Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
January 1 – American essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson commemorates today's Emancipation Proclamation by composing "Boston Hymn" and surprising a crowd of 3,000 with its debut reading at Boston Music Hall.
May 17 – Intimist poet Rosalía de Castro published her first collection in Galician, Cantares gallegos ("Galician Songs"), commemorated every year as the Día das Letras Galegas ("Galician Literature Day"), an official holiday of the Autonomous Community of Galicia in Spain.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, The Greek Christian Poets and the English Poets, essays first published in the Athenaeum 1842 and revised before the author's death; posthumous
Robert Browning, Poetical Works, a mix of poems from Dramatic Lyrics 1842, Dramatic Romances and Lyrics 1845, and Men and Women 1855 (see also Poetical Works 1868)
Jean Ingelow, Poems (23 editions by 1880; see also Poems 1880, Poems: Third Series 1885)
Walter Savage Landor, Heroic Idyls with Additional Poems, the author's last published book
Coventry Patmore, The Victories of Love, Volume 4 of The Angel in the House, first edition in the United Kingdom; first published in Macmillan's Magazine September–November 1861 (see also The Betrothal 1854, The Espousals 1856, Faithful for Ever 1860)
Menella Bute Smedley, published anonymously, The Story of Queen Isabel, and Other Verses
Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Poems, United States
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Tales of a Wayside Inn, including "Paul Revere's Ride" (1861), United States
János Arany, The Bards of Wales (A walesi bárdok), Hungarian (written 1857)
Rosalía de Castro:
Cantares gallegos ("Galician Songs"), her first collection of poetry in Galician (see also "Events" section, above)
A mi madre, poems written in Spanish
Uilleam Mac Dhun Lèibhe (William Livingston), Fios Thun A' Bhard, Scottish Gaelic poem published in Scotland
Catulle Mendès, Philomela, France
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
February – A.