• Formation in Paris of Antoine de Baïf's Académie de Poésie et Musique, and consequent development of musique mesurée by composers such as Claude Le Jeune and Guillaume Costeley
• Torquato Tasso travels to Paris in the service of Cardinal Luigi d'Este.

• Thomas Churchyard, A Discourse of Rebellion^[1]
• Lodovico Castelvetro, Poetica d'Aristotele vulgarizzata e sposita ("The Poetics of Aristotle in the Vulgar Language"), called the most famous Italian Renaissance commentary on Aristotle's Poetics^[2]
• Thomas Preston, A Lamentation from Rome how the Pope doth bewayle the Rebelles in England cannot prevayle. To the tune of "How well, ye mariners", a broadside ballad; published in London by William Griffith

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

• Sir Robert Aytoun (died 1638), Scottish poet
• Eliáš Láni (died 1618), Slovak
• Thomas Bateson, also spelled "Batson" or "Betson", birth year uncertain (died 1630), English writer of madrigals
• Charles Best (died 1627), English poet, writer of "A Sonnet of the Moon"
• Tadhg mac Dáire Mac Bruaideadha (died 1652), Irish Gaelic poet and historian
• Francisco de Medrano born (died 1607), Spanish^[2]
• Pedro de Oña (died 1643), first known Chilean poet
• Samuel Rowlands, birth year uncertain (died c. 1630), English pamphleteer, poet and satirist^[1]
• François du Souhait, born between 1570 and 1580 (died 1617), French language translator, novelist, poet, satirist, and moral philosopher
• Adrianus Valeriuss, born sometime from this year to 1575 (died 1625), Dutch
• Yuan Zhongdao (died 1624), Chinese poet, essayist, travel diarist and official

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

• March 25 – Johann Walter (born 1496), German poet and composer
• November – Jacques Grévin (born c. 1539), French playwright and poet

• 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