Thomas Chatterton
Chatterton / chatter
Chatter, Then Ton
Chatterton begins with the immediately recognisable English word chatter: abundant, rapid, often animated talk. The final -ton is a common…
Poets by Name
Possible aptronym
When a poet’s name seems to have anticipated the work.
Connections
Laurence Binyon
Binyon — 'binyon'
The Suggestion of “Yon”
Binyon is not transparently an English landscape word, though surname histories commonly connect it with Welsh Bennion, itself associated w…
T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot — Eliot / 'Eli'
The Eli in Eliot
Eliot is a surname historically connected with medieval forms of Elias, the name conventionally associated with the biblical Elijah; to mod…
Charlotte Mew
Charlotte Mew — Mew
A Mew at the Edge of Speech
Mew is an English word for the cry of a cat, and can also refer to the call of a gull. As a surname, it carries a small, sharp sound: anima…
Myra Viola Wilds
Myra Viola Wilds
At the Edge of the Wilds
Wilds is a transparent English word: “the wilds” suggests uncultivated country, wilderness, and places beyond the settled or domesticated w…
Caedmon
Caedmon — the poet who sang
A Name for Song
Cædmon’s Old English name has traditionally been connected with the idea of song or “one who sings.” That reading makes the name strikingly…
Robert Burns
BURNS
A Scottish Burn, Not a Firebrand
In Scots and northern English, a burn is a small stream or brook. The surname Burns is commonly connected with this word, often as a name f…