In the twilight of the Elizabethan age, when England's cultural flowering reached its zenith, a remarkable composer emerged whose keyboard works would outlive the very dynasty that witnessed his birth. Giles Farnaby, born around 1563 and departing this world in 1640, stands as one of the most distinctive voices of the English Renaissance, a master whose miniature musical portraits captured both the exuberance and mel…
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
Giles Farnaby
Poet B
John Farmer
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 75%
Blended 75%
Swap sides
Another related pair
John Farmer, born around 1570 and believed to have died sometime after 1601, perhaps as late as about 1605, occupies a curious and attractive place in the history of English Renaissance music. He was neither as prolific as Thomas Morley nor as institutionally prominent as William Byrd; he did not leave behind a large body of sacred music, a long record of court employment, or a biography richly documented by letters…
In time
Giles Farnaby
John Farmer
1563
1640
They overlapped for 36 years (1570–1605).
When John Farmer was born, Giles Farnaby was about 7.
Giles Farnaby was about 42 when John Farmer died.
On the map
About 372 km separate Truro, Cornwall, England from London, England. Both have ground in London.
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
music
composer
Giles Farnaby: elizabethan age, london, fitzwilliam virginal book, william byrd, john bull, loth to depart, woody-cock, his rest. John Farmer: english madrigals, christ church cathedral, edward somerset, fair phyllis, the first set of english madrigals, elizabethan society, renaissance music, madrigal genre.
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.
1595
Execution at Tyburn
Giles Farnaby
1615
Relocation to London
John Farmer
1602
Relocation to London
Emotional landscapes
Giles Farnaby: Irony, Joy, Sorrow. John Farmer: Tenderness, Joy, Longing.