1640 in poetry
# 1640 in poetry

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

## Events

* Early? – Poems written by Wil. Shake-speare, Gent. is published (posthumously) by John Benson in London, the first collection of Shakespeare's non-dramatic poetry, although incomplete and mangled and with some male pronouns changed to female in the sonnets (here reissued for the first time since original publication).
* English Cavalier poet Richard Lovelace, serving in the Bishops' Wars in Scotland, writes "To Lucasta, Going to the Warres" (published 1649)

## Works published

* Francis Beaumont, Poems, including a translation from the Latin poetry of Ovid's Metamorphoses, which might not be by Beaumont; several other poems in the book are definitely not by him, according to The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature
* Thomas Carew, Poems, including "Coelum Brittanicum" 1634
* Richard Flecknoe, The Affections of a Pious Soule, unto our Savior-Christ, prose and poetry
* Ben Jonson:
   * Art of Poetry, translated from the Latin of Horace; also contains Execration Against Vulcan; The Masque of the Gypsies and Epigrams to Severall Noble Personages in this Kingdome; posthumous edition
   * The Workes of Benjamin Jonson, the second folio; Volume 1 reprints Workes 1616
* Richard Mather and John Eliot, and Thomas Weld The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre, commonly known as the Bay Psalm Book, English Colonial American work
* Francis Quarles, Enchyridion
* Nathaniel Richards, The Tragedy of Messallina, the Roman Emperesse
* John Tatham, The Fancies Theater

## Births

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

* December 14 (probable date) – Aphra Behn, born Eaffrey Johnson (died 1689), English woman playwright and poet
* Nozawa Bonchō 野沢 凡兆 (died 1714), Japanese haikai poet

## Deaths

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

* February/March – Richard Rowlands (born 1550), Anglo-Dutch antiquarian and writer
* March 22 – Thomas Carew (born 1595), English poet
* April 2
   * Paul Fleming (born 1609), German poet and physician
   * Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski (born 1595), Polish Jesuit and Latin-language poet
* April 28 (bur.) – William Alabaster (born 1567), English poet and playwright
* September 12 – William Alexander, 1st Earl of Stirling, (born 1567), Scottish statesman, courtier, poet and writer of rhymed tragedies
* October 1 – Claudio Achillini (born 1574), Italian polymath and poet
* Charles Aleyn, English poet
* Daniel Naborowski (born 1573), Polish Baroque poet
* Walter Quin (born c. 1575), Irish-born English court poet and author writing in English, Latin, French and Italian
