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.
Charles Murray
John Banister Tabb
A random pair who overlapped in time and whose poems already rhyme in the catalogue — a way into poets you may not have met.
In the pantheon of Scottish literature, certain voices emerge from the countryside with such authenticity and power that they transcend their regional origins to speak to universal human experiences. Charles Murray (1864-1941) stands as one such figure—a poet whose verses, steeped in the dialect and landscape of Aberdeenshire, captured the essence of rural Scottish life with remarkable fidelity and emotional depth. M…
“The difficulty of translating my thoughts was a real trouble.”
In the world of American poetry, few figures embody such remarkable contrasts as John Banister Tabb (March 22, 1845 – November 19, 1909), a man whose life journey carried him from the battlefields of the Confederacy to the quiet halls of a Catholic seminary, from the drawing rooms of Virginia aristocracy to a prison cell where poetry first awakened in his soul. Known affectionately as "Father Tabb" throughout his lat…
“I am not surprised that you, who are sojourning in a land where the cat was once worshiped, should desire to hear the mews (Muse) of the Tabb-y.”
About 5,754 km separate Alford, Aberdeenshire, Scotland from Amelia County, Virginia, USA. Different countries, different weather — unless a poem carries one landscape into the other.
Distinctive words drawn from each poet’s critiqued poems — what they keep writing about, not just what their biographies mention.
Charles Murray: aberdeenshire, alford, peter murray, hamewith, the whistle that the wee loon made, dockens afore his peers, a sough o' war, scottish dialect poetry. John Banister Tabb: the forest, father tabb, sidney lanier, catholic seminary, american civil war, blockade runner, point lookout, alfred curtis.
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.
Charles Murray: Tenderness, Longing, Peace. John Banister Tabb: Wonder, Longing, Tenderness.
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