1912 in poetry

• Three poets meet and work out the principles of Imagist poetry. The most prominent of them, Ezra Pound, writes about the formulation in 1954:[4]

In the spring or early summer of 1912, 'H.D.' [Hilda Doolittle], Richard Aldington and myself decided that we were agreed upon the three principles following:

1. Direct treatment of the 'thing' whether subjective or objective.

2. To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation.

3. As regarding rhythm: to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of a metronome.

• At a meeting with Doolittle and Aldington in the British Museum tea room, Pound appends the signature H.D. Imagiste to Doolittle's poetry, creating a label that is to stick to the poet for most of her writing life
• October – Pound submits to Poetry: A Magazine of Verse three poems each by Doolittle and Aldington under the label Imagiste. Aldington's poems are printed in the November issue, and H.D.'s appear in the January 1913 issue. The March 1913 issue of Poetry also contains Pound's A Few Don'ts by an Imagiste and F. S. Flint's essay Imagisme. This publication history means that Imagism, although London-based, has its first readership in the United States.

• William Henry Drummond, The Poetical Works of William Henry Drummond. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. posthumous.[5]
• Pauline Johnson, also known as "Tekahionwake", Flint and Feather, with an introduction by Theodore Watts-Dunton, an English critic[6]
• Seranus, In Northern Skies and Other Poems[7]
• Robert W. Service, Rhymes of a Rolling Stone, Canada[8]

• Sarojini Naidu, The Bird of Time, London; Indian poet writing in English, published in the United Kingdom[9]
• Bharati Sarabhai, The Well of the People, Calcutta: Visva-Bharati[10]
• Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali, Indian poet writing in English, published in the United Kingdom

• Robert Bridges, Poetical Works Excluding the Eight Dramas[11]
• Walter de la Mare, The Listeners, and Other Poems[11]
• John Drinkwater, Poems of Love and Earth[11]
• Wilfrid Gibson, Fires[11]
• T. E. Hulme, The Complete Poetical Works, five poems[11]
• Rudyard Kipling, Collected Verse[11]
• Edward Marsh (ed.), Georgian Poetry 1911-12, the first Georgian Poetry anthology
• Claude McKay, Constab Ballads; along with Songs of Jamaica (published in Jamaica), constitute the first published collections of English-language, Creole dialect poetry; Jamaican poet published in the United Kingdom[12]
• Sarojini Naidu, The Bird of Time : Songs of Love, Death and the Spring, Indian poet writing in English, published in Britain[13]
• Ezra Pound, American poet published in the United Kingdom:
  • Ripostes, London[14]
  • Translator, The Sonnets and Ballate of Guido Cavalcanti, London[14]
• Isaac Rosenberg, Night and Day[11]
• Dora Sigerson, New Poems[11]
• James Stephens, The Hill of Vision[11]
• Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali, Indian poet writing in English, published in Britain

• Florence Earle Coates (1850–1927), The Unconquered Air, and Other Poems
• Robinson Jeffers, Flagons and Apples[15]
• William Ellery Leonard, The Vaunt of Man[15]
• Vachel Lindsay, Rhymes to be Traded for Bread[15]
• Amy Lowell, A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass[15]
• Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Renascence"
• Ezra Pound, American poet published in the United Kingdom:
  • Ripostes, London[14]
  • Translator, The Sonnets and Ballate of Guido Cavalcanti, London[14]
• John Hall Wheelock, The Beloved Adventure[15]
• Charles Williams, The Silver Stair[11]
• Elinor Wylie, Incidental Numbers[15]

• Adam Lindsay Gordon, The Poems of Adam Lindsay Gordon, Australia
• Claude McKay of Jamaica, publishes the first collections of English-language, Creole dialect poetry:[12]
  • Songs of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica
  • Constab Ballads, London, England

• Paul Claudel, L'Annonce faite à Marie[16]
• Jean Cocteau, La Danse de Sophocle[17]
• Léon-Paul Fargue, Poemes, suivi de Pour la musique[18]
• Francis Jammes, Les Géorgiques chrétiennes ("Christian Georgics"), three volumes, published from (1911 to this year)[19]
• Pierre Jean Jouve, Présences[17]
• Max Jacob, Les Oeuvres Burlesques et Mystiques de Frère Matorel[18]
• René Maran, La Vie Intérieure, Guyanese writer
• Charles Péguy, Le Porche du mystère de la deuxième vertu[16]
• Saint-John Perse, pen name of Marie-René Alexis Saint-Léger, Eloges
• Victor Segalen, Stèles, an edition of 81 copies (see also Stèles, Peintures, Équipée 1955, and Stelae 1969, a translation into English by Nathaniel Tarn)[18]

Including all of the British colonies that later became India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Listed alphabetically by first name, regardless of surname:

• Gurajada Appa Rao (surname: Gurajada), narrative poems written in a four-line, stanzaic form, new for Telugu poetry:
  • Kanyaka[20]
  • Purnima[20]

• Akshay Kumar Baral, Esa, Indian, Bengali-language
• Maithilisharan Gupta, "Bharat Bharati" ("The Voice of India"), Hindi poem glorifying the nation's past, deploring its contemporary social and political condition and calling for good relations between Hindus and Muslims at a time when animosity between the two groups was rising[21]
• Sumatiben Mehta, Hridayjharnan, a poem conveying her anguish during an extended illness (posthumous), written in the Gujarati language[22]

• Anna Akhmatova, Vecher ("Evening"), her first collection, Russia
• Gottfried Benn, Morgue und andere Gedichte ("Morgue and other Poems") (Berlin), Germany
• David Burliuk, Aleksei Kruchenykh, Vladimir Mayakovsky and Velimir Khlebnikov, A Slap in the Face of Public Taste (Пощёчина общественному вкусу), Russian Futurist anthology
• Takuboku Ishikawa, Kanashiki gangu ("Sad Toys") published posthumously, Japan
• Antonio Machado, Campos de Castilla ("Fields of Castile"), first edition (revised edition 1917); Spain[23]
• Patrick Pearse, Mise Éire ("I am Ireland"), Ireland