1951 in poetry

• Poet Cid Corman begins Origin magazine in response to the failure of a magazine that Robert Creeley had planned. The magazine typically features one writer per issue and runs, with breaks, until the mid-1980s. Poets featured include Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Larry Eigner, Denise Levertov, William Bronk, Theodore Enslin, Charles Olson, Louis Zukofsky, Gary Snyder, Lorine Niedecker, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams and Paul Blackburn. The magazine also leads to the establishment of Origin Press, which publishes books by a similar range of poets.
• Bad Lord Byron, a film directed by David MacDonald about the Romantic poet.^[1]
• Czesław Miłosz, Polish poet, translator, literary critic, future (1980) winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, becomes an exile this year.
• The Dolmen Press is founded in Dublin, Ireland by Liam and Josephine Miller to provide a publishing outlet for Irish poets and artists. The Press operates in Dublin from 1951 until Liam Miller's death in 1987.^[2]

Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:

• Nobel Prize in Literature: Pär Lagerkvist, Swedish poet, author, playwright and writer
• Guggenheim Fellowship awarded to E.E. Cummings
• National Book Award for Poetry: Wallace Stevens, The Auroras of Autumn
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Carl Sandburg, Complete Poems
• Bollingen Prize: John Crowe Ransom
• Canada: Governor General's Award, poetry or drama: The Mulgrave Road, Charles Bruce ^[25]

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

• January 1 – Abul Bashar, Bengali poet and writer
• January 29 – Neil Shepard, American poet, essayist, professor of creative writing and literary magazine editor
• February 23 – Leevi Lehto (died 2019), Finnish poet, translator and programmer
• March 12 – Susan Musgrave, Canadian poet and children's author
• March 21 – Lesley Choyce, Canadian novelist, writer, children's book writer, poet, and academic, founder of Pottersfield Press, host of the television program "Choyce Words" and "Off the Page"; born in the United States and immigrated to Canada in 1979
• April 5 – Lillian Allen, Canadian dub poet
• April 21 – Brigit Pegeen Kelly, American poet and academic, daughter of author Robert Glynn Kelly and married to poet Michael Madonick
• April 22 – Andrew Hudgins, American poet, essayist and academic
• May 9:
  • Christopher Dewdney, Canadian poet, writer, artist, creative writing teacher and writer in residence at various universities
  • Jorie Graham, American poet and academic
  • Joy Harjo, Native-American poet, musician and author
• May 30 – Garrett Hongo, American poet and academic, born in Volcano, Hawaii
• June 20:
  • Paul Muldoon Irish poet living in the United States
  • Noel Rowe (died 2007), Australian, poet, writer, academic and Roman Catholic priest in the Marist order
• July 10 – Robert Priest, English-born Canadian poet and children's author
• July 25 – Angela Jackson, African American
• September 13 – Suzanne Lummis, American poet, teacher and co-founder of the Los Angeles Poetry Festival
• October 8 – Jenny Boult, also known as "MML Bliss" (died 2005), Australian^[26]
• October 12 – Peter Goldsworthy, Australian poet, novelist, short-story writer, opera librettist and medical practitioner
• November 13 – Robert Hilles, Canadian poet and novelist
• December 13 – Anne-Marie Alonzo (died 2005), Canadian playwright, poet, novelist, critic and publisher
• Also:
  • Ralph Angel, American poet and translator
  • Robin Becker, American^[1]
  • Peter Boyle, Australian^[27]
  • Ron Charach, Canadian^[1]
  • Peter Christensen, Canadian^[1]
  • Stephen Edgar, Australian poet, editor and indexer
  • James Galvin, American poet, novelist and writer
  • Robert Harris (died 1993), Australian^[28]
  • Peter Johnson, American^[1]
  • Jill Jones, Australian poet and writer
  • Anne Kellas, South African poet, critic and editor, immigrant to Australia
  • Kim Maltman, Canadian poet and physicist
  • Pi O, "П O", Australian poet and anarchist
  • Betsy Struthers, Canadian poet and novelist
  • Ania Walwicz, Australian poet, writer and artist
  • Afaa M. Weaver, American^[1]
  • Robert Wrigley, American poet and academic
  • Eddy Yanofsky, American^[1]
  • Ray A. Young Bear, American^[1]

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

• January 17 – Jyoti Prasad Agarwala (born 1903), playwright, songwriter, poet, writer and film maker; Indian, writing in Assamese
• January 31 – Seemab Akbarabadi سیماب اکبرآبادی (born 1882) Urdu poet from India
• April 3 – Henrik Visnapuu (born 1890), Estonian
• June 18 – Angelos Sikelianos (born 1884), Greek
• June 28 – Fumiko Hayashi 林 芙美子 (born 1903 or 1904; sources disagree), novelist, writer and poet (a woman; surname: Hayashi)
• July 3 – Sydney Jephcott (born 1864), Australian poet
• September 18 – Gelett Burgess (born 1866), American artist, art critic, poet, author, and humorist
• December 4 – Pedro Salinas (born 1891), Spanish
• Also:
  • Kaykobad (born 1857), Bengali poet
  • Hertha Kraftner (born 1928), German^[29]
  • Sotiris Skipis (born 1881), Greek

• Poetry
• List of poetry awards
• List of years in poetry