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



1874

Event dated 1872–1876

HMS Challenger Crosses Antarctic Circle

Poets involved

What happened

In 1874, the British ship HMS Challenger, commanded by Captain George Nares, made history as the first steamship to cross the Antarctic Circle during a groundbreaking oceanographic expedition. This voyage was part of a larger scientific mission to explore the depths of the oceans and collect data on marine life, ocean currents, and seabed geology. The findings from the Challenger expedition significantly advanced the field of oceanography and contributed to the understanding of marine ecosystems, laying the foundations for future research in marine science.

Literary impact

The HMS Challenger's crossing of the Antarctic Circle in 1874 provided a wealth of scientific data that influenced Victorian poets like Alfred Lord Tennyson and Matthew Arnold. Their works often reflected on the mysteries of the ocean and the interplay between human exploration and the natural world.

Source: Wikipedia

Poets alive in 1874

223 poets

More events in 1874

Skip to main content