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

• Torquato Tasso enters the service of Cardinal Luigi d'Este at Ferrara.

• Robert Copland, The Seven Sorrows That Women Have When Theyr Husbandes Be Deade, publication year uncertain^[1]
• Arthur Golding, translated from the Latin of Ovid (Books 1–4), Metamorphoses (see also Metamorphosis [Books 1–15])^[1]
• Barnabe Googe, translation (from Marcello Palingenio Stellato's Zodiacus vitae [c. 1528]), The Zodiac of Life (see also editions of 1560, 1561)^[1]

• Rémy Belleau, Bergerie, mix of prose and verse, including Avril; revised and expanded 1572; France^[2]
• Pierre de Ronsard:
  • Abrégé de l'art poétique français, a handbook intended for beginners in poetry; French criticism^[3]
  • Élegies, Mascarades, et Bergerie^[4]

• Jan Kochanowski, Chess ("Szachy"), published either this year or in 1564; Polish

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

• September 28 – Alessandro Tassoni (died 1635), Italian
• Also:
  • Cheng Jiasui (died 1643), Chinese landscape painter and poet
  • John Davies of Hereford, birth year uncertain (died 1618), English
  • Francis Meres (died 1647), English churchman, author, critic and poet
  • Konoe Nobutada (died 1614), Japanese courtier and man of letters known as a poet, calligrapher, painter and diarist
  • Andrzej Zbylitowski (died 1608), Polish poet

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

• October 14 - Sir Thomas Chaloner the elder (born 1521), English
• December 13 - Konrad Gesner (born 1516), German
• Benedetto Varchi, (born 1502 or 1503),^[5] Italian, Latin-language poet^[5]
• Approximate date - Hwang Jini (born 1522), Korean kisaeng

• 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