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

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Poet B

Amelia Alderson Opie Amelia Alderson Opie
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 64% Poems 85% Blended 74%
Swap sides Another related pair
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851 (~54)
2 live poems · English

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin on 30 August 1797 and dead on 1 February 1851, occupied an extraordinary position in British literary history from the beginning of her life. She was the daughter of two of the most provocative writers of the late eighteenth century: the political philosopher William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Her name ha…

“As a child I scribbled; and my favourite pastime, during the hours given me for recreation, was to write stories.”

Neighbourhood: Mystical & Spiritual Poets, Romantic Poets, Women Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Tenderness, Sorrow
Amelia Alderson Opie

Amelia Alderson Opie

12 November 1769 – 2 December 1853 (~84)
19 live poems · English

Amelia Alderson Opie entered the world on a crisp November day in 1769, born into the bustling heart of Norwich, that ancient cathedral city pulsing with intellectual and radical energy. The only child of Dr. James Alderson, a respected physician known for his generosity to the poor and his progressive views, and his wife Amelia Briggs, she arrived on November 12, destined to weave her own vibrant thread into the tap…

“Nor have I had a misgiving, but feel so calm and satisfied, that I am convinced I have done right; and I feel now utterly cast for comfort, support, and guidance, on the Searcher of hearts.”

Neighbourhood: Love Poets, Political Poets, Romantic Poets, Women Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Tenderness, Sorrow

In time

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Amelia Alderson Opie
1769 1853
They overlapped for 55 years (1797–1851). When Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was born, Amelia Alderson Opie was about 28. Amelia Alderson Opie was about 82 when Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley died.

On the map

About 156 km separate Somers Town, London, England from Norwich, England. 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

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley only

Amelia Alderson Opie only

From the biographies

william godwin novel domestic

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley: frankenstein, villa diodati, percy bysshe shelley, william godwin, history of a six weeks' tour, romanticism, gothic fiction, lake geneva. Amelia Alderson Opie: norwich, john opie, william godwin, mary wollstonecraft, the dangers of coquetry, the father and daughter, adelaide, adeline mowbray.

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.

Oh, come to me in dreams, my love!
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
85% beloved, dream
Compare
Dream of Soft Delight
Amelia Alderson Opie
How like a star
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
80% memory
Compare
Alas! Alas! I Can't Forget
Amelia Alderson Opie
Oh, come to me in dreams, my love!
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
79% love
Compare
Alas! Alas! I Can't Forget
Amelia Alderson Opie
How like a star
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
79% beloved
Compare
Dream of Soft Delight
Amelia Alderson Opie
How like a star
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
79% grief
Compare
Stanzas of Sorrow
Amelia Alderson Opie
Oh, come to me in dreams, my love!
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
79% love
Compare
When the Glare of Day Is Past
Amelia Alderson Opie

The world around them

While their lives overlapped

Notable events from the years they were both alive.

Emotional landscapes

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley: Longing, Tenderness, Sorrow. Amelia Alderson Opie: Longing, Tenderness, Sorrow.

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