1778 in poetry

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

Events

Works published in English

United Kingdom

• John Codrington Bampfylde, Sixteen Sonnets
• William Combe, The Auction
• George Ellis, writing under the pen name "Sir Gregory Gander", Poetical Tales
• William Hayley, A Poetical Epistle to an Eminent Painter, published anonymously; addressed to George Romney
• Vicesimus Knox, Cursory Thoughts on Satire and Satirists, a critical essay
• John Scott, Moral Eclogues, published anonymously
• Percival Stockdale, Inquiry into the Nature and Genuine Laws of Poetry; including a particular Defence of the Writings and Genius of Mr. Pope
• John Wolcot, writing under the pen name "Peter Pindar", A Poetical, Supplicating, Modest and Affecting Epistle to those Literary Colossuses the Reviewers

United States

• Joel Barlow, The Prospect of Peace
• William Billings, Chester
• Francis Hopkinson:
• "The Battle of the Kegs", United States
• "Date Obolum Bellisario"
• "The Birds, the Beasts, and the Bat"

Works published in other languages

• Ippolit Bogdanovich, Dushenka, a long poem and his best-known work, Russia
• Johannes Ewald, Kong Christian stod ved höjen Mast ("King Christian Stood by the Lofty mast"), a popular song in his melodrama The Fishermen, which later became the Danish national anthem (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow later translated it into English)
• Johann Gottfried Herder - Volkslieder nebst untermischten anderen Stücken
• Évariste de Parny - Les Poésies érotiques

Births

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

• February 6 – Ugo Foscolo (died 1827), Italian writer, revolutionary and poet
• April 10 – William Hazlitt (died 1830), English writer, essayist and critic
• August 22 – James Kirke Paulding (died 1860), American novelist, poet and United States Secretary of the Navy; a writer for Salamagundi magazine who took it over before it failed
• September 9 – Clemens Brentano (died 1842), German poet and novelist
• December 22 – Anna Maria Porter (died 1832), English poet and novelist
• Robert Davidson (died 1855), Scottish peasant poet

Deaths

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

• May 30 – Voltaire (born 1694), French Enlightenment writer, poet, essayist and philosopher
• August 11 – Augustus Toplady (born 1740), English Anglican clergyman, poet and hymn-writer
• Rob Donn (born 1714), Scottish Gaelic poet

See also

• 18th century in literature
• 18th century in poetry
• French literature of the 18th century
• List of years in poetry
• List of years in literature
• Sturm und Drang (the conventional translation is "Storm and Stress"; a more literal translation, however, might be "storm and urge", "storm and longing", "storm and drive" or "storm and impulse"), a movement in German literature (including poetry) and music from the late 1760s through the early 1780s

Notes