A quiet notice V2Melody closes at midnight on , Spanish time.

Closes

A note from Richard

V2Melody will close at midnight on 20 January 2028

This site has been a retirement project in musical poetry: poems chosen with care and set to music, offered freely for as long as it felt right to keep the garden open.

The work no longer holds the place it once did in my life. I have gone as far with it as I wish to go. Like a sand mandala, it was made to be completed and then released. I am not attached to its permanence, and I do not believe any of it needs to last beyond the time it was given. The poems were already here before I arrived and began to experiment with them. They will still be here when these musical experiments, and indeed myself, have been swept away, like the sand of a mandala. Nothing has been lost.

I want a simpler end to my life, days of simple love and enjoyment with my wonderful wife of 20 years. The work of maintaining a server, the monitoring, and the residual obligations that come with keeping a site alive no longer fit that life.

From 4 November 2026 I will not be adding new poems or musical poems to the site.

The experimental music I am making now is on my Suno profile. Those pieces stay there, and are not added to this site.

Until midnight on 20 January 2028, Spanish time, everything remains available exactly as it is. That is when my VPS server contract comes to an end, and it will not be renewed. After that, the server will be switched off and the site will disappear.

The Mandala Is Finished explains this more fully.

Thank you to anyone who found a poem, a track, or a quiet moment here.

The pleasure was in the making.

Richard



Compare Poets

Pick two poets who seem to have nothing to do with each other — a Gothic American and a pastoral Englishman, say — and see where the catalogue actually joins them: overlapping years, shared ground, distinctive themes, and the poems that secretly rhyme.

Poet A

Sojourner Truth Sojourner Truth

Poet B

Achsa White Sprague Achsa White Sprague
Compare two related contemporaries

A random pair who overlapped in time and whose poems already rhyme in the catalogue — a way into poets you may not have met.

Strongly related
Their work already rhymes in the catalogue. The rest of this page is the story around that rhyme.
Biography 62% Blended 62%
Swap sides Another related pair
Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth

c. 1797 – 26 November 1883 (~86)
1 live poem · English

Sojourner Truth (born Isabella Baumfree, c. 1797 – November 26, 1883) is one of the most compelling and enduring figures in American history. Her journey from enslavement in rural New York to becoming a nationally recognized orator, activist, and symbol of justice is a testament to the power of resilience, faith, and the human spirit. Truth’s life story weaves together the struggles for abolition, women’s rights, and…

“I am glad to see that men are getting their rights, but I want women to get theirs, and while the water is stirring I will step into the pool.”

Neighbourhood: African American Poets, American Poets, Social Justice Poets, Women Poets
Emotional landscape: Anger, Sorrow, Despair
Achsa White Sprague

Achsa White Sprague

17 November 1827 – 6 July 1862 (~35)
1 live poem · English

Achsa White Sprague was born on 17 November 1827 in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, a small mountain community whose austere beauty and close social fabric helped form her imagination. She died there on 6 July 1862, only thirty-four years old by the modern method of counting age, though many nineteenth-century notices described her as being in her thirty-fifth year. In the short interval between those dates, Sprague became…

“I am not afraid to die, for death to me is but the threshold of a higher, purer, and more glorious life.”

Neighbourhood: American Poets, Death & Mortality, Devotional Poets, Mystical & Spiritual Poets, Women Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Despair, Longing

In time

Sojourner Truth
Achsa White Sprague
1797 1883
They overlapped for 36 years (1827–1862). When Achsa White Sprague was born, Sojourner Truth was about 30. Sojourner Truth was about 65 when Achsa White Sprague died.

On the map

About 205 km separate Swartekill, Ulster County, New York, USA from Plymouth Notch, Vermont, USA. Shared ground: United States.

Themes they return to

Distinctive words drawn from each poet’s critiqued poems — what they keep writing about, not just what their biographies mention.

No overlapping top terms in the poem critiques — any kinship may sit in mood rather than vocabulary.

From the biographies

women woman religious

Sojourner Truth: swartekill, ulster county, isabella baumfree, john dumont, isaac van wagenen, the narrative of sojourner truth, ain't i a woman?, northampton association of education and industry. Achsa White Sprague: plymouth notch, vermont, spiritualism, trance lecturer, rheumatic illness, calvin coolidge, antislavery, women's rights.

Poems that secretly rhyme

The closest poem-to-poem matches in critique space — the sort of kinship a listener hears before the catalogue admits it.

Ain’t I A Woman?
Sojourner Truth
61%
Compare
The Dying Warrior
Achsa White Sprague

The world around them

While their lives overlapped

Notable events from the years they were both alive.

Emotional landscapes

Sojourner Truth: Anger, Sorrow, Despair. Achsa White Sprague: Sorrow, Despair, Longing.

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