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

• Stephen Bateman, The Travayled Pylgrime, translated from Olivier de la Marche's Le chevalier delibere^[1]
• Alonso de Ercilla, La Araucana, an epic poem about the conquest of Chile; the first part was published this year, the second in 1578, when it was published with the first part; the third part was published with the first and second parts in 1589' Spain
• Barnabe Googe, The Ship of Safeguard^[1]
• Jan van der Noot, A theatre for Worldlings, including poems translated into English by Edmund Spenser from French sources, published by Henry Bynneman in London^[2]
• Thomas Underdowne, published anonymously, a translation from Latin, Ovid his Invective against Ibis^[1]

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

• April 16 – Sir John Davies (died 1626), English poet and lawyer, attorney general in Ireland; not to be confused with his contemporary, John Davies of Hereford (c. 1565–1618)
• September 5 – Georg Friedrich of Hohenlohe-Neuenstein-Weikersheim (died 1645), German officer and amateur poet
• October 18 – Giambattista Marino (died 1625), Italian poet famous for his long epic L'Adone
• Also:
  • Ján Bocatius (died 1621), Slovak
  • Barnabe Barnes birth year uncertain, possibly 1568 or 1571 (when baptised) (died 1609), English
  • Arthur Gorges (died 1625), English poet, translator and courtier
  • Geoffrey Keating (Seathrún Céitinn) (died 1644), Irish Roman Catholic priest, poet and historian
  • Emilia Lanier, also spelled "Aemilia Lanyer" (died 1645), English
  • Thomas Seget (died 1627), Scottish poet writing in Latin
  • Zhu Wuxia, flourished this year, Chinese woman poet^[3]

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

• September 5 – Bernardo Tasso (born 1493), Italian
• Between September 8 and October 5 – Mikołaj Rej (born 1505), Polish
• September 11 – Vincenza Armani (born c. 1530), Italian
• October 7 – Guillaume Guéroult (born c. 1507), French editor, translator and poet
• November 29 – António Ferreira (born 1528), Portuguese
• date not known – Huang O (born 1498), Chinese poet, a woman^[4]

• 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