Thomas Traherne, born about 1636 or 1637 and dead on 27 September 1674, was an Anglican priest, theologian, prose writer, and poet whose reputation rests on work that scarcely anyone in his own lifetime knew existed. He published only a little, lived without public literary renown, and died before his fortieth birthday. Yet the manuscripts he left behind, overlooked for more than two centuries, eventually revealed on…
“The corn was orient and immortal wheat which never should be reaped nor was ever sown. I thought it had stood from everlasting to everlasting.”
Neighbourhood:
Devotional Poets, Metaphysical Poets, Mystical & Spiritual Poets, Renaissance Poets
Emotional landscape: Spirituality, Peace, Wonder
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born on 21 October 1772 in Ottery St Mary, Devon, and died on 25 July 1834 at Highgate, near London. He occupies an unusual and commanding place in English literary history: he was at once one of the makers of Romantic poetry, a revolutionary critic of Shakespeare and poetic language, a philosophical mediator between German idealism and English thought, a political journalist, a religious…
“It is a flattening Thought, that the more we have seen, the less we have to say.”
Neighbourhood:
Dramatic Poets, Mystical & Spiritual Poets, Nature Poets, Political Poets, Romantic Poets
Emotional landscape: Wonder, Spirituality, Longing
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
Samuel Taylor Coleridge only
From the biographies
Thomas Traherne:
hereford, anglican priest, centuries of meditations, the salutation, wonder, eden, innkeeper, sir orlando bridgeman.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge:
ottery st mary, highgate, the rime of the ancient mariner, kubla khan, christabel, biographia literaria, william wordsworth, charles lamb.
