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

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

• January 22 – Francis Bacon (died 1626), English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, author and poet
• April 8 – Dominicus Baudius (died 1613), Dutch Neo-Latin poet, scholar and historian
• July 11 – Luis de Góngora (died 1627), Spanish lyric poet
• October 27 – Mary Herbert (died 1621), English poet, translator, patron, hostess of a literary salon, and sister of Philip Sidney
• Also:
  • Gaspar Aguilar (died 1623), Spanish poet and dramatist
  • Bernardo de Balbuena (died 1627), Spanish-born Latin American poet
  • Henry Lok birth year uncertain (died 1608), English^[1]
  • Nicolas de Montreux (died 1608), French nobleman, novelist, poet, translator and dramatist
  • Robert Southwell year of birth uncertain (died 1595), English Jesuit priest and poet

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

• John Calvin (born 1509), Swiss, French-language Protestant religious leader who wrote hymns
• George Cavendish, (born either 1500 or 1494), English
• Nikolaus Herman (born c. 1500), German
• Olivier de Magny (born 1529), French
• Jorge de Montemayor (born 1521), Portuguese novelist and poet, who wrote almost exclusively in Spanish

• Poetry
• 16th century in poetry
• 16th century in literature
• Dutch Renaissance and Golden Age literature
• Elizabethan literature
• French Renaissance literature
• Renaissance literature
• Spanish Renaissance literature