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.

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“poverty” 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 / 30 BCE 0 / 12 1500s 0 / 10 1550s 0 / 90 1600s 0 / 176 1650s 0 / 59 1700s 0 / 34 1750s 4 / 163 1800s 3 / 685 1850s 1 / 944 1900s 3 / 1120 1950s 1 / 15

Sample poems · click an era above to focus

To the Poor

Available versions

To the Poor

by Anna Lætitia Barbauld · English

20 June 1743 - 9 March 1825 (~82)

To the Shade of Burns

Available versions

To the Shade of Burns

by Charlotte Smith · English

4 May 1749 - 28 October 1806 (~57)

Is there, for honest poverty

Available versions

Is there, for honest poverty

by Robert Burns · English

25 January 1759 - 21 July 1796 (~37)

The Dead Beggar

Available versions

The Dead Beggar

by Charlotte Smith · English

4 May 1749 - 28 October 1806 (~57)

The Complaints of the Poor

Available versions

The Complaints of the Poor

by Robert Southey · English

12 August 1774 - 21 March 1843 (~69)

Poverty

Available versions

Poverty

by Henry David Thoreau · English

12 July 1817 - 6 May 1862 (~45)

The Beggar Maid

Available versions

The Beggar Maid

by Alfred Lord Tennyson · English

6 August 1809 - 6 October 1892 (~83)

The Voice of the Poor

Available versions

The Voice of the Poor

by Lady Jane Wilde · English

27 December 1821 - 3 February 1896 (~75)

The Rich Man

Available versions

The Rich Man

by Franklin P. Adams · English

15 November 1881 - 23 March 1960 (~79)

The Starved

Available versions

The Starved

by W. H. Davies · English

3 July 1871 - 26 September 1940 (~69)

Poverty

Available versions

Poverty

by D. H. Lawrence · English

11 September 1885 - 2 March 1930 (~45)

The Wealth of Nothing

Available versions

The Wealth of Nothing

by Elizabeth Devereux · English

12 March 1934 - 29 July 2023 (~89)

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