1640 in poetry

• 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.
• English Cavalier poet Richard Lovelace, serving in the Bishops' Wars in Scotland, writes "To Lucasta, Going to the Warres" (published 1649)

• 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[1]
• Thomas Carew, Poems, including "Coelum Brittanicum" 1634[1]
• Richard Flecknoe, The Affections of a Pious Soule, unto our Savior-Christ, prose and poetry[1]
• 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[1]
  • The Workes of Benjamin Jonson, the second folio; Volume 1 reprints Workes 1616[1]
• 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[2]
• Francis Quarles, Enchyridion[1]
• Nathaniel Richards, The Tragedy of Messallina, the Roman Emperesse[1]
• John Tatham, The Fancies Theater[1]

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[1]
• Nozawa Bonchō 野沢 凡兆 (died 1714), Japanese haikai poet

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, Italian polymath and poet (born 1574)
• Charles Aleyn, English poet
• Daniel Naborowski (born 1573), Polish Baroque poet
• Possible date – John Ford (born 1586), English playwright and poet

• Poetry
• 17th century in poetry
• 17th century in literature