A canon of the abbey of Saint-Victor in Paris, he wrote the sequences his brothers sang at Mass. They are poems made to be carried by voices, with rhymes that hold the memory, and images taken from men's trades: the harvest, the winepress, the millstone, the threshed grain.
In their own words
As he sows, true love's tears weepeth, In the sweat of his brow reapeth, But brings with him life's sheaf home.
Sequence for St Vincent, 22 January, lines 24-26; Latin « Pio serit in moerore, et vitalem ex sudore reportat manipulum », in The Liturgical Poetry of Adam of St. Victor, text of Léon Gautier, English verse translation by Digby S. Wrangham (d. 1892), London, Kegan Paul, 1881, vol. II, pp. 12-13
Poor men praise thee, who so lovest poverty, in joyful strain; True and faithful judges love thee, who dost boldly truth maintain; Honeycomb thou openest for us, as God's word thou dost explain.
Sequence for St Augustine, 28 August, lines 4-6; Latin « Amatorem paupertatis te collaudant pauperes, assertorem veritatis amant veri judices : frangis nobis favos mellis, de Scripturis disserens », in The Liturgical Poetry of Adam of St. Victor, text of Léon Gautier, English verse translation by Digby S. Wrangham (d. 1892), London, Kegan Paul, 1881, vol. III, pp. 186-187