1950 in poetry

• Charles Olson publishes his seminal essay, "Projective Verse". In this, he calls for a poetry of "open field" composition to replace traditional closed poetic forms with an improvised form that should reflect exactly the content of the poem. This form is to be based on the line, and each line is to be a unit of breath and of utterance. The content is to consist of "one perception immediately and directly (leading) to a further perception". This essay becomes a kind of de facto manifesto for the Black Mountain poets.
• George Oppen and his wife, Mary, move from the United States to Mexico, where their links to Communism are less problematic.
• The Beloit Poetry Journal is founded by Robert Glauber and Chad Walsh. It is intended to be a publication of Beloit College since Walsh is an English teacher there.^[1]
• Pioneer Press founded in Jamaica.^[2]
• Saint Lucia Arts Guild founded by Derek and Roderick Walcott.^[2]

Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:

Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:

• Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (later the post would be called "Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress"): Conrad Aiken appointed this year.
• Harriet Monroe Prize from Poetry magazine: E.E. Cummings
• National Book Award for Poetry: William Carlos Williams, Paterson: Book III and Selected Poems
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Gwendolyn Brooks, Annie Allen (first African American winner)
• Bollingen Prize: Wallace Stevens
• Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: E. E. Cummings
• Canada: Governor General's Award, poetry or drama: Of Time and the Lover, Charles Wreford Watson ^[22]

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

• January 1 – James Richardson, American poet and academic
• January 20 – Edward Hirsch, American poet and academic
• February 6 – Deborah Digges (died 2009), American poet and academic^[23]
• March 5 – Jack Bedson, Australian writer, poet, children's picture book author and university librarian
• April 4 – Charles Bernstein, American poet, critic, editor and teacher
• April 28:
  • Carolyn Forché, American poet, editor and human rights advocate
  • Brian Brett, Canadian poet and novelist
• May 9:
  • Christopher Dewdney, avant-garde Canadian poet
  • Jorie Graham American poet and the editor of numerous volumes of poetry
  • Tato Laviera, Puerto Rician-American poet and author (died 2013)
• May 22 – Bernie Taupin, English lyricist
• June 5 – John Yau, American poet and critic
• June 21 – Anne Carson, Canadian poet, essayist, translator and academic
• July 1 – Ekram Ali, Indian Bengali poet and critic
• August 7 – T. R. Hummer, American
• August 8 – Philip Salom, Australian poet and novelist
• August 12 – Medbh McGuckian, Northern Ireland poet
• August 20 – Chase Twichell, American poet and owner of her own publishing company, Ausable Press
• September 1 – John Forbes (died 1998), Australian
• September 17 – Narendra Modi, Indian politician and poet
• September 30 – Shaunt Basmajian (died 1990), Canadian
• October 8 – Blake Morrison, English poet, critic and writer
• October 24 – Syed Kawsar Jamal Indian Bengali poet and essayist
• November 20 – E. Ethelbert Miller, African American
• December 20 – Sheenagh Pugh, British
• December 24 – Dana Gioia, American poet who retires early from his career as a corporate executive at General Foods to write full-time and later chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts
• Also:
  • Anthony J. Bennett, Australian^[24]
  • Charles Buckmaster (died 1972), Australian
  • Frances Chung (died 1990), American
  • Rodney Jones, American poet and academic
  • William Logan, American poet, critic and academic
  • Muntazir Baba (died 2018), Indian-born Pakistani Pashto poet
  • Sandy Shreve, Canadian
  • Nicolette Stasko, American-born Australian poet, teacher and editor; has a daughter with David Brooks
  • Arthur Sze, American
  • Grace Nichols, Guyanese in England
  • Komninos Zervos (also known as "kominos"), Australian performance poet

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

• March 5 – Edgar Lee Masters (born 1868), American poet, biographer and dramatist
• May 4 – William Rose Benét (born 1886), American poet, writer, editor, and the older brother of Stephen Vincent Benét
• May 20 – John Gould Fletcher (born 1886), Pulitzer Prize-winning American, Imagist poet and author
• August 27 – Cesare Pavese (born 1908) Italian poet, novelist, literary critic and translator
• October 19 – Edna St. Vincent Millay, 58 (born 1892), of a heart attack;
• September 17 – Hoshino Tenchi 星野天知 (born 1862), Meiji period poet and martial arts master; a co-founder of Bungakukai literary magazine; 8th Grand Master and a teacher of the Yagyu Shinkage-ryu martial-arts school (surname: Hoshino)
• December 5 – Sri Aurobindo (Bengali: শ্রী অরবিন্দ Sri Ôrobindo) (born 1872), Indian nationalist, poet, Yogi and spiritual Guru writing mostly in English
• December 25
  • Ridgely Torrence (born 1874), American
  • Xavier Villaurrutia (born 1903), Mexican poet and dramatist
• December 26 – James Stephens (born 1880), Irish poet and novelist
• Also:
  • Khavirakpan (born 1895), Indian, Meitei language poet^[19]

• Poetry
• List of poetry awards
• List of years in poetry