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

“king” across the centuries

Related terms Include related catalogue terms in the chart (each poem counted once per era, even if it has several tags).
waking 6 poems drinking 5 poems walking 4 poems kingdom 2 poems stockings 2 poems viking 2 poems kingfisher 2 poems kingsley 2 poems

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 0 / 12 1500s 0 / 12 1550s 3 / 93 1600s 2 / 183 1650s 1 / 60 1700s 0 / 36 1750s 0 / 165 1800s 5 / 699 1850s 8 / 966 1900s 4 / 1143 1950s 0 / 15

Sample poems · click an era above to focus

Spring Song of the Birds
Available versions

Spring Song of the Birds

by King James I of Scotland · English

King James I of Scotland portrait

July 1394 - 21 February 1437 (~43)

Ecclesiastes 1
Available versions

Ecclesiastes 1

by King James Bible · English

King James Bible portrait

1611 - present

A Catch
Available versions

A Catch

by Alexander Brome · English

Alexander Brome portrait

1620 - 30 June 1666 (~46)

The Miller of the Dee
Available versions

The Miller of the Dee

by Charles Mackay · English

Charles Mackay portrait

27 March 1814 - 24 December 1889 (~75)

King Trisanku
Available versions

King Trisanku

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · English

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow portrait

27 February 1807 - 24 March 1882 (~75)

Song of Saul
Available versions

Song of Saul

by Lord Byron · English

Lord Byron portrait

22 January 1788 - 19 April 1824 (~36)

Vision of Belshazzar
Available versions

Vision of Belshazzar

by Lord Byron · English

Lord Byron portrait

22 January 1788 - 19 April 1824 (~36)

The Beggar Maid
Available versions

The Beggar Maid

by Alfred Lord Tennyson · English

Alfred Lord Tennyson portrait

6 August 1809 - 6 October 1892 (~83)

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