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

• Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas begins work on his major poem, Semaine. It is published in France in 1577.^[1]
• Tulsidas begins work on his major poem, Ramcharitmanas.

• Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas, La Muse chrétienne, a theoretical work that advocates a Christian poetry; published along with several didactic poems, including Judith, Uranie and Le Triomphe de la foi,^[2] Bordeaux, France^[1]
• The Mirror for Magistrates (anthology)
• Pierre de Ronsard, La Franciade, France^[3]
• Mellin de Saint-Gelais, Œuvres ("Works"), France

• July 1 – Joseph Hall (died 1656), English bishop, satirist, moralist, and poet
• Also:
  • Gerolamo Aleandro (died 1629), Italian, Latin-language poet^[4]
  • Richard Barnfield (died 1620), English poet,
  • Nicholas Bourbon (died 1644), French clergyman and neo-Latin poet
  • Nicolas Coeffeteau (died 1623), French theologian, poet and historian
  • John Day born about this year (died c. 1640), English poet and playwright
  • Feng Menglong (died 1645), Chinese writer and poet
  • William Percy (died 1648), English poet

• June 17 – Louis Des Masures (born c. 1515), French
• December – Selim II (born 1524), Ottoman Empire sultan and poet
• Also:
  • Rocco Boni, Italian, Latin-language poet^[4]
  • Girolamo Amalteo of Oderzo (born 1507), Italian poet who wrote in Latin

• 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