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

Thomas Otway Thomas Otway

Poet B

John Sheffield John Sheffield
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 66% Blended 66%
Swap sides Another related pair
Thomas Otway

Thomas Otway

3 March 1652 – 14 April 1685 (~33)
1 live poem · English

Thomas Otway, born on 3 March 1652 and buried on 16 April 1685 after his death in London on 14 April, lived only thirty-three years, yet he secured a place among the most affecting dramatists of Restoration England. In an age remembered for its polished wit, sexual comedy, heroic rhetoric, and political quarrels, Otway brought a distinctive intensity to the public stage. His finest plays, above all The Orphan and Ven…

“I love You, I dote on You; Desire makes me mad, when I am near You; and Despair, when I am from You.”

Neighbourhood: Death & Mortality, Dramatic Poets, Love Poets, Restoration Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Tenderness, Sorrow
John Sheffield

John Sheffield

8 September 1647 – 24 February 1721 (~74)
2 live poems · English

John Sheffield, who became the first Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, lived from 8 September 1647 to 24 February 1721, though older records occasionally create uncertainty about dates because of the calendar conventions and genealogical habits of the period. He was a nobleman, naval officer, soldier, courtier, politician, patron, critic, playwright, memoirist, and poet. Such a catalogue of roles can make him seem les…

“Often for the king, always for the public good.”

Neighbourhood: Georgian Poets, Light Verse Poets, Love Poets, Restoration Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Tenderness, Sorrow

In time

Thomas Otway
John Sheffield
1647 1721
They overlapped for 34 years (1652–1685). When Thomas Otway was born, John Sheffield was about 5. John Sheffield was about 38 when Thomas Otway died.

On the map

About 74 km separate Trotton, Sussex, England from London, England. Both have ground in London.

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

From the biographies

restoration england restoration

Thomas Otway: london, trotton, the orphan, venice preserv'd, elizabeth barry, thomas betterton, restoration england, winchester college. John Sheffield: first duke of buckingham, naval officer, battle of solebay, order of the garter, essay on satire, an essay upon poetry, restoration england, james duke of york.

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 Enchantment
Thomas Otway
78% love, restoration, power
Compare
The Reconcilement
John Sheffield

The world around them

While their lives overlapped

Notable events from the years they were both alive.

Emotional landscapes

Thomas Otway: Longing, Tenderness, Sorrow. John Sheffield: Longing, Tenderness, Sorrow.

Skip to main content