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 faith water bird rose mortality silence lover domestic presence childhood sound earth past consciousness truth women dream flower irish garden mind eyes rain summer

“roman” + romance 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 1 / 30 BCE 4 / 12 1500s 0 / 10 1550s 0 / 90 1600s 1 / 176 1650s 0 / 59 1700s 0 / 35 1750s 0 / 163 1800s 0 / 686 1850s 3 / 945 1900s 5 / 1123 1950s 0 / 15

Sample poems · click an era above to focus

Animula vagula blandula

Available versions

Animula vagula blandula

by Publius Aelius Hadrianus · Latin

24 January 76 - 10 July 138 (~62)

Odi et amo

Available versions

Odi et amo

by Gaius Valerius Catullus · Latin

c. 84 BC - c. 54 BC (~30)

Ode IV.1

Available versions

Ode IV.1

by Quintus Horatius Flaccus · Latin

8 December 65 BC - 27 November 8 BC (~38)

Ode II.11

Available versions

Ode II.11

by Quintus Horatius Flaccus · Latin

8 December 65 BC - 27 November 8 BC (~38)

The Steady Fire

Available versions

The Steady Fire

by Albius Tibullus · Latin

c. 55 BC - 19 BC (~36)

The Invitation

Available versions

The Invitation

by Robert Herrick · English

24 August 1591 - 15 October 1674 (~83)

The Roman Road

Available versions

The Roman Road

by Thomas Hardy · English

2 June 1840 - 11 January 1928 (~88)

Horace to Leuconoë

Available versions

Horace to Leuconoë

by Edwin Arlington Robinson · English

22 December 1869 - 6 April 1935 (~66)

Romance

Available versions

Romance

by Robert Louis Stevenson · English

13 November 1850 - 3 December 1894 (~44)

Old Susan

Available versions

Old Susan

by Walter de la Mare · English

25 April 1873 - 22 June 1956 (~83)

Re-statement of Romance

Available versions

Re-statement of Romance

by Wallace Stevens · English

2 October 1879 - 2 August 1955 (~76)

Romance

Available versions

Romance

by Witter Bynner · English

10 August 1881 - 1 June 1968 (~87)

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