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

José María Iparraguirre José María Iparraguirre

Poet B

Algernon Charles Swinburne Algernon Charles Swinburne
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.

Somewhat related
Their work already rhymes in the catalogue. The rest of this page is the story around that rhyme.
Biography 53% Blended 53%
Swap sides Another related pair
José María Iparraguirre

José María Iparraguirre

12 August 1820 – 6 April 1881 (~61)
1 live poem · Basque

José María Iparraguirre Balerdi was born on 12 August 1820 in Urretxu, Gipuzkoa, in the Basque Country, and died on 6 April 1881 in Itsaso, near his native district. He occupies an unusual and enduring place in Basque cultural history: he was at once a poet, singer, guitarist, wandering performer, Carlist veteran, exile, emigrant, and popular symbol. His fame rests above all on “Gernikako Arbola” (“The Tree of Gernik…

“God forbid that any bloody struggle should come to darken our picturesque mountains with mourning; let every good Spaniard refrain from taking up arms, whether in the Carlist or the republican cause.”

Neighbourhood: Folk & Ballad Poets, Love Poets, Poet-Musicians, Political Poets, Social Justice Poets
Emotional landscape: Spirituality, Joy, Peace
Algernon Charles Swinburne

Algernon Charles Swinburne

5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909 (~72)
14 live poems · English

Algernon Charles Swinburne was born on 5 April 1837 at 7 Chester Street, Grosvenor Place, London, into a family whose rank, traditions, and geography would all enter his imagination. He was the eldest surviving child of Captain, later Admiral, Charles Henry Swinburne and Lady Jane Henrietta Ashburnham, daughter of the third Earl of Ashburnham. His inheritance was aristocratic, military, and literary. The Swinburnes p…

“As to perfection, it must be seen to be loved, and few have eyes to see it.”

Neighbourhood: Decadent Poets, Dramatic Poets, Political Poets, Pre-Raphaelite Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Sorrow, Despair

In time

José María Iparraguirre
Algernon Charles Swinburne
1820 1909
They overlapped for 45 years (1837–1881). When Algernon Charles Swinburne was born, José María Iparraguirre was about 17. Algernon Charles Swinburne was about 44 when José María Iparraguirre died.

On the map

About 949 km separate Urretxu, Gipuzkoa, Spain from Grosvenor Place, London, England. Different countries, different weather — unless a poem carries one landscape into the other.

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.

José María Iparraguirre only

Algernon Charles Swinburne only

From the biographies

london

José María Iparraguirre: urretxu, gipuzkoa, gerniko arbola, first carlist war, catholic traditionalism, exile, emigrant, paris. Algernon Charles Swinburne: london, isle of wight, northumberland, captain charles henry swinburne, lady jane henrietta ashburnham, atalanta in calydon, poems and ballads, percy bysshe shelley.

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 Tree of Gernika
José María Iparraguirre
65%
Compare
In Time of Mourning
Algernon Charles Swinburne
The Tree of Gernika
José María Iparraguirre
65%
Compare
The Sundew
Algernon Charles Swinburne
The Tree of Gernika
José María Iparraguirre
63%
Compare
Child's Song
Algernon Charles Swinburne
The Tree of Gernika
José María Iparraguirre
63%
Compare
A Leave-Taking
Algernon Charles Swinburne
The Tree of Gernika
José María Iparraguirre
61% world
Compare
Before Sunset
Algernon Charles Swinburne
The Tree of Gernika
José María Iparraguirre
61%
Compare
Before Parting
Algernon Charles Swinburne

The world around them

While their lives overlapped

Notable events from the years they were both alive.

Emotional landscapes

José María Iparraguirre: Spirituality, Joy, Peace. Algernon Charles Swinburne: Longing, Sorrow, Despair.

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