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

“grief” across the centuries

Related terms Include related catalogue terms in the chart (each poem counted once per era, even if it has several tags).
griefs 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 1 / 30 BCE 1 / 12 1500s 0 / 12 1550s 9 / 93 1600s 14 / 183 1650s 1 / 60 1700s 2 / 36 1750s 7 / 165 1800s 48 / 699 1850s 69 / 966 1900s 47 / 1143 1950s 0 / 15

Sample poems · click an era above to focus

The Wife's Lament
Available versions

The Wife's Lament

by Ealhswith of Mercia · Old English

Ealhswith of Mercia portrait

c. 920 - c. 970 (~50)

Laodamia's Lament
Available versions

Laodamia's Lament

by Publius Ovidius Naso · Latin

Publius Ovidius Naso portrait

20 March 43 BC - c. 17 (~60)

Come Away, Death
Available versions

Come Away, Death

by William Shakespeare · English

William Shakespeare portrait

c. 23 April 1564 - 23 April 1616 (~52)

I loved Ophelia
Available versions

I loved Ophelia

by William Shakespeare · English

William Shakespeare portrait

c. 23 April 1564 - 23 April 1616 (~52)

Sephestia's Song to Her Child
Available versions

Sephestia's Song to Her Child

by Robert Greene · English

Robert Greene portrait

c. 11 July 1558 - 3 September 1592 (~34)

Come woeful Orpheus
Available versions

Come woeful Orpheus

by William Byrd · English

William Byrd portrait

c. 1540 - 4 July 1623 (~83)

Fade, Flow'rs!
Available versions

Fade, Flow'rs!

by Edmund Waller · English

Edmund Waller portrait

3 March 1606 - 21 October 1687 (~81)

The Triple Foole
Available versions

The Triple Foole

by John Donne · English

John Donne portrait

1572 - 31 March 1631 (~59)

The Dissolution
Available versions

The Dissolution

by John Donne · English

John Donne portrait

1572 - 31 March 1631 (~59)

A Valediction: of weeping
Available versions

A Valediction: of weeping

by John Donne · English

John Donne portrait

1572 - 31 March 1631 (~59)

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