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.
John Masefield
J. C. Squire
A random pair who overlapped in time and whose poems already rhyme in the catalogue — a way into poets you may not have met.
John Edward Masefield was born on 1 June 1878 in Ledbury, Herefordshire, a market town on the borderlands of England and Wales, and died on 12 May 1967 at Abingdon, then in Berkshire. During his long life he became one of Britain’s most recognizable poets: a writer of sailors, fields, foxhunts, village sinners, mythic heroes, children’s dreams, national ceremonies, and private grief. He was also a novelist, playwrigh…
“The days that make us happy make us wise.”
In the smoky literary salons of early twentieth-century London, few figures loomed larger than John Collings Squire, a man whose influence extended far beyond his own considerable poetic output to shape an entire generation of English letters. Born on April 2, 1884, in Plymouth, Devon, Squire would become one of the most powerful literary editors of his age, a respected poet in his own right, and a lightning rod for…
“God heard the embattled nations sing and shout 'Gott strafe England' and 'God save the King!' God this, God that, and God the other thing—'Good God!' said God, 'I've got my work cut out!”
About 209 km separate Ledbury, Herefordshire, England from Plymouth, Devon, England. Both have ground in England.
Distinctive words drawn from each poet’s critiqued poems — what they keep writing about, not just what their biographies mention.
No overlapping top terms in the poem critiques — any kinship may sit in mood rather than vocabulary.
John Masefield: ledbury, herefordshire, hms conway, salt-water ballads, sea fever, the everlasting mercy, constance de la cherois crommelin, the tragedy of pompey the great. J. C. Squire: plymouth, blundell's school, st. john's college, the new statesman, solomon eagle, the three hills and other poems, poems and baudelaire flowers, to a bull-dog.
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.
John Masefield: Longing, Sorrow, Wonder. J. C. Squire: Spirituality, Sorrow, Wonder.
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