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

“landscape” 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 / 28 BCE 0 / 12 1500s 0 / 9 1550s 1 / 89 1600s 0 / 176 1650s 0 / 57 1700s 0 / 34 1750s 5 / 161 1800s 29 / 683 1850s 29 / 937 1900s 31 / 1115 1950s 0 / 15

Sample poems · click an era above to focus

O lusty May

Available versions

O lusty May

by David Melvill · English

c. 1544 - 1614 (~70)

Wanderer's Nightsong

Available versions

Wanderer's Nightsong

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · German

28 August 1749 - 22 March 1832 (~83)

To the Lark

Available versions

To the Lark

by Anna Lætitia Barbauld · English

20 June 1743 - 9 March 1825 (~82)

The Highland Lassie

Available versions

The Highland Lassie

by Robert Burns · English

25 January 1759 - 21 July 1796 (~37)

My heart's in the Highlands

Available versions

My heart's in the Highlands

by Robert Burns · English

25 January 1759 - 21 July 1796 (~37)

Lochleven No More

Available versions

Lochleven No More

by Michael Bruce · English

27 March 1746 - 5 July 1767 (~21)

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)

Speak of the North! A lonely moor

Available versions

Speak of the North! A lonely moor

by Charlotte Brontë · English

21 April 1816 - 31 March 1855 (~39)

Hohenlinden

Available versions

Hohenlinden

by Thomas Campbell · English

27 July 1777 - 15 June 1844 (~67)

I saw the moon rise clear

Available versions

I saw the moon rise clear

by Thomas Moore · English

28 May 1779 - 25 February 1852 (~73)

Ode: Autumn

Available versions

Ode: Autumn

by Thomas Hood · English

23 May 1799 - 3 May 1845 (~46)

Patty

Available versions

Patty

by John Clare · English

13 July 1793 - 20 May 1864 (~71)

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