William Thom was born in Aberdeen, probably in December 1798, though sources have variously placed his birth in 1798, 1799, or 1800. The uncertainty is not trivial: it reflects the precarious position from which he emerged, a position in which the lives of poor urban families were not always recorded with the precision later granted to writers of standing. He came into the world in Sinclair’s Close, near the Justice…
“I always thought I could speak till now, but language fails me, and I can only say that I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
Neighbourhood:
Romantic Poets, Scottish Poets, Social Justice Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Tenderness, Longing, Wonder
In the pantheon of Victorian poetry, few figures cast as long and dark a shadow as James Thomson, who wrote under the mysterious initials "B.V." Born on November 23, 1834, in Port Glasgow, Scotland, Thomson would become one of the most compelling and tragic voices of his generation, a poet whose work plumbed the depths of human despair while achieving moments of transcendent beauty. His life, marked by profound loss,…
“Hope is the breath in the nostrils of happiness, when that goes this dies.”
Neighbourhood:
Death & Mortality, Symbolist Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Despair, Irony
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
William Thom:
aberdeen, dundee, the mitherless bairn, elspet davie, handloom weaving, scots vernacular, robert chambers, inverury poet.
James Thomson:
port glasgow, b.v., the city of dreadful night, charles bradlaugh, george meredith, the doom of a city, royal military academy, philosophical skepticism.
