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

Douglas Malloch Douglas Malloch

Poet B

Edgar A. Guest Edgar A. Guest
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 68% Poems 85% Blended 75%
Swap sides Another related pair
Douglas Malloch

Douglas Malloch

5 May 1877 – 2 July 1938 (~61)
2 live poems · English

Douglas Malloch was born on 5 May 1877 in Muskegon, Michigan, a city whose identity had been built in large measure from timber, water, sawmills, ships, and the difficult labor of turning northern forests into the materials of American expansion. He died on 2 July 1938, leaving behind a body of verse that was once widely circulated in newspapers, trade journals, recitation books, schoolrooms, and inspirational anthol…

“The difference between a stepping-stone and a stumbling block is how high you raise your foot.”

Neighbourhood: American Poets, Children's Verse, Edwardian Poets, Georgian Poets, Nature Poets
Emotional landscape: Tenderness, Peace, Spirituality
Edgar A. Guest

Edgar A. Guest

20 August 1881 – 5 August 1959 (~78)
21 live poems · English

Edgar Albert Guest was born in Birmingham, England, on 20 August 1881, and died in Detroit, Michigan, on 5 August 1959, fifteen days before his seventy-eighth birthday. During much of his long life, he was among the most familiar poets in the United States. His name appeared daily in newspapers, his verses were memorized in schools and recited at civic meetings, and his books sold in quantities that many more critica…

“I am a newspaperman who writes verse.”

Neighbourhood: American Poets, Children's Verse, Edwardian Poets, Light Verse Poets
Emotional landscape: Joy, Tenderness, Peace

In time

Douglas Malloch
Edgar A. Guest
1877 1959
They overlapped for 58 years (1881–1938). When Edgar A. Guest was born, Douglas Malloch was about 4. Edgar A. Guest was about 57 when Douglas Malloch died.

On the map

About 6,013 km separate Muskegon, Michigan, USA from Birmingham, England. Both have ground in Michigan.

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

Douglas Malloch: muskegon, lumbermen's poet, be the best of whatever you are, the passing of the pine, great lakes region, american lumberman, progressive era, regional poet. Edgar A. Guest: birmingham, detroit, people's poet, a heap o' livin', just folks, the path to home, it couldn't be done, nellie crossman.

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.

Be the Best of Whatever You Are
Douglas Malloch
79% life
Compare
My Goals
Edgar A. Guest
Be the Best of Whatever You Are
Douglas Malloch
77%
Compare
Rich or Poor
Edgar A. Guest
Be the Best of Whatever You Are
Douglas Malloch
76%
Compare
There Are No Gods
Edgar A. Guest
Be the Best of Whatever You Are
Douglas Malloch
75% life
Compare
Results and Roses
Edgar A. Guest
Be the Best of Whatever You Are
Douglas Malloch
75%
Compare
See It Through
Edgar A. Guest
Be the Best of Whatever You Are
Douglas Malloch
74% life
Compare
Dreams
Edgar A. Guest

The world around them

While their lives overlapped

Notable events from the years they were both alive.

Emotional landscapes

Douglas Malloch: Tenderness, Peace, Spirituality. Edgar A. Guest: Joy, Tenderness, Peace.

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