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

“lovers” across the centuries

Related terms Include related catalogue terms in the chart (each poem counted once per era, even if it has several tags).
love 920 poems lover 73 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 0 / 30 BCE 0 / 12 1500s 1 / 12 1550s 1 / 93 1600s 12 / 183 1650s 2 / 60 1700s 0 / 36 1750s 3 / 165 1800s 7 / 699 1850s 12 / 966 1900s 17 / 1143 1950s 0 / 15

Sample poems · click an era above to focus

Give Place, Ye Lovers
Available versions

Give Place, Ye Lovers

by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey · English

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey portrait

c. 1517 - 19 January 1547 (~30)

O lusty May
Available versions

O lusty May

by David Melvill · English

David Melvill portrait

c. 1544 - 1614 (~70)

The Sun Rising
Available versions

The Sun Rising

by John Donne · English

John Donne portrait

1572 - 31 March 1631 (~59)

The Canonization
Available versions

The Canonization

by John Donne · English

John Donne portrait

1572 - 31 March 1631 (~59)

The Relique
Available versions

The Relique

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)

Breake of Day
Available versions

Breake of Day

by John Donne · English

John Donne portrait

1572 - 31 March 1631 (~59)

The Expiration
Available versions

The Expiration

by John Donne · English

John Donne portrait

1572 - 31 March 1631 (~59)

The Willing Mistriss
Available versions

The Willing Mistriss

by Aphra Behn · English

Aphra Behn portrait

1640 - 16 April 1689 (~49)

The Kisse
Available versions

The Kisse

by Thomas Stanley · English

Thomas Stanley portrait

3 September 1625 - 12 April 1678 (~53)

Meeting
Available versions

Meeting

by George Crabbe · English

George Crabbe portrait

24 December 1754 - 3 February 1832 (~78)

The Rigs O' Barley
Available versions

The Rigs O' Barley

by Robert Burns · English

Robert Burns portrait

25 January 1759 - 21 July 1796 (~37)

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