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


Theme Timeline

Pick a theme and see how often it shows up across 50-year cohorts of V2Melody poets. Bars are normalised so small cohorts don't get drowned out by large ones.

Choose a theme

— none — world life love death beauty nature self social beloved desire memory divine spiritual heart grief power romantic suffering woman light soul dead body loss pain music wind philosophical voice landscape hope religious spring flowers sorrow children water faith bird lover rose silence mortality domestic presence childhood sound earth past consciousness truth dream women irish eyes flower garden mind rain lovers

“flowers” across the centuries

Related terms Include related catalogue terms in the chart (each poem counted once per era, even if it has several tags).
flower 58 poems flow 3 poems lower 1 poem

Bar length = percentage of poems in that cohort whose critique surfaced this theme. Click an era to focus the poem list below.

pre-1500 0 / 30 BCE 0 / 12 1500s 0 / 12 1550s 2 / 93 1600s 6 / 183 1650s 1 / 60 1700s 0 / 36 1750s 5 / 165 1800s 18 / 699 1850s 27 / 966 1900s 28 / 1143 1950s 0 / 15

Sample poems · click an era above to focus

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Available versions

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

by Christopher Marlowe · English

Christopher Marlowe portrait

26 February 1564 - 30 May 1593 (~29)

My Ladies presence makes the roses red
Available versions

My Ladies presence makes the roses red

by Henry Constable · English

Henry Constable portrait

1562 - October 1613 (~51)

Fade, Flow'rs!
Available versions

Fade, Flow'rs!

by Edmund Waller · English

Edmund Waller portrait

3 March 1606 - 21 October 1687 (~81)

Song of May Morning
Available versions

Song of May Morning

by John Milton · English

John Milton portrait

9 December 1608 - 8 November 1674 (~66)

To Violets
Available versions

To Violets

by Robert Herrick · English

Robert Herrick portrait

24 August 1591 - 15 October 1674 (~83)

To Roses in the Bosome of Castara
Available versions

To Roses in the Bosome of Castara

by William Habington · English

William Habington portrait

4 November 1605 - 30 November 1654 (~49)

A Nosegay
Available versions

A Nosegay

by John Reynolds · English

John Reynolds portrait

c. 1588 - c. 1655 (~67)

Vanitas Vanitatum
Available versions

Vanitas Vanitatum

by John Webster · English

John Webster portrait

c. 1580 - c. 1632 (~52)

Fading Beauty
Available versions

Fading Beauty

by Thomas Flatman · English

Thomas Flatman portrait

21 February 1635 - 8 December 1688 (~53)

The Lily and the Rose
Available versions

The Lily and the Rose

by William Cowper · English

William Cowper portrait

26 November 1731 - 25 April 1800 (~69)

Holy Thursday
Available versions

Holy Thursday

by William Blake · English

William Blake portrait

28 November 1757 - 12 August 1827 (~70)

The Garden of Love
Available versions

The Garden of Love

by William Blake · English

William Blake portrait

28 November 1757 - 12 August 1827 (~70)

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