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.

I want a simpler life, without the hassle of being online. The work of maintaining a server, the monitoring, and the residual obligations that come with keeping a site alive no longer fit the life I 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

Georgia Douglas Johnson Georgia Douglas Johnson

Poet B

Anne Spencer Anne Spencer
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 76% Poems 87% Blended 81%
Swap sides Another related pair
Georgia Douglas Johnson

Georgia Douglas Johnson

10 September 1880 – 15 May 1966 (~86)
3 live poems · English

Georgia Douglas Johnson was a luminous voice in American literature, a poet whose words captured the fluttering heart of womanhood, the weight of racial identity, and the quiet resilience of the human spirit during one of the most vibrant eras of Black artistic expression. Born on September 10, 1880, in Atlanta, Georgia, and passing away on May 15, 1966, in Washington, D.C., she lived through sweeping changes—from th…

“The words took fire and the music smouldered and so, following the lead of friends and critics, I turned my face toward poetry and put my songs away.”

Neighbourhood: African American Poets, American Poets, Harlem Renaissance, Love Poets, Modernist Poets, Political Poets, Social Justice Poets, Women Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Despair, Longing
Listen Timeline Affinities
Anne Spencer

Anne Spencer

6 February 1882 – 27 July 1975 (~93)
3 live poems · English

Anne Spencer was a poet whose verses captured the quiet fire of resilience, the lush beauty of the natural world, and the sharp edges of racial and gender injustice in early twentieth-century America. Born in the rolling farmlands of Virginia at a time when the shadow of slavery still lingered over Black lives, she forged a literary legacy that transcended her geographic isolation from the bustling heart of the Harle…

“I answered every letter I ever received, though at times—too many times—that answer did not get on the paper or in the mail.”

Neighbourhood: African American Poets, American Poets, Harlem Renaissance, Love Poets, Social Justice Poets, Women Poets
Emotional landscape: Spirituality, Sorrow, Longing
Listen Timeline Affinities

In time

Georgia Douglas Johnson
Anne Spencer
1880 1975
They overlapped for 85 years (1882–1966). When Anne Spencer was born, Georgia Douglas Johnson was about 2. Anne Spencer was about 84 when Georgia Douglas Johnson died.
Georgia Douglas Johnson in history Anne Spencer in history Years they were given

On the map

About 519 km separate Atlanta, Georgia, USA from Henry County, Virginia, USA. Shared ground: United States.

Georgia Douglas Johnson

Anne Spencer

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 woman heart world love

Georgia Douglas Johnson only

women echoes bird racial mother door social death desire happiness want

Anne Spencer only

wife harlem stars silence friend travelers prayer harmony soul peace earth

From the biographies

harlem renaissance harlem

Georgia Douglas Johnson: atlanta, georgia, washington, d.c., harlem renaissance, the heart of a woman, an autumn love cycle, share my world, henry lincoln johnson, s street salon. Anne Spencer: lynchburg, danville, edward alexander spencer, the crisis, before the feast of shushan, white things, lady lady, the wife-woman.

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.

The Heart of a Woman
Georgia Douglas Johnson
84% heart, woman, life
Compare
The Wife-Woman
Anne Spencer
I Want to Die While You Love Me
Georgia Douglas Johnson
77% love, life
Compare
The Wife-Woman
Anne Spencer
Black Woman
Georgia Douglas Johnson
74% woman, life
Compare
The Wife-Woman
Anne Spencer
Black Woman
Georgia Douglas Johnson
74% world, life
Compare
Requiem
Anne Spencer
I Want to Die While You Love Me
Georgia Douglas Johnson
74% death, life
Compare
Requiem
Anne Spencer
The Heart of a Woman
Georgia Douglas Johnson
73%
Compare
Translation
Anne Spencer

The world around them

While their lives overlapped

Notable events from the years they were both alive.

1882 Nietzsche Declares 'God is Dead'
1882 Robert Koch Discovers the Tuberculosis Bacillus
1883 Emil Christian Hansen Isolates a Pure Yeast Culture at Carlsberg
1883 Friedrich Nietzsche Publishes 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra'
1883 Publication of 'Treasure Island'
1884 Oxford English Dictionary Begins Publication
1884 Publication of 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'
1885 Pasteur Successfully Tests the Rabies Vaccine

Georgia Douglas Johnson

1896 Education at Atlanta University
1903 Marriage to Henry Lincoln Johnson
1920 Involvement in the Harlem Renaissance
1922 Publication of 'Bronze'
1928 Publication of 'An Autumn Love Cycle'
1930 Hosting literary salons in Washington, D.C.
1962 Publication of 'Share My World'
1965 Recognition by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

Anne Spencer

1901 Marriage to Edward Spencer
1910 Annie Bethel Scales Bannister's Name Change
1919 Involvement with the NAACP
1920 Publication of 'In the Garden'
1923 Publication of 'The Black Flower'
1923 Publication of 'The Cone' in 'The Crisis'
1926 Friendship with Langston Hughes
1940 Founding of the Lynchburg Chapter of the NAACP

Emotional landscapes

Georgia Douglas Johnson: Sorrow, Despair, Longing. Anne Spencer: Spirituality, Sorrow, Longing.

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