Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
Events
June 30 - Convicted assassin Charles Guiteau writes a poem called "I am Going to the Lordy", which he recites immediately before his execution the same day
Works published
United Kingdom
William Allingham, Evil May-Day
F. J. Child, ed., The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, in 5 volumes (1882–98), including multiple versions of 305 ballads, American scholar published in England Toru Dutt, Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hidnustan, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co. (fifth edition, 1927; reprinted several times by various publishers since then); Indian poet, writing in English, published in the United Kingdom William Livingston (Uilleam Macdhunleibhe, died 1870), Duain agus Orain, Scottish Gaelic poet published in Scotland George Robert Sims, The Dagonet Ballads Algernon Charles Swinburne, Tristram of Lyonesse, and Other Poems
Great scientist this year a published poet
James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879), whose contributions to science were profound (including formulation of Maxwell's equations which for the first time expressed the basic laws of electricity and magnetism in a unified fashion, and other discoveries that helped usher in modern physics), this year became a published poet when a collection of his poems was published by his friend Lewis Campbell, two years after Maxwell's death.
As a great lover of British poetry, Maxwell memorized poems and wrote his own. The best known is Rigid Body Sings closely based on Comin' Through the Rye by Robert Burns, which he apparently used to sing while accompanying himself on a guitar. It has the immortal opening lines :
Gin a body meet a body
Flyin' through the air. Gin a body hit a body, Will it fly? And where?
(Maxwell is also known for creating the first true-colour photograph in 1861.)
United States
Amos Bronson Alcott, Sonnets and Canzonets
Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Poems
George Henry Boker, The Book of the Dead
Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen, Idyls of Norway
Paul Hamilton Hayne, Collected Poems
Emma Lazarus, Songs of a Semite
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, In the Harbor: Ultima Thule, Part II
William Gilmore Simms (died 1870), Works, 10 volumes, including poetry, New York
Mary Ashley Townsend, Down the Bayou and Other Poems
Other
Gabriele D'Annunzio, Canto novo, Italy
Octave Crémazie (died 1879), Œuvres complètes, Canada
Toru Dutt (died 1877), Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hidnustan, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co. (fifth edition, 1927; reprinted several times since by various publishers), Indian poet, writing in English, published in the United Kingdom Kalidasa, Sakuntalam translated from the original Sanskrit into Malayalam by Kerala Varma Valiya Koil Thampuran, India Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science (Die fröhliche Wissenschaft), Germany, a study embracing poetry, philosophy and the author's "God is dead" view Jacques Perk (died 1881), Mathilde, Netherlands Friedrich Theodor Vischer, Lyrische Gänge ("Lyrical passages"), Germany Iosif Vulcan, Lira mea ("My Lyre"), Romanian, published in Austria-Hungary