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

“childhood” 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.

pre-1500 0 / 29 BCE 0 / 12 1500s 0 / 10 1550s 0 / 89 1600s 0 / 176 1650s 0 / 57 1700s 0 / 34 1750s 5 / 163 1800s 15 / 684 1850s 11 / 939 1900s 33 / 1119 1950s 0 / 15

Sample poems · click an era above to focus

The Echoing Green

Available versions

The Echoing Green

by William Blake · English

28 November 1757 - 12 August 1827 (~70)

Nurse's Song

Available versions

Nurse's Song

by William Blake · English

28 November 1757 - 12 August 1827 (~70)

Infant Joy

Available versions

Infant Joy

by William Blake · English

28 November 1757 - 12 August 1827 (~70)

The Schoolboy

Available versions

The Schoolboy

by William Blake · English

28 November 1757 - 12 August 1827 (~70)

To a Child

Available versions

To a Child

by Joanna Baillie · English

11 September 1762 - 23 February 1851 (~89)

Mild the mist upon the hill

Available versions

Mild the mist upon the hill

by Emily Brontë · English

30 July 1818 - 19 December 1848 (~30)

Captain Cook (To My Brother)

Available versions

Captain Cook (To My Brother)

by Letitia Elizabeth Landon · English

14 August 1802 - 15 October 1838 (~36)

I Remember, I Remember

Available versions

I Remember, I Remember

by Thomas Hood · English

23 May 1799 - 3 May 1845 (~46)

The Old Familiar Faces

Available versions

The Old Familiar Faces

by Charles Lamb · English

10 February 1775 - 27 December 1834 (~59)

Long time a child, and still a child

Available versions

Long time a child, and still a child

by Hartley Coleridge · English

19 September 1796 - 6 January 1849 (~53)

In School-Days

Available versions

In School-Days

by John Greenleaf Whittier · English

17 December 1807 - 7 September 1892 (~85)

The Oxen

Available versions

The Oxen

by Thomas Hardy · English

2 June 1840 - 11 January 1928 (~88)

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