Robert Williams Parry, known in literature as R. Williams Parry, was born on 6 March 1884 at Talysarn in the Nantlle Valley of Caernarfonshire, north-west Wales, and died on 4 January 1956. He became one of the most admired Welsh-language poets of the twentieth century, though he was never a prolific author in the ordinary commercial sense. His reputation rests instead upon a relatively small body of exceptionally fi…
Compare Poets
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.
Poet A
R. Williams Parry
Poet B
Alfred Douglas
Compare two related contemporaries
A random pair who overlapped in time and whose poems already rhyme in the catalogue — a way into poets you may not have met.
Strongly related
Their work already rhymes in the catalogue. The rest of this page is the story around that rhyme.
Biography 63%
Blended 63%
Swap sides
Another related pair
Alfred Bruce Douglas was born on 22 October 1870 at Ham Hill House, near Powick in Worcestershire, into a family whose rank, wealth, volatility, and theatrical public reputation would shape his life almost as powerfully as his literary gifts. He was the third son of John Sholto Douglas, ninth Marquess of Queensberry, and Lady Sybil Montgomery, daughter of the first Baron of Abergavenny. The boy was known from childho…
“Up till the time when I became a Catholic the guiding principle of my life was the desire to be loved and admired.”
In time
R. Williams Parry
Alfred Douglas
1870
1956
They overlapped for 62 years (1884–1945).
When R. Williams Parry was born, Alfred Douglas was about 14.
R. Williams Parry was about 61 when Alfred Douglas died.
On the map
About 171 km separate Talysarn, Gwynedd, Wales from Ham Hill House, Worcestershire, England. Shared ground: United Kingdom.
R. Williams Parry
Themes they return to
Distinctive words drawn from each poet’s critiqued poems — what they keep writing about, not just what their biographies mention.
Shared
From the biographies
R. Williams Parry: talysarn, nantlle valley, yr haf a cherddi eraill, the summer and other poems, y llwynog, the fox, cynghanedd, welsh-language poetry. Alfred Douglas: ham hill house, oscar wilde, the chameleon, two loves, magdalen college, the spirit lamp, french symbolism, salomé.
Poems that secretly rhyme
The closest poem-to-poem matches in critique space — the sort of kinship a listener hears before the catalogue admits it.
The world around them
While their lives overlapped
Notable events from the years they were both alive.
R. Williams Parry
Alfred Douglas
1891
Meeting Oscar Wilde
Emotional landscapes
R. Williams Parry: Longing, Sorrow, Despair. Alfred Douglas: Sorrow, Longing, Despair.