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

“spring” + springs, ring 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 / 29 BCE 0 / 12 1500s 0 / 10 1550s 2 / 90 1600s 7 / 176 1650s 1 / 58 1700s 1 / 34 1750s 2 / 163 1800s 11 / 684 1850s 32 / 942 1900s 36 / 1120 1950s 0 / 15

Sample poems · click an era above to focus

Chun Xiao

Available versions

Chun Xiao

by Meng Haoran · Mandarin Chinese

c. 690 - 740 (~50)

To the Spring

Available versions

To the Spring

by Sir John Davies · English

16 April 1569 - 8 December 1626 (~57)

Ring out your bells

Available versions

Ring out your bells

by Sir Philip Sidney · English

30 November 1554 - 17 October 1586 (~32)

Song of May Morning

Available versions

Song of May Morning

by John Milton · English

9 December 1608 - 8 November 1674 (~66)

Virtue

Available versions

Virtue

by George Herbert · English

3 April 1593 - 1 March 1633 (~40)

Love's Growth

Available versions

Love's Growth

by John Donne · English

1572 - 31 March 1631 (~59)

To Violets

Available versions

To Violets

by Robert Herrick · English

24 August 1591 - 15 October 1674 (~83)

The spring of joy is dry

Available versions

The spring of joy is dry

by Martin Peerson · English

c. 1571 - 16 January 1651 (~80)

Upon a bank

Available versions

Upon a bank

by John Ward · English

8 September 1571 - 1638 (~67)

Fading Beauty

Available versions

Fading Beauty

by Thomas Flatman · English

21 February 1635 - 8 December 1688 (~53)

Spring Rain

Available versions

Spring Rain

by Yosa Buson · Japanese

1716 - 17 January 1784 (~68)

Ode Written in the Year 1746

Available versions

Ode Written in the Year 1746

by WIlliam Collins · English

25 December 1721 - 12 June 1759 (~38)

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