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 voice music landscape hope religious sorrow spring flowers children faith bird water rose mortality silence lover domestic presence childhood sound earth past consciousness truth women dream flower irish garden mind rain summer lovers

“dream” + dreaming, dreams across the centuries

Bar length = percentage of poems in that cohort whose critique surfaced any of these terms. Click an era to focus the poem list below.

pre-1500 0 / 29 BCE 0 / 12 1500s 0 / 10 1550s 2 / 89 1600s 3 / 176 1650s 0 / 57 1700s 0 / 34 1750s 3 / 163 1800s 13 / 684 1850s 25 / 939 1900s 28 / 1119 1950s 0 / 15

Sample poems · click an era above to focus

Rest, sweet nymphs

Available versions

Rest, sweet nymphs

by Francis Pilkington · English

c. 1565 - 1638 (~73)

In Youth Is Pleasure

Available versions

In Youth Is Pleasure

by Robert Wever · English

c. 1520 - c. 1570 (~50)

The Dreame

Available versions

The Dreame

by John Donne · English

1572 - 31 March 1631 (~59)

The Dreame

Available versions

The Dreame

by Ben Jonson · English

c. 11 June 1572 - 6 August 1637 (~65)

Seal up her Eyes, O sleep

Available versions

Seal up her Eyes, O sleep

by William Cartwright · English

1 September 1611 - 29 November 1643 (~32)

The Chimney-Sweeper

Available versions

The Chimney-Sweeper

by William Blake · English

28 November 1757 - 12 August 1827 (~70)

A Dream

Available versions

A Dream

by William Blake · English

28 November 1757 - 12 August 1827 (~70)

Dream of Soft Delight

Available versions

Dream of Soft Delight

by Amelia Alderson Opie · English

12 November 1769 - 2 December 1853 (~84)

La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad

Available versions

La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad

by John Keats · English

31 October 1795 - 23 February 1821 (~26)

Oh, come to me in dreams, my love!

Available versions

Oh, come to me in dreams, my love!

by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley · English

30 August 1797 - 1 February 1851 (~54)

A Dream within a Dream

Available versions

A Dream within a Dream

by Edgar Allan Poe · English

19 January 1809 - 7 October 1849 (~40)

The bowers whereat, in dreams, I see

Available versions

The bowers whereat, in dreams, I see

by Edgar Allan Poe · English

19 January 1809 - 7 October 1849 (~40)

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