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.

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

T. E. Brown T. E. Brown

Poet B

Sir Lewis Morris Sir Lewis Morris
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.

Kindred spirits
Their work already rhymes in the catalogue. The rest of this page is the story around that rhyme.
Biography 75% Poems 89% Blended 81%
Swap sides Another related pair
T. E. Brown

T. E. Brown

5 May 1830 – 29 October 1897 (~67)
3 live poems · English

In the pantheon of Victorian literature, Thomas Edward Brown occupies a unique position—a poet who straddled two worlds with remarkable grace and authenticity. Born on the Isle of Man in 1830 and dying there in 1897, Brown spent his life navigating between the intimate, Celtic traditions of his homeland and the broader currents of English literary culture. His poetry, written primarily in the Manx dialect, captured t…

“I am certain God made fools for us to enjoy, but there must be an economy of joy in the presence of a fool: you must not betray your enjoyment.”

Neighbourhood: Folk & Ballad Poets, Scottish Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Spirituality, Peace, Wonder
Listen Timeline Affinities
Sir Lewis Morris

Sir Lewis Morris

23 January 1833 – 12 November 1907 (~74)
6 live poems · English

In the landscape of Victorian poetry, few figures embodied the tensions between tradition and modernity, between Welsh heritage and English literary ambition, quite like Sir Lewis Morris. Born on a cold January morning in 1833 in Carmarthen, Wales, and dying in the twilight of the Edwardian era in 1907, Morris lived through one of the most transformative periods in British history. His life and work provide a fascina…

“Of the modern vice of obscurity I can hardly bring myself to speak, because for the moment the merit of a poem is by many excellent people measured by its obscurity.”

Neighbourhood: Edwardian Poets, Love Poets, Nature Poets, Romantic Poets, Victorian Poets, Welsh Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Sorrow, Despair
Listen Timeline Affinities

In time

T. E. Brown
Sir Lewis Morris
1830 1907
They overlapped for 65 years (1833–1897). When Sir Lewis Morris was born, T. E. Brown was about 3. Sir Lewis Morris was about 64 when T. E. Brown died.
T. E. Brown in history Sir Lewis Morris in history Years they were given

On the map

About 255 km separate Douglas, Isle of Man from Carmarthen, Wales.

T. E. Brown

Sir Lewis Morris

Open both on the History Atlas

Themes they return to

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

Shared

nature life

T. E. Brown only

divine return mother stream stillness leap hills embrace source dhoon motion freedom

Sir Lewis Morris only

love doubt faith belief truth light alone difference beloved beauty victory hand

From the biographies

culture

T. E. Brown: isle of man, manx dialect, robert brown, dorothy thompson brown, betsy lee, fo'c's'le yarns, the doctor and other poems, old john and other poems. Sir Lewis Morris: carmarthen, victorian poetry, anglo-welsh school, songs of two worlds, the epic of hades, alfred tennyson, florence julia pollard, jesus college oxford.

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.

Life
T. E. Brown
80% life
Compare
Alone
Sir Lewis Morris
Life
T. E. Brown
79%
Compare
Doubt
Sir Lewis Morris
Life
T. E. Brown
79%
Compare
Love's Suicide
Sir Lewis Morris
The Dhoon
T. E. Brown
78% nature
Compare
Oh, Earth!
Sir Lewis Morris
Life
T. E. Brown
78%
Compare
Oh, Earth!
Sir Lewis Morris
Planting
T. E. Brown
76% faith
Compare
Faith
Sir Lewis Morris

The world around them

While their lives overlapped

Notable events from the years they were both alive.

1833 The Abolition of Slavery in the British Empire
1834 Publication of 'Philip van Artevelde'
1836 Publication of 'Nature'
1837 Publication of 'Life of Sir Walter Scott'
1842 First Pale Lager Brewed in Pilsen
1845 Great Famine in Ireland (1845)
1845 The Outbreak of the Irish Potato Famine
1845 Thoreau's Walden Experiment Begins

T. E. Brown

1849 Education at St. John's College, Cambridge
1855 Ordination as a Methodist Minister
1865 Publication of 'The Manxman'
1875 Relocation to Liverpool for Teaching
1880 Publication of 'The Poetical Works of T. E. Brown'
1880 Return to the Isle of Man
1884 Publication of 'The Last of the Old School'
1897 Final Years and Legacy

Sir Lewis Morris

1856 Education at Jesus College, Oxford
1860 Marriage to Mary Anne Morris
1865 Publication of 'Songs of Wales'
1870 Publication of 'The Epic of Hades'
1885 Appointment as a Member of the Welsh Nationalist Party
1890 Publication of 'The Welsh Drama'
1896 Knighthood and Recognition
1902 Publication of 'The Collected Poems of Sir Lewis Morris'

Emotional landscapes

T. E. Brown: Spirituality, Peace, Wonder. Sir Lewis Morris: Longing, Sorrow, Despair.

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