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.

After the death of my mother, 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.

My wife and I are simplifying our days. The server, the monitoring, and the residual obligations that come with keeping a site alive no longer fit the quieter life we 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

Edgar Lee Masters Edgar Lee Masters

Poet B

Walt Whitman Walt Whitman
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 69% Poems 89% Blended 78%
Swap sides Another related pair
Edgar Lee Masters

Edgar Lee Masters

23 August 1868 – 5 March 1950 (~82)
25 live poems · English

In the pantheon of American literature, few poets have captured the essence of small-town life with such unflinching honesty and profound empathy as Edgar Lee Masters. Born in the twilight of the nineteenth century and dying in the shadow of World War II, Masters lived through one of the most transformative periods in American history. His masterwork, Spoon River Anthology, revolutionized American poetry by giving vo…

“The liberty of Jefferson should be sung until it permeated the entire popular heart.”

Neighbourhood: American Poets, Death & Mortality, Dramatic Poets, Modernist Poets, Social Justice Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Spirituality, Longing
Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman

31 May 1819 – 26 March 1892 (~73)
9 live poems · English

Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, in a modest farmhouse in West Hills, on Long Island, New York, into a working-class family that embodied the restless energy and struggles of early America. He was the second of nine children born to Walter Whitman, a carpenter and farmer of English descent who wrestled with financial instability, and Louisa Van Velsor Whitman, whose Dutch heritage brought a touch of earthy prac…

“the simple idea that the last, best dependence is to be upon humanity itself, and its own inherent, normal, fullgrown qualities, without any superstitious support whatever.”

Neighbourhood: American Poets, LGBTQ+ Poets, Nature Poets, Political Poets, Social Justice Poets, Transcendentalists
Emotional landscape: Spirituality, Wonder, Longing

In time

Edgar Lee Masters
Walt Whitman
1819 1950
They overlapped for 25 years (1868–1892). When Edgar Lee Masters was born, Walt Whitman was about 49. Edgar Lee Masters was about 24 when Walt Whitman died.

On the map

About 1,896 km separate Garnett, Kansas, USA from West Hills, Long Island, New York, USA. Shared ground: United States.

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

Edgar Lee Masters: garnett, kansas, lewiston, illinois, spoon river anthology, william marion reedy, chicago renaissance, the blood of the prophets, a book of verses, helen m. jenkins. Walt Whitman: long island, brooklyn, leaves of grass, song of myself, drum-taps, abraham lincoln, ralph waldo emerson, free verse.

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.

By the Waters of Babylon
Edgar Lee Masters
81% world, shore
Compare
As if a Phantom Caress’d Me
Walt Whitman
Isaiah Beethoven
Edgar Lee Masters
81% world, water
Compare
Whispers of Heavenly Death
Walt Whitman
Jacob Braham
Edgar Lee Masters
80% life
Compare
The Base of All Metaphysics
Walt Whitman
I Shall Never See You Again
Edgar Lee Masters
79% world
Compare
As if a Phantom Caress’d Me
Walt Whitman
My Light with Yours
Edgar Lee Masters
78% love
Compare
The Base of All Metaphysics
Walt Whitman
I Shall Never See You Again
Edgar Lee Masters
78% world, death, grief
Compare
Whispers of Heavenly Death
Walt Whitman

The world around them

While their lives overlapped

Notable events from the years they were both alive.

Emotional landscapes

Edgar Lee Masters: Sorrow, Spirituality, Longing. Walt Whitman: Spirituality, Wonder, Longing.

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