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.
The Woodberrys—or Woodburys, as various spellings of the name exist—were an old New England family who had immigrated early in the colonial period and established deep roots along Massachusetts's North Shore. Since settlement took hold in Beverly and neighboring seaport towns, the family had been native to this maritime region, and many of Woodberry's forebears were sea captains and sailors. This ancestral connection…
“The poet is the interpreter of the world to men, and the interpreter of men to themselves.”
Neighbourhood:
American Poets, Edwardian Poets, Nature Poets, Victorian Poets
In the pantheon of Victorian literature, where giants like Tennyson and Browning cast long shadows, there existed quieter voices whose contributions to the literary landscape were no less profound for being more intimate in scope. William Canton, born on a Chinese island to colonial parents and destined to become one of Britain's most beloved children's authors, represents one such voice—a writer whose life spanned c…
“Invest that ready money of yours! So far as I can see, it will have grown into a pretty fortune long before another book of my verse has crawled out of the inkpot.”
They overlapped for 72 years (1855–1926).
When George Edward Woodberry was born, William Canton was about 10.
George Edward Woodberry was about 71 when William Canton died.
About 11,839 km separate
Beverly, Massachusetts, USA from
Zhoushan, Zhejiang, China.
Different countries, different weather — unless a poem carries one landscape into the other.
George Edward Woodberry:
massachusetts, harvard college, edgar allan poe, the north shore watch, the nation, columbia university, comparative literature, philosophy.
William Canton:
chushan, zhoushan, thomas canton, mary thomas, jamaica, glasgow, the invisible playmate, george gissing.
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.
