Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
Events
March 23 – A surprise best-seller in the United Kingdom is John Lennon's In His Own Write, a compendium of nonsense writing, sketches and drawings by one of the Beatles, published today. March 29 (Easter Day) – Adrian Mitchell reads "To Whom It May Concern" to Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament protesters in Trafalgar Square, London. April 23 – The "Shakespeare Quartercentenary", the 400th anniversary of the birth of William Shakespeare falling around this date, is celebrated throughout the year in lecture series, exhibitions, dramatic and musical programs and other events as well as special publications (Shakespeare issues and supplements), reprinting of standard works on the playwright and poet, and the issue of commemorative postage stamps. The American Association of Advertising Agencies suggests that Shakespeare quotations should be used in advertisements. Celebrations of various kinds occur in the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and elsewhere. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust opens the Shakespeare Centre, housing its library and research facilities, in Stratford-upon-Avon (England). June The 75th birthday of Anna Akhmatova, who was severely persecuted during the Stalin era, is celebrated around this time with special observances and the publication of new collections of her verse. After the murder of American civil rights activist Andrew Goodman, poet Mary Doyle Curran finds and publishes a poem he had written for her college class, "A Corollary to a Poem by A. E. Housman." December – Poetry Australia literary magazine founded. John Berryman's 77 Dream Songs, published this year, wins the 1965 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. Russian poet Joseph Brodsky is convicted of "parasitism" in a Soviet court, which sends him into exile near the Arctic Circle. Among the many books of poetry published this year, Robert Lowell's For the Union Dead is greeted with particular acclaim. The book is received with "general jubilation" from critics, according to Raymond Walters Jr., associate editor of the New York Times Book Review. "These verses [...] convinced many observers that its author was now the pre-eminent U.S. poet." The publication in the United Kingdom of The Complete Poems of D. H. Lawrence in two volumes is "a major publishing event of 1964".
Works published in English
Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:
Australia
Geoffrey Dutton, The Literature of Australia
Gwen Harwood, Poems, Australian poet published in the United Kingdom
T. Inglis Moore, and Douglas Stewart, editors, Poetry in Australia, 2 volumes, Sydney: Angus and Robertson Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker), We Are Going: Poems, first book of verse by an Aboriginal Australian David Rowbotham, All the Room, Australian poetry prize winner R. Ward, Penguin Book of Australian Ballads, anthology Judith Wright, Five Senses selected poems; Australian poet published in the United Kingdom
Canada
Earle Birney: Near False Creek Mouth. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. Two Poems. Halifax. George Bowering, Points on the Grid Leonard Cohen, Flowers for Hitler, including "The Only Tourist in Havana Turns his Thoughts Homeward" John Robert Colombo, Poesie / Poetry 64 Pierre Coupey, Bring Forth the Cowards Phyllis Gotlieb, Within the Zodiac, her first work John Glassco, A Point of Sky Irving Layton, The Laughing Rooster Dorothy Livesay, The Colour of God's Face. Gwendolyn MacEwen, The Rising Fire Eli Mandel, Black and Secret Man F. R. Scott, Events and Signals. Toronto: Ryerson Press. Raymond Souster, The Colour of the Times, 250 poems collected from a dozen of his previous volumes. Governor General's Award 1964. David Wevill, Birth of a Shark, a first collection; Canadian poet published in the United Kingdom
Anthologies in Canada
Poetry of Mid-Century 1940/1960, edited by Milton Wilson, included the work of 10 well-known Canadian poets:
Margaret Avison
Earle Birney
Leonard Cohen
Irving Layton
Jay Macpherson
Kenneth McRobbie
Alden Nowlan
P. K. Page
James Reaney
Raymond Souster
Poésie/Poetry 64, edited by John Robert Colombo and Jacques Godbout;an anthology of lesser-known poets, including: