Helen Waddell's collection of Mediaeval Latin Lyrics, first published in 1929, appeared in the wake of her book The Wandering Scholars (1926), and was complementary to the latter, in that it contained the source material on which that literary history had been based. In order to undertake that overview, Waddell had prepared her own translations.
The poems are printed in Latin with facing English translations; they are accompanied by 38 pages of biographical notes, in which Waddell provides brief summaries and bibliographical information on her chosen authors/poems. The book is rounded off by three indexes: of authors and manuscripts, to first lines (English), and to first lines (Latin).
The poems are arranged in chronological order, starting with the Copa and ending with a poem from the Arundel Lyrics, thus spanning a period of about 1100 years. The geographical span reaches from Italy, via Spain, Gaul, Francia, the Low Countries, Germany, and England to Scotland. Thematically, the poems are mostly concerned with nature, love, and friendship. About one third of the collection is made up of poems from the Carmina Burana. The rest includes authors such as Ausonius, Paulinus of Nola, Boethius, Venantius Fortunatus, Alcuin, Rabanus Maurus, Walahfrid Strabo, Sedulius Scottus, Sigebert of Gembloux, and Peter Abelard. There are also four pieces from the Cambridge Songs, as well as a number of anonymous poems.