This is a list of each book of poems which Allen Curnow published as well as a note of the year, print run (where known), cover image of the book, number of poems, publisher and any special comments.
| Book Name and image | Year | Number of poems |
Publisher | Awards / Comments |
| Valley of Decision
|
1933 | 23 | Auckland University College Students’ Association Press | First book published aged 22 |
| Three Poems | 1935 | 3 | Caxton Press | |
| Enemies
|
1937 | 14 | Caxton Press | |
Not in Narrow Seas
|
1939 | – | Caxton Press | |
Island and Time
|
1941 | 25 | Caxton Press | |
| Landfall in Unknown Seas
|
1942 | 1 | Department of Internal Affairs | Poem with music by Douglas Lilburn |
| Sailing or Drowning
|
c.1943 | 15 | Progressive Publishing Society | |
| Jack Without Magic
|
1946, 200 copies | 12 | Caxton Press | |
| At Dead Low Water, and Sonnets
|
1949 | 23 | Caxton Press | |
| The Axe: a Verse Tragedy
|
1949 | 1 | Caxton Press | |
| Poems 1949-57
|
1957 | 18 | Mermaid Press | |
| A Small Room With Large Windows, selected poems
|
1962 | 50 | Oxford University Press | Compilation |
| Trees, Effigies, Moving Objects: a Sequence of 18 poems
|
1972, 500 copies | 18 | Catspaw Press | |
| An Abominable Temper, and Other Poems
|
1973, 300 copies | 9 | Catspaw Press | |
| Collected Poems 1933-1973
|
1974 | A.W. and A.H. Reed | Compilation | |
| An Incorrigible Music: A sequence of poems
|
1979 | Auckland University Press | NZ Book Award for Poetry | |
| Allen Curnow: Selected Poems
|
1982 | 130 | Penguin | Compilation |
| You Will Know When You Get There, Poems 1979-1981
|
1982 | 14 | Auckland University Press | NZ Book Award for Poetry |
| The Loop in Lone Kauri Road, Poems 1983-1985
|
1986 | 10 | Auckland University Press | NZ Book Award for Poetry |
| Continuum: New and Later Poems 1972-1988
|
1988 | 78 | Auckland University Press | Compilation, Dillon’s Commonwealth Poetry Prize |
| Selected Poems, 1940-1989
|
1990 | 84 | Viking | Compilation |
| Early Days Yet : New and Collected Poems 1941-1997 | 1997 | Auckland University Press | Compilation
Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry |
|
| The Bells of Saint Babel’s: poems 1997-2001
|
2001 | 12 | Auckland University Press | Montana Award for Poetry |
As editor
Book of New Zealand Verse 1923-45, published by Caxton Press, 1945
Book of New Zealand Verse 1923-50, published by Caxton Press, 1951
Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1960
Critical writing
Poetry and Language, published in 1935 by Caxton Club Press
Look Back Harder: Critical Writings 1935-1984, ed by Peter Simpson published 1987 by Auckland University Press
Whim Wham
Allen Curnow wrote under this pseudonym in newspapers in New Zealand for many decades. The biography on Allen Curnow by Terry Sturm comments that there were 2,000 or more poems published by Allen Curnow under this name. The compilations were:
- 1940: Present for Hitler and Other Verses, Caxton Press
- 1942: Whim-Wham. Verses, 1941-42, Caxton Press
- 1943: Whim-Wham. Verses, 1943, Progressive Publishing Society
- 1959: Best of Whim-Wham, Paul’s Book Arcade
- 1967: Whim Wham Land, B. & J. Paul
- 2005: Whim Wham’s New Zealand: The Best of Whim Wham 1937-1988, edited by Terry Sturm
Plays
Four Plays, 1972, Wellington: A.W. and A.H. Reed, (Contains: The Axe, The Overseas Expert, The Duke’s Miracle, Resident of Nowhere)
Several unpublished plays are mentioned on the internet including:
1958: Bright Sky, verse play, unpublished, cyclostyled copy held in University of Auckland Library, NZ Glass Case
1959: Moon Section, unpublished play, performed 1959
1961: The Overseas Expert, unpublished playscript in University of Auckland Library, New Zealand Glass Case
Allen Curnow 