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.

Choose a theme

— 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 earth past consciousness truth dream women flower irish garden mind eyes rain summer

“medieval” 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 10 / 30 BCE 0 / 12 1500s 0 / 10 1550s 0 / 91 1600s 0 / 177 1650s 0 / 59 1700s 0 / 35 1750s 0 / 164 1800s 0 / 687 1850s 0 / 946 1900s 1 / 1124 1950s 0 / 15

Poems in pre-1500 · 10 with this theme Show all eras

Freedom
Available versions

Freedom

by John Barbour · English

John Barbour portrait

c. 1316 - 13 March 1395 (~79)

General Prologue - Opening
Available versions

General Prologue - Opening

by Geoffrey Chaucer · Middle English

Geoffrey Chaucer portrait

c. 1343 - 25 October 1400 (~57)

Lament for Chaucer
Available versions

Lament for Chaucer

by Thomas Hoccleve · English

Thomas Hoccleve portrait

c. 1368 - 8 May 1426 (~58)

Piers the Plowman
Available versions

Piers the Plowman

by William Langland · English

William Langland portrait

c. 1332 - c. 1400 (~68)

Praise of Women
Available versions

Praise of Women

by Robert Mannyng of Brunne · English

Robert Mannyng of Brunne portrait

1288 - c. 1338 (~50)

Spring Song of the Birds
Available versions

Spring Song of the Birds

by King James I of Scotland · English

King James I of Scotland portrait

July 1394 - 21 February 1437 (~43)

Sumer is icumen in
Available versions

Sumer is icumen in

by W. de Wycombe · Middle English

W. de Wycombe portrait

c. 1270 - c. 1330 (~60)

The Prais of Aige
Available versions

The Prais of Aige

by Robert Henryson · English

Robert Henryson portrait

c. 1425 - c. 1500 (~75)

Upon a Dead Man's Head
Available versions

Upon a Dead Man's Head

by John Skelton · English

John Skelton portrait

c. 1460 - 21 June 1529 (~69)

Vox ultima Crucis
Available versions

Vox ultima Crucis

by John Lydgate · English

John Lydgate portrait

c. 1370 - c. 1450 (~80)

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