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

Watcyn Wyn Watcyn Wyn

Poet B

Francis Ledwidge Francis Ledwidge
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 67% Poems 84% Blended 75%
Swap sides Another related pair
Watcyn Wyn

Watcyn Wyn

7 March 1844 – 19 November 1905 (~61)
5 live poems · Welsh, English

In the rolling hills of Carmarthenshire, where the coal dust mingles with morning mist and the Welsh language flows like the streams that carve the valleys, a remarkable story unfolded in the latter half of the nineteenth century. It is the story of Watkin Hezekiah Williams, better known by his bardic name Watcyn Wyn, whose journey from the depths of coal mines to the heights of Welsh literary achievement embodies th…

“They are not merely the words of Catwg the Wise, but a summary of the pupils' best sayings; and the pupils often outdo the teacher.”

Neighbourhood: Edwardian Poets, Folk & Ballad Poets, Nature Poets, Welsh Poets
Emotional landscape: Wonder, Peace, Spirituality
Listen Timeline Affinities
Francis Ledwidge

Francis Ledwidge

19 August 1887 – 31 July 1917 (~30)
8 live poems · English

In the annals of Irish literature, few figures embody the tragic intersection of artistic promise and historical circumstance as poignantly as Francis Edward Ledwidge. Born into rural poverty in County Meath in 1887 and killed on a Belgian battlefield in 1917, Ledwidge's thirty years encompassed a meteoric rise from agricultural laborer to celebrated poet, a journey that mirrors the broader struggles of Ireland durin…

“I saw curious shapes in shadows and clouds and loved to watch the change of the leaves and flowers. I heard voices in the rain and the wind and strange whisperings in the waters.”

Neighbourhood: Death & Mortality, Georgian Poets, Irish Poets, War Poets
Emotional landscape: Tenderness, Longing, Wonder
Listen Timeline Affinities

In time

Watcyn Wyn
Francis Ledwidge
1844 1917
They overlapped for 19 years (1887–1905). When Francis Ledwidge was born, Watcyn Wyn was about 43. Francis Ledwidge was about 18 when Watcyn Wyn died.
Watcyn Wyn in history Francis Ledwidge in history Years they were given

On the map

About 259 km separate Ddolgam, Carmarthenshire, Wales from Slane, County Meath, Ireland. Different countries, different weather — unless a poem carries one landscape into the other.

Watcyn Wyn

Francis Ledwidge

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 world

Watcyn Wyn only

welsh industrial river water course turns light heaven divine biblical creation miners

Francis Ledwidge only

irish nature soldiers invitation landscape sparrow bird gardener garden fire darkness flowers

From the biographies

Watcyn Wyn: carmarthenshire, ddolgam, cwmgarw ganol, brynaman, mary jones, evan williams, j. j. copeland, gibea chapel. Francis Ledwidge: county meath, slane, lord dunsany, thomas macdonagh, songs of the fields, songs of peace, irish cultural revival, gallipoli peninsula.

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.

Y Friallen Gyntaf
Watcyn Wyn
80% nature
Compare
An Invitation
Francis Ledwidge
Y Friallen Gyntaf
Watcyn Wyn
77%
Compare
To a Sparrow
Francis Ledwidge
Y Friallen Gyntaf
Watcyn Wyn
76% life, spiritual, nature
Compare
The Gardener
Francis Ledwidge
Yr Afon
Watcyn Wyn
73%
Compare
An Invitation
Francis Ledwidge
Y Friallen Gyntaf
Watcyn Wyn
73%
Compare
Jeu d'Esprit
Francis Ledwidge
Ac Ni Bydd Nos Yno
Watcyn Wyn
72% world
Compare
An Invitation
Francis Ledwidge

The world around them

While their lives overlapped

Notable events from the years they were both alive.

1891 Conversion to Roman Catholicism
1892 Opening of Ellis Island
1892 Valéry undergoes the Genoa crisis
1893 Co-founding of the Gaelic League
1893 Delivery of 'The Necessity for De-Anglicizing Ireland' Speech
1893 Publication of 'The Hound of Heaven'
1894 Death of Robert Louis Stevenson
1894 Valéry begins his lifelong notebooks

Watcyn Wyn

1871 Marriage to Mary Ann Jones
1885 First Major Publication: 'Caniadau' (Songs)
1887 Recognition at the National Eisteddfod
1890 Publication of 'Y Gadair Ddu' (The Black Chair)
1895 Death of His Father, Hezekiah Williams
1904 Death of His Wife, Mary Ann
1904 Final Publication: 'Caniadau Newydd' (New Songs)

Francis Ledwidge

1900 Francis Ledwidge's Early Education and Literary Awakening
1911 Friendship with Lord Dunsany
1915 Publication of 'Songs of the Fields'
1916 Enlistment in the British Army
1916 Publication of 'Songs of Peace'
1917 Death in Battle
1919 Posthumous Recognition and Legacy

Emotional landscapes

Watcyn Wyn: Wonder, Peace, Spirituality. Francis Ledwidge: Tenderness, Longing, Wonder.

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