On a summer day in June 1892, in the bustling heart of London, Edward Richard Buxton Shanks entered a world on the cusp of profound transformation. Born on June 11th into a comfortable middle-class family, the infant who would become one of the first recipients of Britain's most prestigious literary honor could hardly have imagined the tumultuous century that awaited him. His life would span two world wars, witness t…
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
Edward Shanks
Poet B
J. C. Squire
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.
Kindred spirits
Their work already rhymes in the catalogue. The rest of this page is the story around that rhyme.
Biography 77%
Blended 77%
Swap sides
Another related pair
In the smoky literary salons of early twentieth-century London, few figures loomed larger than John Collings Squire, a man whose influence extended far beyond his own considerable poetic output to shape an entire generation of English letters. Born on April 2, 1884, in Plymouth, Devon, Squire would become one of the most powerful literary editors of his age, a respected poet in his own right, and a lightning rod for…
“God heard the embattled nations sing and shout 'Gott strafe England' and 'God save the King!' God this, God that, and God the other thing—'Good God!' said God, 'I've got my work cut out!”
In time
Edward Shanks
J. C. Squire
1884
1958
They overlapped for 62 years (1892–1953).
When Edward Shanks was born, J. C. Squire was about 8.
J. C. Squire was about 69 when Edward Shanks died.
On the map
About 300 km separate London, England from Plymouth, Devon, England. Shared ground: United Kingdom.
Edward Shanks
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
Edward Shanks only
From the biographies
london
Edward Shanks: london, trinity college, georgian poetry movement, edward marsh, the queen of china, hawthornden prize, the old indispensables, the people of the ruins. J. C. Squire: plymouth, blundell's school, st. john's college, the new statesman, solomon eagle, the three hills and other poems, poems and baudelaire flowers, to a bull-dog.
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.
Edward Shanks
1912
Editor of Granta
J. C. Squire
Emotional landscapes
Edward Shanks: Longing, Sorrow, Wonder. J. C. Squire: Spirituality, Sorrow, Wonder.