In his four-volume work, Rüdiger Zymner reconstructs the history of lyric poetry in all the world's languages that have been documented in writing. He shows since when, where, how exactly and for what purpose this kind of language use actually existed and exists.
The first two volumes which are now available focus on the periods between 2500 BCE and 1500 CE as well as 1500 and 1800 CE.