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

James Hogg James Hogg

Poet B

William Bell Scott William Bell Scott
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 74%
Swap sides Another related pair
James Hogg

James Hogg

c. 9 December 1770 – 21 November 1835 (~65)
2 live poems · English

The story of James Hogg is one of the most remarkable and unlikely ascents in the history of British literature. Born into the humblest of circumstances in the wilds of the Scottish Borders, he rose from a life of manual labour to stand, albeit often awkwardly, alongside the literary giants of his age. He was a man of profound contradictions: a self-taught genius who could be as coarse as he was inspired, a humble sh…

“A shepherd may be a very able, trusty, and good shepherd, without a sweetheart—better, perhaps, than with one. But what is he without his dog?”

Neighbourhood: Georgian Poets, Nature Poets, Romantic Poets, Scottish Poets
Emotional landscape: Wonder, Fear, Joy
William Bell Scott

William Bell Scott

12 September 1811 – 22 November 1890 (~79)
3 live poems · English

William Bell Scott was born in Edinburgh on 12 September 1811, into a family in which art was both a livelihood and an atmosphere. He was the eldest surviving son of Robert Scott, an engraver of considerable skill and a man of strong intellectual interests, and Ross Bell Scott. The household was not wealthy, but it was rich in artistic ambition, professional discipline, books, conversation, and the practical awarenes…

“Friendship is altogether different. It comes later, it has nothing to do with the colour of the hair or the shape of the nose.”

Neighbourhood: Pre-Raphaelite Poets, Scottish Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Wonder, Spirituality

In time

James Hogg
William Bell Scott
1770 1890
They overlapped for 25 years (1811–1835). When William Bell Scott was born, James Hogg was about 41. William Bell Scott was about 24 when James Hogg died.

On the map

About 59 km separate Ettrick, Selkirkshire, Scotland from Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom. Both have ground in Edinburgh.

Themes they return to

Distinctive words drawn from each poet’s critiqued poems — what they keep writing about, not just what their biographies mention.

No overlapping top terms in the poem critiques — any kinship may sit in mood rather than vocabulary.

From the biographies

scottish

James Hogg: scottish borders, ettrick shepherd, the private memoirs and confessions of a justified sinner, sir walter scott, the queen's wake, kilmeny, the witch of fife, the mountain bard. William Bell Scott: edinburgh, david scott, paul's letters to his kinsfolk, the onward tide, newcastle upon tyne, trevelyan family, wallington hall, trustees' academy.

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 Boy's Song
James Hogg
75% landscape
Compare
Age
William Bell Scott
A Witch's Chant
James Hogg
73%
Compare
Seeking Forgetfulness
William Bell Scott
A Witch's Chant
James Hogg
71%
Compare
Mare Serenitatis
William Bell Scott
A Boy's Song
James Hogg
71%
Compare
Mare Serenitatis
William Bell Scott
A Boy's Song
James Hogg
67%
Compare
Seeking Forgetfulness
William Bell Scott
A Witch's Chant
James Hogg
67%
Compare
Age
William Bell Scott

The world around them

While their lives overlapped

Notable events from the years they were both alive.

Emotional landscapes

James Hogg: Wonder, Fear, Joy. William Bell Scott: Longing, Wonder, Spirituality.

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