Poet Affinities
Every poet has a thematic centre of gravity averaged from their critiqued poems. Here we use that to find the poets whose work rhymes with a given writer — often in surprising ways.
Poets whose work rhymes most with William Shakespeare
Ben Jonson
c. 11 June 1572–6 August 1637 (~65)
80% affinity
Shared: play
bio 77% · poems 84%
Edward de Vere
12 April 1550–24 June 1604 (~54)
79% affinity
Shared: london
bio 79%
Thomas Shadwell
c. 1642–19 November 1692 (~50)
79% affinity
Shared: play
bio 74% · poems 84%
James Shirley
September 1596–29 October 1666 (~70)
78% affinity
Shared: plays
bio 78%
John Fletcher
20 December 1579–29 August 1625 (~46)
78% affinity
Shared: plays, play
bio 75% · poems 80%
Thomas Heywood
c. 1574–August 1641 (~67)
76% affinity
Shared: plays, play
bio 74% · poems 78%
John Ford
17 April 1586–c. 1639 (~53)
76% affinity
Shared: plays, play
bio 71% · poems 82%
Percy Bysshe Shelley
4 August 1792–8 July 1822 (~30)
75% affinity
Shared: desire, love
bio 67% · poems 86%
William Cartwright
1 September 1611–29 November 1643 (~32)
75% affinity
Shared: love, death
bio 69% · poems 82%
John Dryden
9 August 1631–12 May 1700 (~69)
75% affinity
Shared: plays
bio 69% · poems 82%
Sir William Davenant
c. February 1606–7 April 1668 (~62)
74% affinity
Shared: drama
bio 74%
Robert Browning
7 May 1812–12 December 1889 (~77)
74% affinity
Shared: london, speech, love
bio 65% · poems 85%