Alexander Montgomerie, born about 1545 and dead by August 1598, occupies a singular position in Scottish literary history: he was at once court poet, soldier, religious dissenter, satirist, lyricist, and maker of one of the most enduring allegorical poems in the Scots language. His career unfolded during the reign of James VI of Scotland, before that king inherited the English throne as James I, and it reflects the p…
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
Alexander Montgomerie
Poet B
John Reynolds
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 61%
Blended 61%
Swap sides
Another related pair
John Reynolds, born about 1588 and believed to have died about 1655, was one of the most industrious and revealing English writers of the Stuart age. He was never a canonical figure in the manner of William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, John Donne, or John Milton, and the details of his private life are far less securely recorded than those of such celebrated contemporaries. Yet Reynolds deserves attention precisely becau…
In time
Alexander Montgomerie
John Reynolds
1545
1655
They overlapped for 11 years (1588–1598).
When John Reynolds was born, Alexander Montgomerie was about 43.
John Reynolds was about 10 when Alexander Montgomerie died.
On the map
About 535 km separate Ayrshire, Scotland from Exeter, Devon, England. Shared ground: United Kingdom.
Alexander Montgomerie
John Reynolds
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
Alexander Montgomerie: scottish, court poet, james vi, flyting betwixt montgomerie and polwart, the cherrie and the slae, ayrshire, catholic, protestant reformation. John Reynolds: exeter, protestant polemicist, dolarnys primrose, the triumphs of god's revenge, spanish match, thirty years' war, vox coeli, votivae angliae.
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
Alexander Montgomerie
John Reynolds
Emotional landscapes
Alexander Montgomerie: Longing, Tenderness, Wonder. John Reynolds: Wonder, Joy, Tenderness.