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

• April 23 – Opening of Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.
• April 26 – 32-year-old American poet Hart Crane throws himself overboard from the steamship Orizaba in the Gulf of Mexico en route from Mexico to New York in a state of alcoholic depression; his body is never recovered.^[1]
• July – W. B. Yeats leases Riversdale house in the Dublin suburb of Rathfarnham.
• In Vietnam, the New Poetry (Thơ mới) period begins, marked by an article and a poem of Phan Khôi, inaugurating modern literature in that country
• T. S. Eliot begins his 1932–33 Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University (published in 1933 as The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism).

• Dorothy Livesay, Signpost. Toronto: Macmillan.^[2]
• E. J. Pratt, Many Moods, Toronto: Macmillan.^[3]
• W. W. E. Ross, Sonnets.^[4]

• Govind Krishna Chettur:
  • Gumataraya and other Sonnets for all Moods, Mangalore: Basel Mission Bookshop^[5]
  • The Temple tank and Other Poems, Mangalore: Basel Mission Bookshop^[5]
  • The Triumph of Love: A Sonnet Sequence, Mangalore: Basel Mission Bookshop^[5]
• Baldoon Dhingra, Beauty's Sanctuary, Lahore: Civil and Military Gazette Press^[5]
• Theodore W. La Touche, The Lion Kings of Lanka, Secunderabad: self-published^[6]
• Manjeri Sundaraman Manjeri, Saffron and Gold and Other Poems, Madras: Shakti Karyalayam^[5]
• Nanikram Vasanmal Thadani, The Garden of the East, Karachi: Bharat Publishing House^[7]

• Æ, pen name of George William Russell, Song and its Fountains^[8]
• Edmund Blunden, Halfway House^[8]
• W. H. Auden, The Orators: An English study^[8]
• Roy Campbell, Pomegranates^[8]
• W. H. Davies, Poems, 1930–31^[8]
• Lord Alfred Douglas and others, ed. by John Gawsworth, Known Signatures: new poems
• Lawrence Durrell, Ten Poems^[8]
• T. S. Eliot, Selected Essays 1917–1932, criticism^[8]
• Thomas Hardy, Collected Poems
• Julian Huxley, The Captive Shrew and other Poems of a Biologist
• F. R. Leavis, New Bearings in English Poetry attacks late Victorian and Georgian poetry and praises Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, and other modernists
• Hugh MacDiarmid, pen name of Christopher Murray Grieve, Second Hymn to Lenin, and Other Poems^[8]
• William Plomer, The Fivefold Screen^[8]
• Aeneas Francon Williams, Dream Drift, by a Young Lover
• S. Fowler Wright, The Life Of Sir Walter Scott, biography
• W. B. Yeats, Words for Music Perhaps, and Other Poems,^[8] Irish poet published in the United Kingdom

• W. H. Auden, The Orators^[9]
• Sterling Brown, Southern Road
• Mary Elizabeth Frye, "Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep"
• Langston Hughes, Scotsboro Limited, verse drama^[9]
• Robinson Jeffers, Thurso's Landing and Other Poems^[9]
• Archibald MacLeish, Conquistador^[9]
• Edward Arlington Robinson, Nicodemus^[9]
• Allen Tate, Poems: 1928–1931^[9]
• Sara Teasdale, A Country House^[9]
• William Carlos Williams, The Cod Head

• Kenneth Slessor, Cuckooz Contrey, Sydney: Frank Johnson, Australia
• W. B. Yeats, Words for Music Perhaps, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom

• André Breton, Le Revolver a chevaux blancs^[10]
• Paul Éluard, La Vie immédiate^[10]
• Tristan Tzara, pen name of Sami Rosenstock, Où hoivent les loups^[10]

Including all of the British colonies that later became India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Listed alphabetically by first name, regardless of surname:

• Sumitranandan Pant, Gunjana, including many popular Hindi poems such as "Nauka Vihar", "Ek Tara", "Candni", "Madhuvan"^[11]
• Rama Nath Jyotisi, Mahabharat Mahakavya, epic Hindi poem based on the Mahabharata, with new interpretations of the episodes^[11]
• Mahadevi Varma, Rasmi, 35 Hindi poems of the Chayavadi romantic poetry movement in Indian literature^[11]

