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.
Lola Ridge
Amy Lowell
A random pair who overlapped in time and whose poems already rhyme in the catalogue — a way into poets you may not have met.
Lola Ridge stands as a compelling and somewhat enigmatic figure in the landscape of early twentieth-century American poetry. While her name may not resonate with the same immediate recognition as her contemporaries Ezra Pound, H.D., or William Carlos Williams, her contribution to the modernist movement was profound, particularly in her fusion of avant-garde aesthetics with unflinching social realism. Born on December…
“Woman is not and never has been man's natural inferior.”
Amy Lawrence Lowell emerged from the staid drawing rooms of Boston's Brahmin society to become one of the most controversial and influential poets of early twentieth-century America. Born on February 9, 1874, into one of New England's most distinguished families, she would spend her fifty-one years challenging literary conventions, championing new poetic forms, and leaving an indelible mark on American literature. He…
“Conservatives are always with us, they have been opposing change ever since the days of the cave-men. But, fortunately for mankind, they agitate in vain.”
About 4,809 km separate Dublin, Ireland from Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Shared ground: United States.
Distinctive words drawn from each poet’s critiqued poems — what they keep writing about, not just what their biographies mention.
Lola Ridge: greenwich village, the ghetto, red flag, sun-up and other poems, david lyman, the little review, margaret anderson, social realism. Amy Lowell: boston, imagist movement, ada dwyer russell, sword blades and poppy seed, patterns, the taxi, can grande's castle, tendencies in modern american poetry.
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.
Lola Ridge: Sorrow, Despair, Irony. Amy Lowell: Longing, Tenderness, Wonder.
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