1540 in poetry

• Klemens Janicki is appointed poeta laureatus by the Pope
• Lazare de Baif travels with Pierre de Ronsard (both eventually French poets) to Alsace, where they meet many northern humanists.^[1]

• Sir Thomas More, Lady Fortune, publication year uncertain^[2]
• Girolamo Schola, Capituli di M. Girolamo Schola sopra varii suggetti, publication year uncertain, Italian poems on various subjects, including hats, gypsies, geese, horses, mustard caps and sausages^[3]
• Tontada Siddhesavara, Shatsthala Jnanamrita^[4]

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

• January 26 – Florent Chrestien (died 1596), French satirist and Latin poet
• June 11 – Barnabe Googe (died 1594), English
• Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantôme, born about this year (died 1614), French soldier, historian, biographer and poet
• Francisco de Terrazas, born about this year (died c. 1600), Mexican
• Rhys Cain (died 1614), Welsh language poet
• Frei Agostinho da Cruz (died 1619), brother of Diogo Bernardes, Portuguese^[5]
• Mathias Holtzwart born about this year (died sometime after 1589), German
• Jacob Regnart born sometime from this year to 1545 (died 1599), Flemish composer

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

• October 5 – Helius Eobanus Hessus (born 1488, German, Latin poet

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