• 1964: Eye of the Hurricane, Wellington: Reed
• 1967: Tigers, London: Oxford University Press
• 1971: High Tide in the Garden, London: Oxford University Press
• 1974: The Scenic Route, London and New York: Oxford University Press
• 1979: The Inner Harbour, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press
• 1979: Below Loughrigg, Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Bloodaxe Books
• 1983: Selected Poems, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press
• 1986: Hotspur: a ballad, Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Bloodaxe Books
• 1986: The Incident Book, Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press
• 1988: Meeting the Comet, Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Bloodaxe Books
• 1991: Time-zones, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press
• 1991: Selected Poems, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press
• 1993: Mary Magdalene and the Birds: Mezzo-sporano and Clarinet, by Dorothy Buchanan, with words by Fleur Adcock, Wellington: Waiteata Press
• 1993: Five Modern Poets: Fleur Adcock, U.A. Fanthorpe, Tony Harrison, Anne Stevenson, Derek Walcott, Edited by Barbara Bleiman, Harlow, England: Longman
• 1997: Looking Back, Oxford and Auckland: Oxford University Press
• 2000: Poems 1960-2000, Newcastle upon Tyne: Bloodaxe Books
• 2004: Contributor, The 2nd Wellington International Poetry Festival Anthology, Edited and compiled by Mark Pirie, Ron Riddell and Saray Torres. Wellington: HeadworX
• 2010 Dragon Talk. Bloodaxe

Edited or translated

• 1982: Editor, Oxford Book of Contemporary New Zealand Poetry, Auckland: Oxford University Press
• 1983: Editor, The Virgin and the Nightingale: Medieval Latin poems, Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Bloodaxe Books,
• 1987: Editor, Faber Book of 20th Century Women's Poetry, London and Boston: Faber and Faber
• 1989: Translator, Orient Express: Poems. Grete Tartler, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press
• 1992: Translator, Letters from Darkness: Poems, Daniela Crasnaru, Oxford: Oxford University Press
• 1994: Translator and editor, Hugh Primas and the Archpoet, Cambridge, England, and New York: Cambridge University Press
• 1995: Editor (with Jacqueline Simms), The Oxford Book of Creatures, verse and prose anthology, Oxford: Oxford University Press

• 1961: Festival of Wellington Poetry Award
• 1964: New Zealand State Literary Fund Award
• 1968: Buckland Award (New Zealand)
• 1968: Jessie Mackay Prize (New Zealand)
• 1972: Jessie Mackay Prize (New Zealand)
• 1976: Cholmondeley Award (United Kingdom)
• 1979: Buckland Award (New Zealand)
• 1984: New Zealand National Book Award
• 1988: Arts Council Writers' Award (United Kingdom)
• 1996: Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her contribution to New Zealand literature
• 2006: Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry (United Kingdom)
• 2008: Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to literature.