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.

The experimental music I am making now is on my Suno profile. Those pieces stay there, and are not added to this 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

William Canton William Canton

Poet B

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson
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 65% Poems 84% Blended 74%
Swap sides Another related pair
William Canton

William Canton

27 October 1845 – 2 May 1926 (~81)
3 live poems · English

In the pantheon of Victorian literature, where giants like Tennyson and Browning cast long shadows, there existed quieter voices whose contributions to the literary landscape were no less profound for being more intimate in scope. William Canton, born on a Chinese island to colonial parents and destined to become one of Britain's most beloved children's authors, represents one such voice—a writer whose life spanned c…

“I do not know of a more conclusive proof that the wisdom of the East has not been overrated than the fact that among the Hindoos the Children are known as the Baba log — the Baba folk.”

Neighbourhood: Devotional Poets, Hymn Writers, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Wonder, Spirituality, Tenderness
Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson

13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894 (~44)
4 live poems · English

Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh on 13 November 1850, into a family whose public achievements seemed to prescribe his future long before he could choose one for himself. His father, Thomas Stevenson, was a distinguished civil engineer and designer of lighthouses, heir to a formidable Scottish professional dynasty. His mother, Margaret Isabella Balfour Stevenson, came from another prominent family; her fat…

“Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a mighty bloodless substitute for life.”

Neighbourhood: Children's Verse, Nature Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Peace, Joy, Wonder

In time

William Canton
Robert Louis Stevenson
1845 1926
They overlapped for 45 years (1850–1894). When Robert Louis Stevenson was born, William Canton was about 5. William Canton was about 49 when Robert Louis Stevenson died.

On the map

About 9,156 km separate Zhoushan, Zhejiang, China from Edinburgh, Scotland. Shared ground: United Kingdom.

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

From the biographies

William Canton: chushan, zhoushan, thomas canton, mary thomas, jamaica, glasgow, the invisible playmate, george gissing. Robert Louis Stevenson: edinburgh, thomas stevenson, fanny van de grift osbourne, strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde, treasure island, the sea cook, an inland voyage, travels with a donkey in the cévennes.

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.

Nature's Magic
William Canton
77% nature
Compare
Romance
Robert Louis Stevenson
Nature's Magic
William Canton
73% world
Compare
Summer Sun
Robert Louis Stevenson
Bethlehem
William Canton
71% world
Compare
Summer Sun
Robert Louis Stevenson
The Kingfisher
William Canton
69%
Compare
Summer Sun
Robert Louis Stevenson
The Kingfisher
William Canton
69% nature, life
Compare
Romance
Robert Louis Stevenson
The Kingfisher
William Canton
68% life
Compare
Requiem
Robert Louis Stevenson

The world around them

While their lives overlapped

Notable events from the years they were both alive.

Emotional landscapes

William Canton: Wonder, Spirituality, Tenderness. Robert Louis Stevenson: Peace, Joy, Wonder.

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