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.

After the death of my mother, 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.

My wife and I are simplifying our days. The server, the monitoring, and the residual obligations that come with keeping a site alive no longer fit the quieter life we want.

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.

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

Celia Thaxter Celia Thaxter

Poet B

Edith M. Thomas Edith M. Thomas
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 71% Poems 85% Blended 77%
Swap sides Another related pair
Celia Thaxter

Celia Thaxter

29 June 1835 – 25 August 1894 (~59)
2 live poems · English

In the vast and often storm-tossed landscape of American literature, certain voices emerge not from the bustling centers of culture, but from the quiet, salt-sprayed margins. Celia Laighton Thaxter, born on June 29, 1835, on the windswept island of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was such a voice—a poet whose work bloomed with the wildflowers of the Isles of Shoals, whose verses carried the rhythm of the Atlantic tides, a…

“Like the musician, the painter, the poet and the rest, the true lover of flowers is born, not made.”

Neighbourhood: American Poets, Nature Poets, Victorian Poets, Women Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Sorrow, Tenderness
Listen Timeline Affinities
Edith M. Thomas

Edith M. Thomas

12 August 1854 – 13 September 1925 (~71)
2 live poems · English

Edith Matilda Thomas was born on 12 August 1854 in Chatham, Ohio, and died on 13 September 1925 in New York City. During her lifetime she was admired as one of the most accomplished American lyric poets of the late nineteenth century, praised by editors, fellow writers, and readers for verse that joined close observation of nature to emotional reserve, formal intelligence, and a searching spiritual imagination. Yet s…

“My birthdays are the most melancholy days I know.”

Neighbourhood: American Poets, Nature Poets, Victorian Poets, Women Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Longing, Despair
Listen Timeline Affinities

In time

Celia Thaxter
Edith M. Thomas
1835 1925
They overlapped for 41 years (1854–1894). When Edith M. Thomas was born, Celia Thaxter was about 19. Edith M. Thomas was about 40 when Celia Thaxter died.
Celia Thaxter in history Edith M. Thomas in history Years they were given

On the map

About 1,024 km separate Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA from Chatham, Ohio, USA. Shared ground: United States.

Celia Thaxter

Edith M. Thomas

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

life beauty

Celia Thaxter only

land locked longing gratitude river imagination desire sorrow spiritual pain world suffering

Edith M. Thomas only

garden purpose vobis admiration unfulfilled creation heart flowers dahlias voice

From the biographies

Celia Thaxter: portsmouth, new hampshire, appeldore island, thomas laighton, eliza ann laighton, john greenleaf whittier, levi thaxter, poems. Edith M. Thomas: chatham, ohio, new york city, helen hunt jackson, a new year's masque, the inverted torch, lyrics and sonnets, northeastern ohio, romantic poetry.

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.

Sorrow
Celia Thaxter
78% beauty, life
Compare
Frost To-Night
Edith M. Thomas
Land-Locked
Celia Thaxter
76% beauty
Compare
Vos Non Vobis
Edith M. Thomas
Sorrow
Celia Thaxter
74% beauty
Compare
Vos Non Vobis
Edith M. Thomas
Land-Locked
Celia Thaxter
72% life, beauty
Compare
Frost To-Night
Edith M. Thomas

The world around them

While their lives overlapped

Notable events from the years they were both alive.

1854 John Snow Traces the Broad Street Pump
1854 Publication of 'Walden'
1856 Invention of the Bessemer Process for Mass Steel Production
1856 Mauveine Synthetic Dye Invention
1856 Perkin's Accidental Discovery of Mauveine
1857 Pasteur Demonstrates the Biological Basis of Fermentation
1858 Publication of 'There is a Green Hill Far Away'
1858 Publication of Ionica

Celia Thaxter

1835 Celia Thaxter's Childhood in Portsmouth
1847 Transformation of Appledore Island
1851 Marriage to Levi Thaxter
1871 First Major Publication: 'Poems'
1880 Involvement in the Boston Literary Scene
1884 Death of Levi Thaxter
1892 Recognition by the Poetry Society of America
1894 Publication of 'An Island Garden'

Edith M. Thomas

1860 Early Education and Literary Influences of Edith M. Thomas
1872 Brief Attendance at Oberlin College
1885 First Major Publication in The Atlantic Monthly
1897 Publication of 'In the Green Mountains'
1900 Friendship with Poet Amy Lowell
1910 Publication of 'The Round Year'
1915 Involvement in Women's Literary Circles
1925 Final Years and Legacy

Emotional landscapes

Celia Thaxter: Longing, Sorrow, Tenderness. Edith M. Thomas: Sorrow, Longing, Despair.

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