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

“laughter” across the centuries

Related terms Include related catalogue terms in the chart (each poem counted once per era, even if it has several tags).
laugh 3 poems slaughterhouse 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 1 / 93 1600s 0 / 183 1650s 0 / 60 1700s 0 / 36 1750s 1 / 165 1800s 1 / 699 1850s 7 / 966 1900s 13 / 1143 1950s 0 / 15

Sample poems · click an era above to focus

Alas, poor Yorick!
Available versions

Alas, poor Yorick!

by William Shakespeare · English

William Shakespeare portrait

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

Laughing Song
Available versions

Laughing Song

by William Blake · English

William Blake portrait

28 November 1757 - 12 August 1827 (~70)

Sit Down, Sad Soul
Available versions

Sit Down, Sad Soul

by Barry Cornwall · English

Barry Cornwall portrait

21 November 1787 - 5 October 1874 (~87)

Vitae Summa Brevis
Available versions

Vitae Summa Brevis

by Ernest Dowson · English

Ernest Dowson portrait

2 August 1867 - 23 February 1900 (~33)

A little time for laughter
Available versions

A little time for laughter

by Philip Bourke Marston · English

Philip Bourke Marston portrait

13 August 1850 - 13 February 1887 (~37)

Stage Love
Available versions

Stage Love

by Algernon Charles Swinburne · English

Algernon Charles Swinburne portrait

5 April 1837 - 10 April 1909 (~72)

Nell Gwyn
Available versions

Nell Gwyn

by Algernon Charles Swinburne · English

Algernon Charles Swinburne portrait

5 April 1837 - 10 April 1909 (~72)

The Poet's Grave
Available versions

The Poet's Grave

by Arthur O'Shaughnessy · English

Arthur O'Shaughnessy portrait

14 March 1844 - 30 January 1881 (~37)

Falling Leaves
Available versions

Falling Leaves

by Fannie Isabel Sherrick · English

Fannie Isabel Sherrick portrait

c. 31 May 1855 - c. 1890 (~35)

The Garden Party
Available versions

The Garden Party

by Hilaire Belloc · English

Hilaire Belloc portrait

27 July 1870 - 16 July 1953 (~83)

Lightly come or lightly go
Available versions

Lightly come or lightly go

by James Joyce · English

James Joyce portrait

2 February 1882 - 13 January 1941 (~59)

Joan o' the Wad
Available versions

Joan o' the Wad

by Nora Hopper Chesson · English

Nora Hopper Chesson portrait

2 January 1871 - 14 April 1906 (~35)

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