Vox Clamantis
| Vox Clamantis | |
|---|---|
| by John Gower | |
Archer represents Gower; Globe segments are clergy, knights, peasantry. | |
| Translator | John Dryden Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey Seamus Heaney Allen Mandelbaum Robert Fitzgerald Robert Fagles Frederick Ahl Sarah Ruden |
| Written | 1370s–1400s |
| First published in | 1400s |
| Country | England |
| Language | Latin |
| Subject(s) | Peasant's Revolt, English society |
| Genre | Dream vision |
| Meter | Elegiac couplet |
| Publication date | 1370s–80s |
| Media type | Manuscript |
| Lines | 10,265 |
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." Fisher concludes that books II-V were written in the 1370s while the author was writing similar passages in Mirour de l'Omme.