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

“hope” across the centuries

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 1 / 12 1500s 1 / 12 1550s 3 / 93 1600s 2 / 183 1650s 2 / 60 1700s 1 / 36 1750s 4 / 165 1800s 32 / 699 1850s 34 / 966 1900s 16 / 1143 1950s 0 / 15

Sample poems · click an era above to focus

Time, the Devourer of All Things
Available versions

Time, the Devourer of All Things

by Publius Ovidius Naso · Latin

Publius Ovidius Naso portrait

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

When shall my sorrowful sighing slake
Available versions

When shall my sorrowful sighing slake

by Thomas Tallis · English

Thomas Tallis portrait

c. 1505 - 23 November 1585 (~80)

Fancy, Farewell
Available versions

Fancy, Farewell

by Sir Edward Dyer · English

Sir Edward Dyer portrait

c. October 1543 - 11 May 1607 (~64)

Since there's no help
Available versions

Since there's no help

by Michael Drayton · English

Michael Drayton portrait

1563 - December 1631 (~68)

Flow, my tears
Available versions

Flow, my tears

by John Dowland · English

John Dowland portrait

c. 1563 - 20 February 1626 (~63)

The Primrose
Available versions

The Primrose

by Robert Herrick · English

Robert Herrick portrait

24 August 1591 - 15 October 1674 (~83)

The spring of joy is dry
Available versions

The spring of joy is dry

by Martin Peerson · English

Martin Peerson portrait

c. 1571 - 16 January 1651 (~80)

While, Iris, I at distance gaze
Available versions

While, Iris, I at distance gaze

by Aphra Behn · English

Aphra Behn portrait

1640 - 16 April 1689 (~49)

What have I left to doe but dye
Available versions

What have I left to doe but dye

by Charles Cotton · English

Charles Cotton portrait

28 April 1630 - 16 February 1687 (~57)

Hope
Available versions

Hope

by Joseph Addison · English

Joseph Addison portrait

1 May 1672 - 17 June 1719 (~47)

The wretch condemn'd with life to part
Available versions

The wretch condemn'd with life to part

by Oliver Goldsmith · English

Oliver Goldsmith portrait

c. 10 November 1728 - 4 April 1774 (~46)

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