1738 in poetry
# 1738 in poetry

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

## Events

* During a visit to Morpeth this year, poet Mark Akenside gets the idea for his long didactic poem, The Pleasures of the Imagination, published in 1744.

## Works published

### United Kingdom

* Mark Akenside, A British Philippic, published anonymously
* John Banks, Miscellaneous Works in Verse and Prose
* Mather Byles, On the Death of the Queen, English, Colonial America
* Elizabeth Carter, Poems Upon Particular Occasions, published anonymously
* Robert Dodsley, The Art of Preaching, published anonymously
* John Gay, Fables: Volume the Second (see also Fables 1727)
* Samuel Johnson, London, A Poem, on the Third Satire of Juvenal
* Alexander Pope:
   * The First Epistle of the First Book of Horace Imitated
   * The Sixth Epistle of the First Book of Horace Imitated
   * One Thousand Seven Hundred and Thirty Eight
   * One Thousand Seven Hundred and Thirty Eight: Dialogue II
   * The Universal Prayer
   * (see also Pope and Swift, below)
* Frances Seymour, Countess of Hertford (later Duchess of Somerset), writing as "The Right Hon. the Countess of ****", The Story of Inkle and Yarrico, includes "An Epistle From Yarrico to Inkle, after he had left her in slavery", an imitation of Alexander Pope's "Eloisa to Abelard", a part of his Works 1717)
* Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift, An Imitation of the Sixth Satire of the Second Book of Horace, Pope's contribution was anonymous; Part 1, by Swift, had previously appeared in Miscellanies, "The Last Volume" (that is, Volume 3) 1727
* Jonathan Swift (see also Pope and Swift above), "The Beasts' Confession"
   * and Alexander Pope, An Imitation of the Sixth Satire of the Second Book of Horace
* James Thomson, The Works of Mr. Thomson
* John Wesley, A Collection of Psalms and Hymns (first published in Charlestown 1737, see also A Collection of Psalms and Hymns 1741)

### Other

* Johann Jakob Bodmer, Critical Disquisition on the Wonderful in Poetry, a defense of John Milton; German-language, Switzerland

## Births

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

* February 9 (bapt.) – Mary Whateley (married name: Darwall) (died 1825), English poet and playwright
* May 9 – John Wolcot (died 1819), English satirist and poet
* May 27 – Moritz August von Thümmel (died 1817), German humorist and satirical author
* June 5 (bapt.) – Erika Liebman (died 1803), Swedish poet and academic
* June 16 – Johann Christoph Krauseneck (died 1799), German composer and poet
* November 8 – Barbara Catharina Mjödh (died 1776), Swedish poet
* December 4 – Karl Friedrich Kretschmann (died 1809), German poet, playwright and storyteller
* Approximate date – Edward Thompson (died 1786), English Royal Navy officer and poet

## Deaths

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

* April – Penelope Aubin (born c. 1679), English novelist and translator
* August 2 – Ueshima Onitsura (born 1661), Japanese haiku poet
* December 19 – Philip Frowde (born c. 1679), English poet and playwright
