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

Li Bai Li Bai

Poet B

Pei Di Pei Di
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
Li Bai

Li Bai

701 – 762 (~61)
1 live poem · Mandarin Chinese

Li Bai, also known as Li Bo, was born in 701 and died in 762, during the high and later Tang dynasty, the period most often celebrated as the great classical age of Chinese poetry. Few literary figures have become so inseparable from the imaginative idea of poetry itself. In China he is commonly called the “Immortal Poet,” and the phrase is more than a compliment to technical skill. It conveys the sense that his vers…

“The ancient men held the candle and went out at night; they had good reason.”

Neighbourhood: Classical & Ancient Poets, Classical Chinese Poets, Mystical & Spiritual Poets, Nature Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Sorrow, Spirituality
Listen Timeline Affinities
Pei Di

Pei Di

714 – c. 800 (~86)
1 live poem · Mandarin Chinese

Pei Di, traditionally dated 714 to about 800, lived through one of the most brilliant and one of the most traumatic periods in the history of the Tang dynasty. He is remembered principally as the intimate friend and poetic counterpart of Wang Wei, the great painter-poet whose name has come to define the contemplative landscape poetry of the age. Yet Pei Di deserves attention not merely as Wang Wei’s companion or as a…

Neighbourhood: Ancient & Classical Poets, Chinese Poets, Classical & Ancient Poets, Classical Chinese Poets, Nature Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Wonder, Peace
Listen Timeline Affinities

In time

Li Bai
Pei Di
701 800
They overlapped for 49 years (714–762). When Pei Di was born, Li Bai was about 13. Pei Di was about 48 when Li Bai died.
Li Bai in history Pei Di in history Years they were given

On the map

About 3,061 km separate Suyab, Kyrgyzstan from Chang'an, China. Shared ground: China.

Li Bai

Pei Di

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

nature

Li Bai only

moonlight moon nostalgia space connection daoist

Pei Di only

temporary beauty mountains life self philosophical commitment friend retreat soul

From the biographies

tang dynasty chang'an tang mountains official

Li Bai: suyab, tang dynasty, immortal poet, daoist ideas, yangtze region, emperor xuanzong, chang'an, xu yushi. Pei Di: tang dynasty, wang wei, zhang jiuling, chang'an, guanzhong region, wangchuan, kaiyuan era, landscape poetry.

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.

Quiet Night Thoughts
Li Bai
80% nature
Compare
Song Cui Jiu
Pei Di

The world around them

While their lives overlapped

Notable events from the years they were both alive.

716 Establishment of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad
716 Introduction of Paper to the Islamic World
718 Establishment of the Umayyad Caliphate's influence in Spain
719 Introduction of Paper in the Islamic World
722 Battle of Tours
728 Establishment of the Tang Dynasty's Cultural Influence
733 Battle of Tours
755 Du Fu's Experience During the An Lushan Rebellion

Li Bai

710 Li Bai's Early Education in Suyab
720 Li Bai's Marriage to a Noblewoman
744 Li Bai's Exile to Yelang
744 Li Bai's Friendship with Du Fu
748 Li Bai's Return to the Capital Chang'an
751 Li Bai's Recognition by the Emperor
755 Li Bai's Involvement in the An Lushan Rebellion

Pei Di

720 Pei Di's Early Education in Guanzhong
740 Passing the Imperial Examinations
750 First Major Publication of Poetry
760 Friendship with Li Bai
780 Recognition by Emperor Xuanzong
795 Final Collection of Poetry Published
798 Mentorship of Young Poets
800 Last Years in Shaanxi

Emotional landscapes

Li Bai: Longing, Sorrow, Spirituality. Pei Di: Longing, Wonder, Peace.

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