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.
Paul Valéry
Cicely Fox Smith
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 autumn of 1871, as France was still reeling from the trauma of the Franco-Prussian War and the violent suppression of the Paris Commune, a child was born in the Mediterranean port town of Sète who would become one of the twentieth century's most formidable literary intellects. Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry entered the world on October 30th, in a region where the brilliant southern light seemed to sharpe…
“A serious man has few ideas; a man of ideas is never serious.”
In the annals of early twentieth-century English poetry, few voices captured the essence of maritime life with such authenticity and vigor as Cicely Fox Smith. Born on February 1, 1882, in Lymm, Cheshire, she would become one of the most distinctive poets of the sea, a woman who carved out a remarkable niche in a literary world dominated by male voices, particularly in the traditionally masculine domain of nautical v…
About 1,198 km separate Sète, Occitanie, France from Lymm, Cheshire, England. 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.
Paul Valéry: sète, franco-prussian war, paris commune, symbolist movement, stéphane mallarmé, la jeune parque, le cimetière marin, charmes. Cicely Fox Smith: lymm, cheshire, the naval crown, sailor town, sea songs and ballads, ship alley, the romance of the merchant ship, a book of famous ships.
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.
Paul Valéry: Longing, Sensuality, Tenderness. Cicely Fox Smith: Joy, Sorrow, Fear.
Install V2Melody
Add a home-screen icon for quicker listening in a simple app window.