Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
Events
About this time Thomas Seaton established the Seatonian Prize at Cambridge University for religious poetry
Works published
Great Britain
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, posthumous edition edited by George Ogle Stephen Duck, Every Man in his Own Way Thomas Francklin, Of the Nature of the Gods, anonymously published translation from the Latin of Cicero's De natura deorum Sarah Parsons Moorhead, "Lines [. . .] Dedicated to the Rev. Mr. George Tennent", sharply criticizes the clergyman; English Colonial American Robert Nugent, 1st Earl Nugent, An Ode to Mankind, published anonymously William Shenstone, The Judgment of Hercules Leonard Welsted, The Summum Bonum; or, Wistest Philosophy John Wesley and Charles Wesley, A Collection of Psalms and Hymns (see also Hymns and Sacred Poems 1739) William Whitehead, The Danger of Writing Verse
Other
Johann Jakob Bodmer, Kritische Betrachtungen über die poetischen Gemählde der Dichter a German-language critical treatise published in Switzerland
Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article: March 25 – Daniel Schiebeler (died 1771) German writer and poet April 11 – Johann Heinrich Merck (died 1791), German critic, essayist, editor, writer and poet November 15 – Johann Kaspar Lavater (died 1801), Swiss clergyman, philosopher, writer and poet
Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article: March 17 – Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, French poet (born 1671)