Pick two poets who seem to have nothing to do with each other — a Gothic American and a pastoral Englishman, say — and see where the catalogue actually joins them: overlapping years, shared ground, distinctive themes, and the poems that secretly rhyme.
Fiona Macleod
Cecil Frances Alexander
A random pair who overlapped in time and whose poems already rhyme in the catalogue — a way into poets you may not have met.
Fiona Macleod, whose published life ran from 12 September 1855 to 12 December 1905, was the most celebrated and perplexing literary identity created by the Scottish writer William Sharp. To call Fiona merely Sharp’s pseudonym, though factually necessary, is insufficient. She was a sustained artistic persona, a voice with its own apparent temperament, correspondence, friendships, themes, and public reputation. Through…
“The Celt is a dreamer, but he is also a mystic.”
Cecil Frances Alexander, born Cecil Frances Humphreys on 14 April 1818 and dead on 12 October 1895, became one of the most widely sung and influential hymn writers of the nineteenth century. Her name may be less immediately familiar than the opening lines of her best-known hymns, yet “Once in Royal David’s City,” “All Things Bright and Beautiful,” “There Is a Green Hill Far Away,” and “Jesus Calls Us o’er the Tumult”…
“I have not attempted to write down to the children, but to write up to them.”
About 302 km separate Paisley, Scotland from Dublin, Ireland. Shared ground: United Kingdom.
Distinctive words drawn from each poet’s critiqued poems — what they keep writing about, not just what their biographies mention.
Fiona Macleod: scottish, celtic revival, pharais, the mountain lovers, the sin-eater, from the hills of dream, william sharp, bessie sharp. Cecil Frances Alexander: anglo-irish protestant, william alexander, once in royal david's city, all things bright and beautiful, there is a green hill far away, jesus calls us o’er the tumult, hymns for little children, verses for holy seasons.
The closest poem-to-poem matches in critique space — the sort of kinship a listener hears before the catalogue admits it.
Notable events from the years they were both alive.
Fiona Macleod: Spirituality, Longing, Wonder. Cecil Frances Alexander: Spirituality, Wonder, Joy.
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