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

“flowers” + lower 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 / 28 BCE 0 / 12 1500s 0 / 9 1550s 2 / 89 1600s 6 / 176 1650s 1 / 57 1700s 0 / 34 1750s 5 / 161 1800s 15 / 683 1850s 25 / 937 1900s 27 / 1115 1950s 0 / 15

Sample poems · click an era above to focus

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

Available versions

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

by Christopher Marlowe · English

26 February 1564 - 30 May 1593 (~29)

My Ladies presence makes the roses red

Available versions

My Ladies presence makes the roses red

by Henry Constable · English

1562 - October 1613 (~51)

Fade, Flow'rs!

Available versions

Fade, Flow'rs!

by Edmund Waller · English

3 March 1606 - 21 October 1687 (~81)

Song of May Morning

Available versions

Song of May Morning

by John Milton · English

9 December 1608 - 8 November 1674 (~66)

To Violets

Available versions

To Violets

by Robert Herrick · English

24 August 1591 - 15 October 1674 (~83)

To Roses in the Bosome of Castara

Available versions

To Roses in the Bosome of Castara

by William Habington · English

4 November 1605 - 30 November 1654 (~49)

A Nosegay

Available versions

A Nosegay

by John Reynolds · English

c. 1588 - c. 1655 (~67)

Vanitas Vanitatum

Available versions

Vanitas Vanitatum

by John Webster · English

c. 1580 - c. 1632 (~52)

Fading Beauty

Available versions

Fading Beauty

by Thomas Flatman · English

21 February 1635 - 8 December 1688 (~53)

The Lily and the Rose

Available versions

The Lily and the Rose

by William Cowper · English

26 November 1731 - 25 April 1800 (~69)

Holy Thursday

Available versions

Holy Thursday

by William Blake · English

28 November 1757 - 12 August 1827 (~70)

The Garden of Love

Available versions

The Garden of Love

by William Blake · English

28 November 1757 - 12 August 1827 (~70)

Now playing

-

-

Loop

0:00

0:00

Track 1