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

Julia Ward Howe Julia Ward Howe

Poet B

Phoebe Cary Phoebe Cary
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 72% Blended 72%
Swap sides Another related pair
Julia Ward Howe

Julia Ward Howe

27 May 1819 – 17 October 1910 (~91)
1 live poem · English

On a cold November morning in 1861, Julia Ward Howe awoke in her room at Willard's Hotel in Washington, D.C., with verses forming in her mind. She had visited Union Army camps the previous day, witnessing thousands of soldiers preparing for battle while singing "John Brown's Body." Now, in the pre-dawn darkness, words came to her with unusual clarity and force. Rising quietly so as not to disturb her sleeping childre…

“Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, Whether your baptism be that of water or of tears!”

Neighbourhood: American Poets, Devotional Poets, Hymn Writers, Political Poets, Women Poets
Emotional landscape: Irony, Sorrow, Spirituality
Listen Timeline Affinities
Phoebe Cary

Phoebe Cary

4 September 1824 – 31 July 1871 (~47)
3 live poems · English

In the grand tapestry of American literature, the threads of the famous are often woven with the brightest gold, their names—Whitman, Dickinson, Poe—echoing through the ages. But the strength and beauty of the cloth also depend on the countless subtle, sturdy threads that provide its foundation, its texture, and its often overlooked complexity. Phoebe Cary was one such thread. A poet of sharp wit, profound empathy, a…

“I would rather have one true friend than a thousand acquaintances.”

Neighbourhood: American Poets, Hymn Writers, Victorian Poets, Women Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Longing, Tenderness
Listen Timeline Affinities

In time

Julia Ward Howe
Phoebe Cary
1819 1910
They overlapped for 48 years (1824–1871). When Phoebe Cary was born, Julia Ward Howe was about 5. Julia Ward Howe was about 52 when Phoebe Cary died.
Julia Ward Howe in history Phoebe Cary in history Years they were given

On the map

About 912 km separate New York City, New York, USA from Mount Healthy, Ohio, USA. Both have ground in New York City and New York.

Julia Ward Howe

Phoebe Cary

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

death social life

Julia Ward Howe only

laborer ethical hope charity

Phoebe Cary only

woman marriage women unmarried heart friend friendship companionship tried saint bird northland

From the biographies

henry wadsworth longfellow women social

Julia Ward Howe: washington d.c., battle hymn of the republic, john brown's body, passion flowers, samuel gridley howe, american woman suffrage association, mother's day proclamation, municipal housekeeping. Phoebe Cary: mount healthy, ohio wilderness, alice cary, rufus wilmot griswold, nearer home, one sweetly solemn thought, poems and parodies, a psalm of life.

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.

To Death
Julia Ward Howe
73% social, life
Compare
A Psalm of Life
Phoebe Cary
To Death
Julia Ward Howe
70% death, life
Compare
Tried and True
Phoebe Cary
To Death
Julia Ward Howe
70%
Compare
A Legend of the Northland
Phoebe Cary

The world around them

While their lives overlapped

Notable events from the years they were both alive.

1824 Lord Byron Arrives in Missolonghi to Lead the Greek Forces
1830 Indian Removal Act of 1830
1831 Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction in London
1831 HMS Beagle Begins Darwin's Survey Voyage
1831 Michael Faraday Discovers Electromagnetic Induction
1831 Publication of 'Canti'
1833 The Abolition of Slavery in the British Empire
1834 Publication of 'Philip van Artevelde'

Julia Ward Howe

1830 Education at the New York City School for Girls
1843 Marriage to Samuel Gridley Howe
1852 Involvement in the Women's Suffrage Movement
1854 Publication of 'Passion Flowers'
1861 Publication of 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic'
1868 Founding of the New England Women's Club
1872 Founding of Mother's Day
1876 Travel to Europe for literary and social engagements

Phoebe Cary

1840 Cary Sisters' Literary Beginnings
1854 First Publication of Poetry
1854 Publication of 'Poems of Alice and Phoebe Cary'
1856 Friendship with Edgar Allan Poe
1860 Contribution to Literary Magazines
1867 Involvement in Women's Rights Movement
1871 Death of Sister Alice Cary
1871 Final Publication Before Death

Emotional landscapes

Julia Ward Howe: Irony, Sorrow, Spirituality. Phoebe Cary: Sorrow, Longing, Tenderness.

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