Theme Timeline

Pick a theme and see how often it shows up across 50-year cohorts of V2Melody poets. Bars are normalised so small cohorts don't get drowned out by large ones.

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— none — world life love death beauty nature self social beloved divine memory desire spiritual heart grief power romantic suffering woman light soul dead loss body pain wind philosophical music voice landscape hope religious sorrow spring flowers children water faith bird rose mortality silence lover domestic presence childhood sound past truth earth consciousness dream women flower irish garden mind eyes rain summer

“eyes” across the centuries

Bar length = percentage of poems in that cohort whose critique surfaced this theme. Click an era to focus the poem list below (click again to show samples from all eras).

pre-1500 1 / 30 BCE 0 / 12 1500s 1 / 10 1550s 5 / 91 1600s 5 / 177 1650s 4 / 60 1700s 0 / 35 1750s 1 / 164 1800s 6 / 687 1850s 6 / 948 1900s 25 / 1125 1950s 1 / 15

Poems in 1550s · 5 with this theme Show all eras

A Lover's Lullaby
Available versions

A Lover's Lullaby

by George Gascoigne · English

George Gascoigne portrait

c. 1539 - 7 October 1577 (~38)

Address to the Sun
Available versions

Address to the Sun

by Alexander Montgomerie · English

Alexander Montgomerie portrait

c. 1545 - August 1598 (~53)

Fayre eyes
Available versions

Fayre eyes

by Edmund Spenser · English

Edmund Spenser portrait

c. 1552 - 13 January 1599 (~47)

Now peep, bo-peep
Available versions

Now peep, bo-peep

by Francis Pilkington · English

Francis Pilkington portrait

c. 1565 - 1638 (~73)

What Thing Is Love
Available versions

What Thing Is Love

by George Peele · English

George Peele portrait

c. 25 July 1556 - 9 November 1596 (~40)

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