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…
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
John Reynolds
Poet B
King James Bible
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.
Somewhat related
Their work already rhymes in the catalogue. The rest of this page is the story around that rhyme.
Biography 53%
Blended 53%
Swap sides
Another related pair
The King James Bible, more accurately called the King James Version or Authorized Version, does not have a birth and death date in the ordinary biographical sense, because it is neither a person nor the work of a solitary author. Yet it has a remarkably vivid life story. “Born” in print in 1611, during the reign of James VI and I (born June 19, 1566; died March 27, 1625), it emerged from religious conflict, royal cal…
“We desire that the Scripture may speak like itself, as in the language of Canaan, that it may be understood even of the very vulgar.”
In time
John Reynolds
King James Bible
1588
2026
They overlapped for 45 years (1611–1655).
When King James Bible was born, John Reynolds was about 23.
On the map
About 256 km separate Exeter, Devon, England from Hampton Court, London, England. Shared ground: United Kingdom.
John Reynolds
King James Bible
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
protestant
John Reynolds: exeter, protestant polemicist, dolarnys primrose, the triumphs of god's revenge, spanish match, thirty years' war, vox coeli, votivae angliae. King James Bible: king james version, authorized version, hampton court conference, william tyndale, john wycliffe, lancelot andrewes, miles smith, george abbot.
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.
John Reynolds
King James Bible
Emotional landscapes
John Reynolds: Wonder, Joy, Tenderness. King James Bible: Spirituality, Peace, Wonder.