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 1650s · 4 with this theme Show all eras

A Rant to his Mistress
Available versions

A Rant to his Mistress

by John Oldham · English

John Oldham portrait

9 August 1653 - 9 December 1683 (~30)

Sweet, be no longer sad
Available versions

Sweet, be no longer sad

by Charles Webbe · English

Charles Webbe portrait

c. 1650 - c. 1680 (~30)

The Fair Singer
Available versions

The Fair Singer

by Andrew Marvell · English

Andrew Marvell portrait

31 March 1621 - 16 August 1678 (~57)

While, Iris, I at distance gaze
Available versions

While, Iris, I at distance gaze

by Aphra Behn · English

Aphra Behn portrait

1640 - 16 April 1689 (~49)

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