in Delphi
 * W. S. Gilbert, Songs of a Songbird
 * Rudyard Kipling, "Danny Deever", first of the Barrack-Room Ballads
 * William McGonagall, Poetic Gems
 * Walter Pater, Appreciations with an Essay on Style
 * Mary F. Robinson, The New Arcadia
 * Christina Rossetti, Poems
 * Robert Louis Stevenson, Ballads
 * William Watson, Wordsworth's Grave, and Other Poems
 * W. B. Yeats, The Lake Isle of Innisfree (poem) first published, in The National Observer (London) on 13 December (first published in a book, The Countess Kathleen, and Various Legends and Lyrics, in 1892)

United States

 * Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Wyndham Towers
 * Madison Cawein, Lyrics and Idyls
 * Danske Dandridge, Rose Brake
 * Emily Dickinson (died 1886), Poems
 * John Hay, Poems
 * Joaquin Miller, In Classic Shades and Other Poems
 * James Whitcomb Riley, Rhymes of Childhood
 * Richard Henry Stoddard, The Lion's Cub; with Other Verse
 * John Greenleaf Whittier, At Sundown

Other in English

 * Seranus, Four Ballads and a Play, Canada
 * Banjo Paterson, "The Man From Snowy River", Australia

France

 * Paul Claudel, Tête d'or
 * François Coppée, Paroles sinceres
 * Paul Valéry, Album de vers anciens, published starting this year and ending in 1900

Other languages

 * Naim Frashëri, Lulet e verës ("Summer Flowers"), Albania
 * Stefan George, Hymnen ("Hymns"), 18 poems written reflecting Symbolism; dedicated to Carl August Klein; limited, private edition; German
 * Herman Gorter, Verzen ("Verses"), Netherlands
 * Władysław Mickiewicz, Vie d'Adam Mickiewicz ("Life of Adam Mickiewicz"), four volumes, Poznań, Poland, published beginning this year and through 1895; written by the poet's son
 * Rabindranath Tagore, Manasi, Bengal

Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * 2 January (21 December 1889 O.S.) – Henrik Visnapuu (died 1951), Estonian poet and dramatist
 * 11 January – Oswald de Andrade (died 1954), Brazilian poet and polemicist
 * 12 January (31 December 1889 O.S.) – Johannes Vares (Barbarus) (committed suicide 1946), Estonian poet, doctor and radical politician
 * 10 February – Boris Pasternak (died 1960), Russian novelist, writer and poet
 * 22 February – Hinatsu Kōnosuke 日夏耿之介, a pen-name of Higuchi Kunito (died 1971), Japanese poet, editor and academic known for romantic and gothic poetry patterned after English literature; fervent Roman Catholic, co-founder, with Horiguchi Daigaku and Saijo Yaso, of Shijin ("Poets") magazine
 * 18 May – Zora Cross (died 1964), Australian poet, novelist and journalist
 * 31 May – James Devaney (died 1976), Australian poet, novelist, and journalist
 * 15 August – Tsugi Takano 鷹野 つぎ (died 1943), Japanese novelist and poet (a woman)
 * 28 August – Ivor Gurney (died 1937), English composer and poet
 * 31 August (19 August O.S.) – August Alle (died 1952), Estonian writer and poet
 * 10 September
 * Marie Heiberg (died insane 1942), Estonian poet
 * Franz Werfel (died 1945), Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet writing in German
 * 24 September – A. P. Herbert, (died 1971), English writer, humorist, writer of light verse, most of it appearing in Punch, lawyer and independent politician
 * 15 October – Álvaro de Campos (died 1935?), Portuguese poet and marine engineer, heteronym of Fernando Pessoa (born 1888)
 * 25 November – Isaac Rosenberg, (killed 1918), English war poet
 * 13 December – Dulcie Deamer (died 1972), Australian novelist, poet, journalist and actor
 * Full date unknown:
 * Balakavi, pen name of Tryambak Bapuji Thomare (died 1918), Indian, Marathi-language poet
 * Ramanlal Vasantlal Desai (died 1954), Indian, Gujarati-language novelist, short-story writer and poet
 * Sumatiben Mehta (died 1911), Indian, Gujarati-language woman poet
 * Henriette Sauret (died 1976), French poet, political writer, journalist
 * Jun Tanaka 田中純 (died 1966), Japanese, Shōwa period poet

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * 2 January – George Henry Boker, 66 (born 1823), American poet, playwright, and diplomat
 * 10 August – John Boyle O'Reilly, 46 (born 1844), Irish-born poet, novelist and newspaper editor, transported as a convict to Australia and escaped to the United States
 * 11 August – John Henry Newman, 89 (born 1801), English Roman Catholic cardinal, theologian, author and poet
 * 25 August – Emily Manning ("Australie"), 45 (born 1845), Australian poet and journalist
 * 7 September – Mary Mackellar, 55 (born 1834), Scottish poet and translator