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

Sydney Dobell Sydney Dobell

Poet B

George Darley George Darley
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 78% Blended 78%
Swap sides Another related pair
Sydney Dobell

Sydney Dobell

5 April 1824 – 22 August 1874 (~50)
2 live poems · English

Sydney Thompson Dobell was born on 5 April 1824 at Cranbrook in Kent, into a family whose circumstances placed him close to the commercial and dissenting middle-class culture of provincial England rather than to the aristocratic literary world. His father, Thomas Dobell, was a wine merchant, and the business of buying, selling, accounting, travelling, and maintaining credit would remain an important fact of Sydney’s…

“Modern philosophy is thankful for the facts, and waits till they make a bed for themselves.”

Neighbourhood: Romantic Poets, Social Justice Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Wonder, Longing, Spirituality
Listen Timeline Affinities
George Darley

George Darley

December 1795 – 23 November 1846 (~51)
1 live poem · English

George Darley was born in Dublin in December 1795 and died in London on 23 November 1846. He belongs among those gifted nineteenth-century writers whose lives complicate the comforting assumption that talent naturally finds its public. During his lifetime he was respected by a small number of discerning contemporaries, employed steadily enough in literary and educational work, and capable of producing poetry of extra…

“Every poet is a fool, but not every fool is a poet.”

Neighbourhood: Irish Poets, Romantic Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Despair, Sorrow, Wonder
Listen Timeline Affinities

In time

Sydney Dobell
George Darley
1795 1874
They overlapped for 23 years (1824–1846). When Sydney Dobell was born, George Darley was about 29. Sydney Dobell was about 22 when George Darley died.
Sydney Dobell in history George Darley in history Years they were given

On the map

About 526 km separate Cranbrook, Kent, England from Dublin, Ireland. Shared ground: United Kingdom.

Sydney Dobell

George Darley

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.

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

Sydney Dobell only

dobell death future dawn divine humanity weather stars crisis sailor return dream

George Darley only

darley beauty tree phoenix tears minstrel grief amber blood

From the biographies

romantic

Sydney Dobell: cranbrook, the roman, sydney yendys, balder, alexander smith, spasmodic poets, crimean war, the youth of europe. George Darley: london, nepenthe, the errors of ecstasie, sylvia; or, the may queen, trinity college dublin, arthur darley, charles lamb, romantic literature.

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 Future
Sydney Dobell
68%
Compare
The Phoenix
George Darley
The Sailor's Return
Sydney Dobell
68%
Compare
The Phoenix
George Darley

The world around them

While their lives overlapped

Notable events from the years they were both alive.

1824 Lord Byron Arrives in Missolonghi to Lead the Greek Forces
1830 Indian Removal Act of 1830
1831 Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction in London
1831 HMS Beagle Begins Darwin's Survey Voyage
1831 Michael Faraday Discovers Electromagnetic Induction
1831 Publication of 'Canti'
1833 The Abolition of Slavery in the British Empire
1834 Publication of 'Philip van Artevelde'

Sydney Dobell

1850 Marriage to Mary Anne Dobell
1852 Publication of 'The Roman' Poem
1854 Publication of 'Balder' Poem
1860 Publication of 'The Poetical Works of Sydney Dobell'
1866 Publication of 'The Death of Balder'

George Darley

1811 George Darley enrolls at Trinity College Dublin
1820 George Darley graduates from Trinity College Dublin
1825 George Darley moves to London
1830 Publication of 'Nepenthe'
1833 Publication of 'The Legend of St. Patrick'
1836 Publication of 'Sylvia'
1837 George Darley becomes involved with the literary magazine 'The New Monthly Magazine'
1846 George Darley passes away in London

Emotional landscapes

Sydney Dobell: Wonder, Longing, Spirituality. George Darley: Despair, Sorrow, Wonder.

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