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


On 8 July in poetry and history

Poets born or who died on this date, plus historical events that happened on this day across history.

610 poets with calendar dates · 6,535 events with calendar dates in the catalogue

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4 birthdays · 2 death anniversaries · 4 world events on 8 July

Birthdays

Death anniversaries

World events on this day

  • 8 July 1822

    Percy Bysshe Shelley Drowns with Don Juan

    Percy Bysshe Shelley's sailing boat Don Juan sank during a storm in the Gulf of La Spezia, Italy, on 8 July 1822. Shelley, Edward Williams and their boatboy Charles Vivian drowned while returning from Livorno. Shelley's body was later cremated on the beach near Viareggio.

    Event 1822

  • 8 July 1741

    Jonathan Edwards Delivers Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

    On July 8, 1741, the Calvinist theologian Jonathan Edwards delivered his famous sermon, 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God', to a congregation in Enfield, Connecticut, during the height of the First Great Awakening. Using terrifyingly vivid imagery, Edwards described unrepentant humans dangling precariously over the flames of hell like a spider held over a fire, emphasizing the absolute sovereignty of God and the urgent necessity of personal repentance. The sermon sparked immediate emotional outcries from the congregation and became the defining oratorical text of the colonial American religious revival.

    Event 1741

  • 8 July 1815

    Louis XVIII Returns to Paris After the Hundred Days

    On July 8, 1815, Louis XVIII returned to Paris as king of France, following the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo and the end of the Hundred Days. Louis had been restored to the throne in 1814 but fled to Ghent, Belgium, when Napoleon returned from Elba in March 1815. His second restoration was supported by the Allied powers, who sought to re-establish the Bourbon monarchy as a stable and conservative regime. Louis XVIII's return marked the beginning of the second Bourbon Restoration, which would last until the Revolution of 1830. His reign was characterized by efforts to reconcile the revolutionary and royalist factions of French society.

    Event 1815

  • 8 July 1730

    The 1730 Valparaiso Earthquake

    On July 8, 1730 CE, a powerful earthquake, estimated at magnitude 8.7, struck the Valparaiso region of Chile. This was one of the most powerful earthquakes in Chilean history and caused widespread destruction. The event was a major disaster for the Spanish colony.

    Event 1730
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