Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).

Events

October 26 - Phillis Wheatley sends a poem and letter to General George Washington in his honor. He responded to her in 1776.^[1]

Works published

Colonial America

• Anna Young Smith, published under the pen name "Sylvia", "An Elegy to the Memory of the America Volunteers", published in the Pennsylvania Magazine, Colonial America^[2]
• Philip Freneau:
  • "General Gage's Soliloquy"^[3]
  • "General Gage's Confession"^[3]
  • "A Voyage to Boston"^[4]
  • "American Liberty"^[4]
  • "A Political Litany"^[4]
• John Trumbull, first two cantos of M'Fingal, a satire on American Tories during the American Revolution (later published in completed form in 1782)^[3]

United Kingdom

• Hester Chapone, Miscellanies in Prose and Verse^[5]
• George Crabbe, Inebriety, published anonymously^[5]
• Hugh Downman, The Drama^[5]
• Thomas Gray, The Poems of Mr. Gray, to which are Prefixed Memoirs of his Life and Writings by W. Mason, M.A., Annotated letters of Thomas Gray, comments by Mason on the poems; York: A. Ward; criticism and biography^[6]
• Edward Jerningham, The Fall of Mexico^[5]
• Mary Robinson, Poems by Mrs. Robinson^[5]
• Richard Savage, The Works of Richard Savage, edited by Samuel Johnson, with a life of Savage by Johnson, later reprinted in Johnson's Prefaces [...] to the Works of the English Poets 1779 (see also An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage 1744)^[5]

Births

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

• January 30 – Walter Savage Landor (died 1864), English writer and poet
• February 10 – Charles Lamb (died 1834), English writer and poet
• February 12 – Charles Lloyd (died 1839), English poet, friend of Lamb
• March 24 – Muthuswami Dikshitar (died 1835), South Indian poet and composer
• June 15 – Carlo Porta (died 1821), Italian poet
• July 9 – Matthew Lewis ("Monk Lewis") (died 1818), English Gothic novelist and dramatist
• July 11 – Joseph Blanco White, born José María Blanco Crespo (died 1841), Spanish-born theologian and poet writing in English
• August 31 – Agnes Bulmer (died 1836), English poet^[7]
• September 8 – John Leyden (died 1811), Scottish orientalist
• December 16 – Jane Austen (died 1817), English novelist and poet

Deaths

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

• March 21 – Samuel Boyce, English engraver, dramatist and poet
• October 2 – Fukuda Chiyo-ni, or Kaga no Chiyo, 千代尼 (born 1703), Japanese woman poet of the Edo period, prominent writer of haiku
• Approximate date – Ramprasad Sen (born 1718/23), Bengali Shakta poet