The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms - Ross Murfin 2018

Ubi sunt

Ubi sunt: From the Latin for “where are,” a common literary motif that laments the passage of time by asking what has happened to beloved people, things, or ideas of the past. This motif is often repeated throughout a work, particularly one written in verse, as a refrain.

EXAMPLES: In François Villon’s “Ballade des dames du temps jadis” (1489), the ubi sunt motif appears in the refrain, “Mais où sont les neiges d’antan?” Translated into English by Dante Gabriel Rossetti as “The Ballad of Dead Ladies” (1870), the corresponding refrain is “But where are the snows of yester-year?” A twentieth-century example is “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?,” a folk song written by Pete Seeger in the mid-1950s but popularized during the Vietnam War era in versions recorded in 1962 by the Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul, and Mary.