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

Conrad Aiken Conrad Aiken

Poet B

John Gould Fletcher John Gould Fletcher
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 72% Blended 72%
Swap sides Another related pair
Conrad Aiken

Conrad Aiken

5 August 1889 – 17 August 1973 (~84)
1 live poem · English

The story of Conrad Potter Aiken (August 5, 1889 – August 17, 1973) reads like something from a Gothic novel, yet it is the true foundation upon which one of twentieth-century America's most psychologically complex poets built his life and work. Born into comfortable circumstances in Savannah, Georgia, Aiken seemed destined for the privileged life his family background suggested. His father, William Ford Aiken, had s…

“But none the less, if we are to help poetry at all in this wilderness, we cannot rest content with amusement.”

Neighbourhood: American Poets, Death & Mortality, Modernist Poets, Symbolist Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Longing, Tenderness
Listen Timeline Affinities
John Gould Fletcher

John Gould Fletcher

3 January 1886 – 20 May 1950 (~64)
2 live poems · English

In the pantheon of American poetry, few figures embody the restless spirit of early twentieth-century modernism quite like John Gould Fletcher. Born into the genteel society of Little Rock, Arkansas, on January 3, 1886, Fletcher would traverse continents and literary movements, ultimately crafting a body of work that bridged the gap between traditional American verse and the revolutionary experiments of European mode…

“It is time to create something new. It is time to strip poetry of meaningless tatters of form, and to clothe her in new, suitable garments.”

Neighbourhood: American Poets, Death & Mortality, Imagist Poets, Modernist Poets, Nature Poets, Symbolist Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Longing, Despair
Listen Timeline Affinities

In time

Conrad Aiken
John Gould Fletcher
1886 1973
They overlapped for 62 years (1889–1950). When Conrad Aiken was born, John Gould Fletcher was about 3. Conrad Aiken was about 61 when John Gould Fletcher died.
Conrad Aiken in history John Gould Fletcher in history Years they were given

On the map

About 1,080 km separate Savannah, Georgia, USA from Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. Shared ground: United States.

Conrad Aiken

John Gould Fletcher

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

memory world

Conrad Aiken only

beloved presence love music perception heart

John Gould Fletcher only

fantasy dream grey water river reality imagination ship islands blue beauty decay

From the biographies

pulitzer prize for poetry

Conrad Aiken: savannah, georgia, william ford aiken, anna potter aiken, ushant, the charnel rose, the jig of forslin, the house of dust, senlin: a biography. John Gould Fletcher: little rock, arkansas river valley, ezra pound, imagist movement, irradiations: sand and spray, blue symphony, goblins and pagodas, the tree of life.

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.

Music I Heard
Conrad Aiken
77% memory, world
Compare
Blue Symphony I
John Gould Fletcher
Music I Heard
Conrad Aiken
69%
Compare
In the grey skirts of the fog
John Gould Fletcher

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

Conrad Aiken

1901 Relocation to Massachusetts after Family Tragedy
1907 Attending Harvard University
1914 First Major Poetry Publication
1917 Marriage to Jessie McDonald
1930 Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
1933 Publication of 'Selected Poems'
1950 Publication of 'The Private Life'
1971 Death of His Wife, Jessie Aiken

John Gould Fletcher

1904 Education at Harvard University
1910 Marriage to Emily T. Fletcher
1916 Publication of 'The Poems of John Gould Fletcher'
1919 Move to England
1920 Friendship with Ezra Pound
1930 Publication of 'The Burning Fountain'
1935 Publication of 'The New Poetry'
1939 Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

Emotional landscapes

Conrad Aiken: Sorrow, Longing, Tenderness. John Gould Fletcher: Sorrow, Longing, Despair.

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