Vox Clamantis

Vox Clamantis
by John Gower
Archer represents Gower; Globe segments are clergy, knights, peasantry.
TranslatorJohn Dryden
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
Seamus Heaney
Allen Mandelbaum
Robert Fitzgerald
Robert Fagles
Frederick Ahl
Sarah Ruden
Written1370s–1400s
First published in1400s
CountryEngland
LanguageLatin
Subject(s)Peasant's Revolt, English society
Genre(s)Dream vision
MeterElegiac couplet
Publication date1370s–80s
Media typeManuscript
Lines10,265

Vox Clamantis ("the voice of one crying out") is a Latin poem of 10,265 lines in elegiac couplets by John Gower (1330 – October 1408) . The first of the seven books is a dream vision giving a vivid account of the Peasants' Rebellion of 1381. Macaulay described the remaining books: "The general plan of the author is to describe the condition of society and of the various degrees of men, much as in the latter portion of the Speculum Meditantis."[1]: xxx  Fisher concludes that books II-V were written in the 1370s while the author was writing similar passages in Mirour de l'Omme.[2]: 104 

  1. ^ G.C. Macaulay (ed.). "Introduction, Life of Gower" (PDF). The Complete Works of John Gower, Vol 4 The Latin Works. p. vii–xxx.
  2. ^ John H. Fisher (1964). John Gower: Moral Philosopher and Friend of Chaucer. New York University Press. ISBN 978-0814701492.