Lament

The themes of dying and death have appeared in Christian literature since its dawn. In medieval European Latin poetry a genre called the penitential lament became popular, in which the dying sinner woes over their life, shows repentance for their sins and seeks divine mercy and forgiveness.

In Polish literature the strophic song has been preserved, with an ABC structure, known as the accusations of the dying - ''Ach! Moj smętku, ma żałości!'' It is extant in two sources from the second half of the fifteenth century - the earlier, Płock Church Codex (now lost), and a Wrocław manuscript, which is a record of a church play, consisting of two complementary songs the aforementioned and the song ''Dusza z ciała wyleciała.''

This song, in a gentle way shows the fate of the soul separated from the body after death, waiting in a green meadow before its deeds will be judged. This image of ''an otherworldly imagination,'' gained great popularity both in painting and in literature, especially in the messages of folk poetry.