1891 in poetry

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

Events

 * 1891–1893 –The Rhymers Club gathers at the Cheshire Cheese in Fleet Street, London, including John Davidson, Ernest Dowson, W. B. Yeats, and others.
 * c. Late June – In a meeting of decadent poets in London, Oscar Wilde is first introduced to Lord Alfred Douglas by Lionel Johnson at Wilde's Tite Street home.
 * Approximate date – Edmund Clerihew Bentley, G. K. Chesterton and fellow pupils of St Paul's School, London, compose the first pseudo-biographical comic verses which become known as clerihews.

Canada

 * John Frederic Herbin, Canada, and Other Poems, Canada
 * Seranus, Pine, Rose and Fleur De Lis, (Toronto: Hart).

United Kingdom

 * Sir Edwin Arnold, The Light of the World; or, The Great Consummation
 * Alfred Austin, Lyrical Poems
 * John Davidson, In a Music Hall, and Other Poems
 * James Joyce, Et tu, Healy, Irish poet published in Ireland
 * Arthur Clark Kennedy, Pictures in rhyme
 * William McGonagall, Poetic Gems (second series)
 * William Morris, Poems by the Way
 * May Sinclair, Essays in Verse
 * James Kenneth Stephen:
 * Lapsus Calami
 * Quo Musa Tendis
 * Katharine Tynan, Ballads and Lyrics

United States

 * Thomas Bailey Aldrich, The Sisters' Tragedy
 * Nathaniel Ames, The Essays, Humor, and Poems of Nathaniel Ames, published posthumously
 * Emily Dickinson, Poems: Second Series
 * Oliver Wendell Holmes, Over the Teacups, fiction, nonfiction and poetry
 * Herman Melville, Timoleon
 * Harriet Monroe, Valeria and Other Poems
 * Frank Norris, Yvernelle: A Tale of Feudal France
 * Lucy Creemer Peckham, Sea Moss
 * Lizette Woodworth Reese, A Handful of Lavender

Other in English

 * Henry Lawson, Australia:
 * "Freedom on the Wallaby"
 * "The Babies of Walloon"

Works published in other languages

 * Stefan George, Pilgerfahrten, limited private edition; German
 * Francis Jammes, Six Sonnets, France
 * Màiri Mhòr nan Òran (Mary MacPherson), Gaelic Songs and Poems, Scottish Gaelic published in the United Kingdom
 * Guido Mazzoni, Poesie, Italy

Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * January 15 – Osip Mandelstam (died 1938), Russian poet and essayist, one of the foremost members of the Acmeist school
 * April 9 – Lesbia Harford (died 1927), Australian
 * May 15 – David Vogel (killed in concentration camp, 1944), Russian-born Hebrew poet
 * May 21 – John Peale Bishop (died 1944), American poet and writer
 * May 22
 * Johannes R. Becher (died 1958), German poet, novelist and politician
 * Edwin Gerard (died 1965), Australian poet
 * July 5 – Tin Ujević (died 1955), Croatian poet
 * August 19 – Francis Ledwidge (killed in action in World War I, 1917), Irish poet
 * September 23 – Arthur Graeme West (killed in action in World War I, 1917), English military writer and poet
 * November 14 – Josef Magnus Wehner (died 1973), German poet and playwright
 * November 23 – Masao Kume 久米正雄 writing under the pen-name Santei (died 1952), Japanese, late Taishō period and early Shōwa period playwright, novelist and haiku poet (surname: Kume)
 * December 9 – Maksim Bahdanovič (died 1917), Belarusian poet, journalist and literary critic
 * December 10 – Nelly Sachs (died 1970), German-Swedish poet and dramatist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1966
 * Also – Peter Hopegood, born Cedric Hopegood (died 1967), English-born Australian poet

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * July 24 – Douglas Smith Huyghue (born 1816), Canadian and Australian poet, fiction writer, essayist and artist
 * August 12 – James Russell Lowell, 72, American Romantic poet, critic, satirist, writer, diplomat, and abolitionist
 * August 14 – John Henry Hopkins Jr. (born 1820), American clergyman and hymnist
 * August 22 – Jan Neruda (born 1834), Czech writer
 * September 28 – Herman Melville, 82, American novelist, essayist and poet
 * November 10 – Arthur Rimbaud, 37 (born 1854) French poet
 * Also:
 * Venmani Acchen Nambudiri (born 1817), Indian, Malayalam-language poet associated with the Venmani School of poetry
 * Moyinkutty Vaidyar (born 1857), Indian, Malayalam-language poet