• Adibhatta Narayandas, translator, Rubaiyat, from Edward Fitzgerald's English translation into Sanskrit and Telugu, with the text in Persian and Roman lettering^[11]
• Anil, also known as "Atmaram Raoji Deshpande", Phulavat, the author's first book of poetry; mostly love poems; Marathi^[11]
• D. R. Bendre, also known as "Ambikatanayadatta", Gari, 55 poems, marked by an unusual level of abstraction, metrical experiments and metaphorical language; Kannada^[11]
• Mahjoor, Bagh e Nisata Kae Gulo, poem on the charms of the Dal Lake; Kashmiri^[11]
• Mathura Prasad Dikshit, editor, Govinda Gitavali, collection of Govindadasa's 17th-century devotional songs and others in the Maithili-language oral tradition^[11]
• Maulvi Abdul Haq, editor, Jangnamah-yi Alam Ali Khan, an 18th-century Urdu narrative poem (masnavi) published for the first time; includes introductory material^[11]
• Premendra Mitra, Prathama, the author's first book of poetry; Bengali^[11]
• Rabindranath Thakur, Punasca, in this and in some of the author's other books in the mid-1930s, he introduced a new rhythm in poetry that "had a tremendous impact on the modern poets", according to Indian anthologist and academic Sisir Kumar Das; Bengali^[11]
• Rallapalli Anantha Krishna Sharma, translator, Salivahana gatha saptasati saramu, translated from the Prakrit of Hāla's Gaha Sattasai into Telugu, in "ataveladi" meter; according to academic and anthologist Sisir Kumar Das, writing in 1995, the work "is still considered a model for poetical translation"^[11]
• K. Shankara Bhat, Nalme, three long narrative poems in Kannada on tragic subjects: Honniya maduve ("Marriage of Honni"), depicting village life in coastal Karnataka; Madriya Cite ("Pyre of Madri"), on the tragic end of Madri, wife of Pandu^[11]
• Shyamananda Jha, editor, Maithili Sandes, anthology of patriotic Maithili poetry^[11]
• T. N. Shreekantayya, Olume, Kannada work including translations from Greek and Pakrit^[11]

• Vicente Aleixandre, Espadas como Labios ("Swords or/as Lips")^[12]
• Miguel Hernández, Perito en lunas ("Expert in Moon Matters")^[12]
• María Pemán, Elegía de la tradición de Españia ("Elegy of Spain's Tradition")^[12]

• Luis Fabio Xammar, Las voces armoniosas, Peru^[13]

• Boris Pasternak, The Second Birth, Russia
• Sir Muhammad Iqbal, The Javed Nama (Book of Eternity) in Persian, inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy
• Eugenio Montale, La casa dei doganieri e altre poesie, a chapbook of five poems published in association with the award of the Premio del Antico Fattore to Montale; Florence: Vallecchi; Italy^[14]
• Giorgos Seferis, Στέρνα (The Cistern), Greece

• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: George Dillon: The Flowering Stone

Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:

• January 2 – Peter Redgrove (died 2003), English poet
• January 5 – Douglas Livingstone (died 1996), Malaysian-born South African poet
• January 19 – George MacBeth (died 1992) Scottish-born poet and novelist
• February 6 – Shankha Ghosh (died 2021), Bengali poet and critic
• February 12 – Hugh Fox, (died 2011), American novelist and poet, a founder of the Pushcart Prize
• March 18 – John Updike (died 2009), American novelist, short story writer, essayist, poet and writer^[15]
• April 10 – Adrian Henri (died 2000), English member of the Liverpool poets
• April 11 – Bienvenido Lumbera (died 2021), Filipino poet, critic and dramatist
• May 6 – Alauddin Al-Azad (died 2009), Bengali novelist, writer, poet, literary critic and academic^[16]
• May 7
  • Jenny Joseph (died 2018), English poet
  • Yadollah Royaee (died 2022), Iranian poet
• May 25 – Patrick Cullinan (died 2011), South African poet
• May 27 – Linda Pastan, American poet
• June 18 – Geoffrey Hill (died 2016), English poet and academic at Boston University
• June 29
  • Philip Hobsbaum (died 2005), English teacher, poet and critic
  • Ror Wolf (died 2020), German poet and writer
• July 10 – Martin Green (died 2015), English author, poet and publisher
• July 18 – Yevgeny Yevtushenko (died 2017), Soviet Russian poet and writer
• July 21 – Marie-Claire Bancquart (died 2019), French poet and critic
• August 16 – Christopher Okigbo (died in Biafran War 1967), Nigerian poet
• September 18 – Henri Meschonnic (died 2009), French poet, linguist, translator and theoretician
• September 13 – Eugene Perkins, African-American poet
• October 9 – Seda Vermisheva (died 2020), Soviet Armenian-Russian poet, economist and activist
• October 17 – Rosemary Tonks (died 2014), English poet
• October 20 – Michael McClure (died 2020), American poet and playwright
• October 24 – Adrian Mitchell (died 2008), English poet and playwright
• October 27 – Sylvia Plath (suicide 1963), American-born poet and novelist (The Bell Jar)
• December 11 – Keith Waldrop, American poet, prose stylist, visual artist; with wife Rosmarie Waldrop, founding editor of the influential and innovative Burning Deck Press
• Also:
  • Jergen Becker, German^[17]
  • Linda M. Stitt, Canadian poet

Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:

• March 16 – Harold Monro, 53 (born 1879), English poet and proprietor of the Poetry Bookshop in London which helped many famous poets bring their work before the public
• April 8 – Hubert Church, 74 (born 1857), Australian poet
• April 27 – Hart Crane, 32 (born 1899), American poet, by suicide
• June 21 – حافظ إبراهيم Hafez Ibrahim, 60 (born 1871), Egyptian "poet of the Nile"
• August 29 – Raymond Knister, 33 (born 1899), Canadian novelist, short story writer and poet, drowned in a swimming accident
• October 5 – Christopher Brennan, 61 (born 1870), Australian poet
• October 14 – أحمد شوقي Ahmed Shawqi, 64 (born 1868), Egyptian poet
• November 19 – Clinton Scollard, 72 (born 1860), American poet
• December 18 – Edmund Vance Cooke, 66 (born 1866), Canadian American poet

• Poetry
• List of poetry awards
• List of years in poetry
• New Objectivity in German literature and art