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

Anne Whitney Anne Whitney

Poet B

Anne Brontë Anne Brontë
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 62% Poems 84% Blended 72%
Swap sides Another related pair
Anne Whitney

Anne Whitney

2 September 1821 – 23 January 1915 (~94)
3 live poems · English

In the pantheon of 19th-century American artists, few figures embody the spirit of creative rebellion and social conscience as powerfully as Anne Whitney. Born into an era when women were expected to confine their artistic pursuits to watercolors and embroidery, Whitney defied convention to become one of America's most accomplished sculptors and a significant voice in poetry. Her ninety-four years spanned a transform…

“I do not see what is gained to the world you would - always - help by your withholding your presence from the little fete which is intended to honor your one friend.”

Neighbourhood: American Poets, Political Poets, Social Justice Poets, Victorian Poets, Women Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Spirituality, Irony
Listen Timeline Affinities
Anne Brontë

Anne Brontë

17 January 1820 – 28 May 1849 (~29)
9 live poems · English

In the pantheon of Victorian literature, Anne Brontë stands as perhaps the most underestimated literary genius of her era. Born into a family that would produce three of the nineteenth century's most celebrated novelists, Anne has long lived in the shadow of her more famous sisters, Charlotte and Emily. Yet this youngest Brontë sister, who lived only twenty-nine years (1820-1849), created works of startling moral com…

“All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find.”

Neighbourhood: Death & Mortality, Devotional Poets, Victorian Poets, Women Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Sorrow, Despair
Listen Timeline Affinities

In time

Anne Whitney
Anne Brontë
1820 1915
They overlapped for 29 years (1821–1849). When Anne Whitney was born, Anne Brontë was about 1. Anne Whitney was about 28 when Anne Brontë died.
Anne Whitney in history Anne Brontë in history Years they were given

On the map

About 5,087 km separate Watertown, Massachusetts, USA from Thornton, Yorkshire, England. Different countries, different weather — unless a poem carries one landscape into the other.

Anne Whitney

Anne Brontë

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 divine flower spiritual suffering

Anne Whitney only

grave digger death burial laughter mortality social dreaming awake dream pain

Anne Brontë only

world soul love religious lady lord flowers leaves departure bluebell childhood

From the biographies

social

Anne Whitney: watertown, massachusetts, james monroe, civil war, abolition, women's rights, the lone parting, equinoxial, ethiopia. Anne Brontë: thornton, agnes grey, the tenant of wildfell hall, charlotte brontë, emily brontë, brontë sisters, governess, glass town confederacy.

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 Passion Flower
Anne Whitney
79% spiritual, suffering, religious
Compare
If This Be All
Anne Brontë
Half Awake
Anne Whitney
77% life
Compare
If This Be All
Anne Brontë
The Passion Flower
Anne Whitney
77% divine, spiritual, suffering, heart
Compare
To Cowper
Anne Brontë
The Passion Flower
Anne Whitney
76% divine, spiritual, soul, religious
Compare
A Prayer
Anne Brontë
The Passion Flower
Anne Whitney
75% soul, love
Compare
Weep Not Too Much, My Darling
Anne Brontë
The Passion Flower
Anne Whitney
75% flower
Compare
The Bluebell
Anne Brontë

The world around them

While their lives overlapped

Notable events from the years they were both alive.

1823 Byron Joins the Greek War of Independence
1823 Publication of 'The Poems of Jeremiah Joseph Callanan'
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'

Anne Whitney

1837 Education at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary
1850 Move to Boston
1854 Publication of 'Poems' Collection
1869 Involvement in the Women's Suffrage Movement
1880 Creation of the Statue of Samuel Adams
1885 Travel to Europe for Artistic Inspiration
1890 Publication of 'The Poems of Anne Whitney'
1915 Death of Anne Whitney

Anne Brontë

1821 Death of Maria Branwell Brontë
1821 Education at Home
1821 Relocation to Haworth Parsonage
1846 Publication of Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell
1847 Publication of Agnes Grey
1848 Death of Branwell Brontë
1848 Illness and Declining Health
1848 Publication of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Emotional landscapes

Anne Whitney: Sorrow, Spirituality, Irony. Anne Brontë: Longing, Sorrow, Despair.

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