Lexical Analysis of Carol Motives - Comparative Study of the 15th Century and "Contemporary" Texts

The article describes various topics in Polish carols of two groups coming from distant epochs. The first one contains 10 texts originated in the 15th century, the second one - 24 "contemporary" carols which are sung in Poland nowadays (though dated from the 19th and 20th century). Comparative approach of this research permits to present following conclusions: 1. there are basic themes in carols of both the epochs: a) the birth of God - Child of Virgin Mary; b) characteristic persons: young Jesus and His Mother (both given various names), St. Joseph and the Magi as well as shepherds (in general without names); c) the place: Bethlehem, stable (shed), manger (crib) etc.; d) celestial choirs telling everybody the story about the divine birth; e) exceptional heavenly phenomena: Bethlehem Star, glow, unusual light etc.; f) animals in stable (first of all ox and donkey); 2. the choice and the way of description of themes, events, persons. are completely different (independently of epochs); 3. the language and the stylistics also vary - from unsophisticated, banal forms of statement at the beginning to very interesting ones using original metaphors.