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

Richard Aldington Richard Aldington

Poet B

Edward Shanks Edward Shanks
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 84% Blended 79%
Swap sides Another related pair
Richard Aldington

Richard Aldington

8 July 1892 – 27 July 1962 (~70)
3 live poems · English

In the tumultuous landscape of early twentieth-century literature, few figures embodied the era's contradictions and transformations as completely as Richard Aldington. Born Edward Godfree Aldington on July 8, 1892, in Portsmouth, Hampshire, he would emerge as one of the founding voices of literary modernism, only to spend his later years railing against the very movement he helped create. His life trajectory—from pr…

“Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species.”

Neighbourhood: Edwardian Poets, Imagist Poets, Modernist Poets
Emotional landscape: Peace, Sorrow, Despair
Listen Timeline Affinities
Edward Shanks

Edward Shanks

11 June 1892 – 4 May 1953 (~61)
2 live poems · English

On a summer day in June 1892, in the bustling heart of London, Edward Richard Buxton Shanks entered a world on the cusp of profound transformation. Born on June 11th into a comfortable middle-class family, the infant who would become one of the first recipients of Britain's most prestigious literary honor could hardly have imagined the tumultuous century that awaited him. His life would span two world wars, witness t…

Neighbourhood: Edwardian Poets, Georgian Poets, Modernist Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Sorrow, Wonder
Listen Timeline Affinities

In time

Richard Aldington
Edward Shanks
1892 1962
They overlapped for 62 years (1892–1953). They were born in the same year. Richard Aldington was about 61 when Edward Shanks died.
Richard Aldington in history Edward Shanks in history Years they were given

On the map

About 96 km separate Portsmouth, Hampshire, England from London, England. Shared ground: United Kingdom.

Richard Aldington

Edward Shanks

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

world death

Richard Aldington only

village love earth trenches perception bombardment soldiers trauma shell shattered courage grass

Edward Shanks only

landscape lonely absence solitude trees presence life valleys continuity nature green beings

From the biographies

Richard Aldington: portsmouth, ezra pound, h.d., imagist movement, evening, the poplar, images of war, bombardment. Edward Shanks: london, trinity college, georgian poetry movement, edward marsh, the queen of china, hawthornden prize, the old indispensables, the people of the ruins.

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.

A Village
Richard Aldington
78% world
Compare
Continuity
Edward Shanks
A Village
Richard Aldington
78% world
Compare
A Lonely Place
Edward Shanks
Bombardment
Richard Aldington
75% world
Compare
A Lonely Place
Edward Shanks
E. T.
Richard Aldington
74% death
Compare
Continuity
Edward Shanks
E. T.
Richard Aldington
72%
Compare
A Lonely Place
Edward Shanks
Bombardment
Richard Aldington
69% world, death
Compare
Continuity
Edward Shanks

The world around them

While their lives overlapped

Notable events from the years they were both alive.

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
1895 Publication of 'The Red Badge of Courage'

Richard Aldington

1905 Early Education and Literary Exposure
1913 Marriage to H.D.
1915 Publication of 'Images'
1916 Service in World War I
1929 Publication of 'Death of a Hero'
1939 Exile to France
1944 Publication of 'The Romance of the Rose'
1955 Publication of 'The Collected Poems of Richard Aldington'

Edward Shanks

1903 Education at Merchant Taylors' School
1911 Matriculation at Trinity College, Cambridge
1912 Editor of Granta
1913 Completion of Bachelor of Arts Degree
1914 First Published Poetry Collection
1932 Publication of 'The New Poetry'
1940 Publication of 'The Poet's Handbook'
1946 Awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry

Emotional landscapes

Richard Aldington: Peace, Sorrow, Despair. Edward Shanks: Longing, Sorrow, Wonder.

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