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

Andrew Marvell Andrew Marvell

Poet B

Thomas Carew Thomas Carew
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 75% Poems 89% Blended 81%
Swap sides Another related pair
Andrew Marvell

Andrew Marvell

31 March 1621 – 16 August 1678 (~57)
8 live poems · English

Andrew Marvell was born on March 31, 1621, in the small village of Winestead in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, the son of the Reverend Andrew Marvell and Anne Pease Marvell. The family soon moved to the bustling port town of Hull when the elder Marvell was appointed lecturer at Holy Trinity Church and master of the Charterhouse, a charitable institution. Young Andrew grew up amid the sounds of the sea and the…

“A Conformist to the established Rites of the Church of England, though I confess none of the most over-running or eager in them.”

Neighbourhood: Cavalier Poets, Love Poets, Metaphysical Poets, Political Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Sorrow, Wonder
Listen Timeline Affinities
Thomas Carew

Thomas Carew

1595 – 22 March 1640 (~45)
4 live poems · English

Thomas Carew, born in 1595 and buried on 22 March 1640, occupies a distinctive place in English poetry as one of the most accomplished voices of the Caroline court. He is usually grouped with the Cavalier poets, a loose modern designation for writers associated with the court of Charles I, with royalist culture, and with an ideal of elegance, loyalty, sociability, erotic wit, and cultivated pleasure. Yet Carew is mor…

“Though Ben had barrelled up a great deal of knowledge, yet it seems he had not read the Ethics, which, among other Precepts of Morality, forbid Self-commendation.”

Neighbourhood: Cavalier Poets, Love Poets, Metaphysical Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Sensuality, Tenderness
Listen Timeline Affinities

In time

Andrew Marvell
Thomas Carew
1595 1678
They overlapped for 20 years (1621–1640). When Andrew Marvell was born, Thomas Carew was about 26. Andrew Marvell was about 19 when Thomas Carew died.
Andrew Marvell in history Thomas Carew in history Years they were given

On the map

About 265 km separate Winestead-in-Holderness, Yorkshire, England from West Wickham, Kent, England. Both have ground in London.

Andrew Marvell

Thomas Carew

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

love world mistress desire death

Andrew Marvell only

cosmic life union separation paradox despair fate mortality fawn nymph tears

Thomas Carew only

stream water river erotic secrecy lovers beloved heart pleasure cupid moderation

From the biographies

power

Andrew Marvell: winestead, hull, trinity college, mary fairfax, upon appleton house, the garden, to his coy mistress, the mower's song. Thomas Carew: caroline court, cavalier poets, ben jonson, to his inconstant mistress, the spring, a rapture, sir dudley carleton, venice.

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 Unfortunate Lover
Andrew Marvell
82% love
Compare
To My Inconstant Mistris
Thomas Carew
The Fair Singer
Andrew Marvell
80% love
Compare
To My Inconstant Mistris
Thomas Carew
To His Coy Mistress
Andrew Marvell
79% love, mistress, desire
Compare
To My Mistress Sitting by a River’s Side
Thomas Carew
The Fair Singer
Andrew Marvell
79% love
Compare
To My Mistress Sitting by a River’s Side
Thomas Carew
The Fair Singer
Andrew Marvell
79% love, beloved
Compare
Secrecy in Love Pledged
Thomas Carew
The Unfortunate Lover
Andrew Marvell
78% love, world
Compare
Secrecy in Love Pledged
Thomas Carew

The world around them

While their lives overlapped

Notable events from the years they were both alive.

1621 Appointment as Dean of St Paul's Cathedral
1622 Publication of 'The Songs of Thomas Tomkins'
1623 Publication of 'The First Folio' of William Shakespeare (1623)
1623 Publication of The Duchess of Malfi
1623 Shakespeare's First Folio Publication
1623 The Miraculous Preservation of the First Folio
1634 Publication of 'Castara'
1640 Publication of 'Poems' Collection

Andrew Marvell

1630 Education at Hull Grammar School
1633 Enrollment at Trinity College, Cambridge
1651 Publication of 'The Garden'
1653 Appointment as Latin Secretary
1656 Marriage to Mary Marvell
1677 Publication of 'An Account of the Growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government in England'

Thomas Carew

1608 Education at Merton College, Oxford
1613 Embassy to Venice
1614 Return to England and Courtly Life
1630 Appointment as Gentleman of the Privy Chamber
1635 Involvement in Literary Circles
1637 Literary Patronage from Charles I
1640 Death of Thomas Carew
1640 Publication of 'Poems' Collection

Emotional landscapes

Andrew Marvell: Longing, Sorrow, Wonder. Thomas Carew: Longing, Sensuality, Tenderness.

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