Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
Events
March 28 – Spanish poet Miguel Hernández dies of tuberculosis as a political prisoner in a prison hospital having scrawled his last verse on the wall. April 3 – French poet Paul Éluard (Eugène Paul Grindel)'s poem "Liberté" is first published in the collection Poésie et vérité ("Poetry and truth") in Paris. In June it is reprinted by the magazine Fontaine, titled "Une seule pensée", to reach Vichy France. It is published by Éditions de Minuit and printed in London by the official Gaullist magazine La France libre. Thousands of copies are parachuted into Occupied France by aircraft of the British Royal Air Force. October – English poet Keith Douglas takes part in the Second Battle of El Alamein (against orders). December – BIM magazine founded in Barbados. American poet George Oppen forces his induction into the U.S. Army. Preview, a small literary magazine, is founded in Canada (merged with First Statement in 1945 to form Northern Review, which lasts until 1956); it is published by F. R. Scott, A. J. M. Smith, A. M. Klein and P. K. Page, led by English-born poet and travel writer Patrick Anderson. First Statement, a mimeographed, small literary magazine, is founded in Canada (merged with Preview in 1945); it is published by John Sutherland; Irving Layton and Louis Dudek are also involved. French poet André Breton delivers a lecture entitled "Situation du surealisme entre les deux guerres" at Yale University.
Works published
Listed by the nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:
Canada
Earle Birney, David and Other Poems, the title piece, David, a long, narrative poem, was one of the most frequently taught poems in Canadian schools for decades Governor General's Award, 1942. Arthur Bourinot, Canada at Dieppe. Ralph Gustafson ed., Anthology of Canadian Poetry, including work by F. R. Scott, A. M. Klein, A. J. M. Smith, Leo Kennedy , E. J. Pratt, Finch, Dorothy Livesay, P. K. Page and Earle Birney; Penguin Anne Marriott, Salt Marsh, Toronto: Ryerson Press.
India, in English
Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems and Plays (Poetry & Plays in English), in two volumes, Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Raul De Loyola Furtado, also known as Joseph Furtado, Selected Poems (Poetry in English), Bombay: published by the author in a limited edition of 100 copies (second edition, revised 1947; third edition, revised 1967) P. R. Kaikini, The Snake in the Moon (Poetry in English), Bombay: New Book Co. Poetry in War Time (Poetry in English), London: Faber and Faber; anthology; Indian poetry, published in the United Kingdom Manjeri Sundaraman, Penumbra
United Kingdom and Ireland
Walter de la Mare, Collected Poems
Morwenna Donnelly, Beauty and Ashes
T. S. Eliot, Little Gidding, long poem, last of his Four Quartets, published in The New English Weekly September Roy Fuller, The Middle of a War W. S. Graham, Cage Without Grievance John Heath-Stubbs, Wounded Thammuz J. F. Hendry, The Bombed Happiness Agnes Grozier Herbertson, This is the Hour: Poems Patrick Kavanagh, The Great Hunger Sidney Keyes, The Iron Laurel Alun Lewis, Raiders' Dawn, and Other Poems, on a soldier's life in the World War II Robert Nichols, Such Was My Singing Leslie Norris, Tongue of Beauty William Plomer, In a Bombed House, 1941: Elegy in Memory of Anthony Butts Poetry in Wartime: An Anthology, edited by Tambimuttu, London: Faber and Faber John Pudney, Dispersal Point, and Other Air Poems, including "For Johnny" Henry Reed, "Naming of Parts", part 1 of his "Lessons of the War" sequence, published in the New Statesman August 8 Stevie Smith, Mother, What is Man? Stephen Spender, Ruins and Visions Dorothy Wellesley, Lost Planet, and Other Poems